Sometimes, things are awesome and sometimes, things suck. So speaks sage Lauren.
Today I am home sick, which is not a good thing for multiple reasons, the most important being that I'm missing Italian class ,which I'm already struggling in, and now I'm even more behind. I guess that's just life.
The good news is that Christine is here! She came in on Monday after much, much, much stress, but she made it and it's great to see her again. She's been exploring the city on her own while I'm in class [or while I'm home trying not to throw up my intestines - I hear that's kind of bad for you] and we've been exploring more together afterward.
Last night, we had a reunion dinner with Mike, like the good ol' days back in Freshman year. We went to this little restaurant that my flatmate Gilli recommended and it definitely lived up to our expectations. Four words: crunchy potatoes with brie. Oh my god. And then a crepe filled with mushrooms and cheese. As one of my major goals is to like, or at least appreciate, wine by the end of this trip, I wanted to order a glass but of course I have no idea what differentiates a Merlot from a Chardonnay. I sucked it up and asked our waiter for a recommendation, and he actually gave me something I could handle. Halfway through dinner, and halfway through my wine, our waitress put a knife through my glass [probably trying to kill me so she could eat my potatoes. I can't really blame her] and made a really cool wine stain on the table. No really. So of course they refilled my glass and I did myself proud and drank the whole thing [Most of you don't understand how little liquid I drink. It sounds stupid but it's true]. Maybe because we were talking about it during dinner, maybe because the waitress broke my glass, or maybe because he just liked our faces, our waiter brought us some complimentary Limoncello after we were done eating. That stuff is intense.
Afterward, satisfyingly full and a little tipsy, we wandered over to the Trevi Fountain, which is beautiful at night. After throwing in coins, we were in search of this gelato place that Mike has been raving about for years now. It took us a little while to find, and we were joking about how it would probably be closed even though we knew they stayed open until after midnight. Well. We found it. And it turns out they are open every day of the week except for Tuesdays. Gotta double check this one... yup. Yesterday was, in fact, a Tuesday. It was too ridiculous. But at least now we know where it is. Stupid Tuesday.
We split a cab home because by that point the buses stopped running, and fell asleep faster than we could say "pistachio" [which, by the way, is amazing combined with chocolate and hazelnut].
My friends all joke that they are going to go broke from buying drinks and I'm going to go broke buying gelato. It would be sooo worth it.

I'm going to end by somewhat stealing an idea from a fellow blogger and give you a short list of things in Rome I've found very surprising or different or awesome, which I'm sure I'll continue as time rolls by:

> There are no rules about where your dog can and can't go potty. Therefore there is dog shit all over the sidewalk. You have to look down all the time to avoid stepping in it. It's really gross.

> I sort of knew to expect this, but Italians dress incredibly well. Especially the women. It's dead of winter and cold and they show pretty much no skin except for their hands and face, and they still look smart and sexy and classy. I love it. And the boots. The only footwear Italian women wear is boots. Most of them are flat but occasionally you'll see a woman strolling around in her spike stilettos and I seriously don't know how they don't break their necks. The ground is all made of cobblestones with big gaps between them. Crazies.

> Apparently Italy has a ban on PETA [and delivery Chinese food], because let me tell you, fur is IN. It's everywhere. The little old ladies all have their huge fur coats that they wear everywhere and I just want to pet them but that's probably inappropriate. If I try it I'll let you know.

> Cashiers and shopkeepers HATE giving change. Seriously. They make you feel like a terrible human being when you pay with a 20euro bill. And at least one of my friends has had their purchase refused because they didn't have correct change. And everyone pays in cash. I think I have yet to see a single person swipe a credit card.

> Italians must be the staring contest masters of the world. Staring is not only acceptable, but everyone does it. This made me really uncomfortable in my first few days here. You know how if you're looking at someone, checking them out or whatever, and if they turn your head toward you your first reaction is to quickly look away? Well here everyone stares, unabashedly. And when you catch them staring at you, they don't even flinch.

More to come. Buonasera!

Hullo, hullo. So yesterday anyone who wanted to could go on this day trip to Orvieto, could go for free, thanks to our program peeps. Unfortunately, going for free meant waking up ass-early, especially for us. 5am is not a happy time. We made it there early, though, which is a miracle for my apartment, piled about a hundred kids on two charter buses, and off we went through the countryside. Pretty much everyone slept the entire way there. I faded in and out of sleep, but what I did see of the scenery was very pastoral and pretty.
Our first stop was an Etruscan Necropolis right below Orvieto. They told us it was going to be cold, and I asked the internets about it earlier that morning, but they told me it wasn't going to be much colder than it had been in Rome. Do not believe everything you read on the internet. It was freezing. Seriously, it was probably around 35 degrees. And while going in a couple tiny tombs was fun for the first ten minutes, it got old really fast. Most of us just packed into this tiny bar [called Igloo. Thanks for the reminder.] and overwhelmed the one poor guy who was working there with cappuccino orders. To his credit, they were delicious. And warm. Yum.
We more than happily hopped back on the bus, and 15 minutes later we arrived in the little town of Orvieto. Just some background information for you: Orvieto sits on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tufo [tuff]. Hella days ago it was a major center of Etruscan civilization, before the Romans decided it belonged to them and killed everyone and destroyed everything. Gotta love those Romans.
Okay that's enough background for now. So we get to Orvieto, divide into four tour groups and away we went. My tour guide was an older Italian gentlemen. His English was pretty damn good, but I liked that he talked about how the Etruscans "make a party" all the time. Those Etruscans sure knew how to have a good time. Well, they did. While they were alive. Moving on... the tour was three hours long - a LONG three hours, but truth be told it was really interesting. We ended by going into Orveito's Duomo, which is really just spectacular. The architect, whoever he was, was quite avant-garde with his black and white striped church. I enjoyed the outside more than the inside. We spent a long time in this one chapel that was completely covered in frescoes, but I had my arrogant art history student hat on and I was less than impressed. The subject matters were interesting enough [the anti-Christ, Christ (duh), the last judgment, angels with laser beams (no really), etc.], but the actual paintings... in the words of Christine, "I've seen better."
After the tour we all met up and walked to what I think we all assumed would be a little trattoria, but was actually this huge multi-story restaurant, where we had a full-on, six course Italian meal. The Italians really like their pork, which is kind of a bummer because I don't really eat pork [no, bacon is not pork. it's just bacon. completely different animal.], so prosciutto is kind of a waste on me. But it was followed by gnocchi with truffles, fettuccine with a delicious tomato sauce, STEAK!!!!! - in the form of tri-tip with rosemary, a salad, and a marmalade pie. It lasted for a couple hours and it was really fun, because we were at these big round tables with a ton of other people, so we had great food and great company. Lovely.
After lunch we had the second part of our tour: we got to go underneath Orvieto because there is seriously an entire city underground. It's so cool. I guess they dug all these tunnels and made all these caves and rooms in preparation for invasions, but the entire system is just immense. It was crazy going up and down these intensely steep and narrow staircases to get from room to room. And apparently the Etruscans were all about eating pigeons. They bred them in underground chambers below their houses, and when they felt like a snack they would just walk down some stairs, grab a bird, and munch away. Finger-lickin' good.
After that tour we had an hour or so to run around the town by ourselves. There were these damn children everywhere, dressed up in funny costumes, shooting silly string and throwing confetti all over everything. We thought it was International Dress Your Kid Like A Douchebag Day, but it turns out that Carnival started on Friday so people are celebrating. Whoops. Everyone thought I was insane when I wanted gelato after that huge lunch we had, but I ended getting some AMAZING freakin' gelato. I got made fun of all evening for it, but I got pear gelato and it was JUST like eating a pear - the taste, the texture, the consistency... I was pretty much going ape shit over it. I split a small thing of half pear/half mandarin gelato with a friend, and then a few minutes later went back and got my own, because I am just that dedicated to dessert. I got a cup of this amazingly rich hazelnut gelato with huge, thick ribbons of Nutella all through it. Oh man. Best gelato I've ever had.
The bus ride home was rather uneventful, and I stayed in because I was way too tired to go out dancing. I seriously don't know how these people have all this stamina without caffeine or cocaine or something. Jeez.

We originally decided we were going to go to the Vatican this morning last night, but then we were all too tired and lazy to make concrete plans before we went to sleep. But we ended up sleeping in [thank god!] and heading out to St. Peter's around 11am. The last Sunday of the month it's free to get in [to the basilica, not to the museums or anything. them catholics love their cashmonies]. When we got off the metro with about a thousand other people, we were wondering why so many people were going in the same direction as us. We knew it was Sunday and people went to mass and shit, but it was still a little confusing. When we actually got to the Piazza, there were about a billion people already in the center with big flags and banners and signs. We thought we were walking into some sort of gay marriage protest because there were some rainbow flags. As soon as we made it to the group of people, we noticed they were turning in our direction and pointing upward. Before we could even think, everyone started going nuts because Il Papa himself was up stickin his lil head out of the window. Fancy that! So today I met the pope. It was chill. He has a surprisingly nice speaking voice, and he actually spoke clearly enough and slow enough for me to understand some of what he was saying to me. While he was praying with his people, we ran to the front of the basilica to avoid the lines into St. Peter's. There were big signs clearly stating that there were no pocketknives allowed. My flatmate Gilli carries a pocketknife with her, so she braced herself to give it to the guards. I told her that if they took it, the Pope would owe her a new pocketknife, which made it a little better. She came up to the metal detector, showed the guards her knife, waited for them to take it, and was highly surprised when they just told her to hide it and ushered her into the basilica.
St. Peter's is ridiculous. Ridiculous and amazing. Fuckin' Bernini, man. That kid knew what he was doing. The place is so huge and so cavernous that you feel like you've been swallowed by Catholicism and you're rolling around in it's marble-filled belly with these huge busts and pillars and gold-flecked everything. The statues are these giant people that have been frozen in intense moments of revelation, like some sort of Medusa glanced at them and now they're trapped in their marble casings, unable to move or change or get out. I've studied St. Peter's and a bit of it's interior and while I was very much looking forward to seeing it, I didn't expect it to be such an experience for me, but I just kind of walked around in silence, totally stricken by the awesomeness of it all. You could roam that place for years, I'm convinced, and never take it all in.
We tried to go into the Museum but we didn't want to pay, so I bought a couple postcards with my buddy Papa on 'em, we found some lunch and some more gelato [obv], and metro'd home, where we've been resting ever since.

Now it's homework time. Christine comes tomorrow! I'm quite excited. Buonanotte!

NOTE: Yes, I know most of the links to the larger photos aren't working. I ran out of room on Flickr so I decided to pay the money and upgrade my account [now I will have unlimited photo storage so this won't be a problem again], but I'm too lazy to do it tonight so it will be done tomorrow. xoxo LK

Here are some of the visuals that you've been missing. Many more have been added to the flickr <- click.
Palatine Tour. [mmm Pringles]














Roman Forum. [Flatmates!]











Welcome Dinner. [They fed us fried mice]












The Opera. [Ballin']















Piazza del Popolo. [It was pretty in the rain]















Our favorite Irish Pub. [I don't look terrible because I'm drunk, I look terrible because I had no make-up on and no sleep]





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A thousand apologies for the severe lack of quality posts. Sometimes, in life, shit happens. But tonight it's Friday and I finally get some downtime to chill out and regroup, because tomorrow it all starts back up again.
Let's see... where did I leave off? Damn, I haven't really posted since Monday. That's practically a month ago - or so it feels like.
So here's a quick summary of my week [as quick as I can make it, anyway]:
Tuesday was full of adventures, but not really in a good way. After class, instead of going to the open-air market as planned, a group of us decided to go see the Spanish Steps instead. Remember that fearless leader I mentioned in an earlier post, who claimed to lead us in the right direction? Well, basically he did the same great job again, leading us straight past the Steps. We ended up in Piazza del Popolo, which I was tripping hard about, because I had seriously studied a painting of it in class last quarter, and when I realized where I was I felt like I was in the painting. On the way there, we did our first bit of shopping [my only purchase was a really warm scarf for 4.50euro - quality], and I proceeded to get extremely grumpy with said leader, basically because he was full of shit and way too proud to admit it. Luckily, Mike had a map of Rome and led us to where we wanted to be, but not before our group got separated and much stress ensued. But you don't really care about that. Suffice to say, when we got to the Steps, I was more than irritated. While half our friends climbed the steps, the rest of us waited impatiently. When we were all reunited, our friends had a story to tell us, but you need some backstory to understand: So there are a ton of people in Rome that make their living solely on scamming naive tourists. It's kind of sad. Anyway, one of the best scams goes something like this: a man comes up to you and asks you if he can tie a string around your finger. Unless you actively resist such a tempting treat [because who doesn't want a stranger tying things on their appendages?], he will proceed to tie the string around your finger, and then around your hand, and he won't let you go until you pay him. Ridiculous, no? So my flatmate Gilli was at the top of the Steps and saw some guy trying to scam a tourist. She's a sweetheart, so she started calling out to the tourist, telling him No! No! and ended up convincing the tourist to walk away. Afterward, two men, one of which was the scammer, the other, his friend, approached her. She had no idea what was about to happen but she braced herself. They walked by her so quickly she didn't have time to react, but one of them kicked her while the other spit straight in her face. How fucked up is that? When she made it back down the steps to us, she was in tears she was so furious. I would have been just as mad. It was so absolutely unbelievable. So that put a damper on the afternoon.
That evening, we got the opportunity to attend an opera at the historic Teatro dell'Opera, Puccini's Tosca, for free [courtesy of EAP]. My flatmates and I got all dressed up - I borrowed some clothes from everyone and looked very Italian, boots and all - I was pleased. We got there and had some trouble finding our seats on our tickets. When we finally flagged down an usher, she led us to the 3rd floor, and took out a key to unlock a door for us. We seriously thought we were going to watch the opera from a broom closet with a peephole or something. Much to our surprise and delight, the door opened to reveal our very own BOX. Yes, they got ALL 99 of us box seats to the opera. How cool is that? Random fact: Tosca actually debuted in that very same theater [which is gorgeous, by the way] in 1900. The opera was great; very entertaining. And yes, I bought an ice-cream bar during intermission [a Magnum - no jokes about the name, please. Believe me, I've made them all]. By the time we got out, the Metro stopped running and the day buses stopped running, so we made it to Termini [the central station-ish sort of place] and were running around talking to whoever could speak English, trying to figure out which bus to take home. Turns out, there really weren't any. We took a bus to get a bit closer to home, then attempted to call for a taxi, but were told the taxi company was out of taxis. Luckily, we were able to flag one down [it usually doesn't work that way], and for 2 euro per person, we made it home.
Wednesday morning, our bus to school never came. Okay well it came, but we weren't at the stop yet but we figured we would just wait for the next one, because they come every few minutes or so. Half an hour later, no bus. Turns out our specific bus line went on a strike but didn't really tell anyone. So we were late to school. After school, it was a fight to the death for spots on this Carnival trip to Pisa, Lucca, and some other place: they had 48 spots and there are 99 kids in the program. And we had to have 150euro in cash. It was stressful, but I made it, so that's exciting. That's pretty much everything interesting that happened on Wednesday.
Thursday in our Italian class we went on a trip to Campo de'Fiore, where there is a large and very expensive open-air market. It's a very touristy area. Needless to say, none of us really did our assignment and we all got food instead. In my case it was a pasta [pastry] from this famously delicious bakery, and some gelato from the best gelato place I've found so far. Hazelnut and chocolate, baby. Every time. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
That evening I was supposed to go to an aperitivo our program was putting on for us, to show us how it works [it's kind of like Happy Hour with more free food], but I didn't go because I stayed home like a good girl to study for my Italian test today.
Today, Friday, I had my Italian test, which was alright, and then had some drama trying to get money out of an ATM, got it figured out, and went to my first pub with a large group of friends and bought my first drink. I drank a pint and a half of alcoholic beverage, and for those of you that don't know me well, I don't really imbibe any real quantities of liquid, so that was pretty impressive. Needless to say, at 3pm I was well on my way to drunk. I took the bus home with some people to rest and get ready, because another group organized an independent aperitivo, but I ended up being too exhausted to get up from my nap and dress and go. I chilled out for a bit and ended up going to Mike's apartment, hanging out there with his flatmates and some friends, and then he and I went out to take some photos [he is an amazing photographer]. It was fun; I got to play around with my new camera and I think I took some cool photos [check the slideshow soon], but it was pretty cold.
I took the bus home for the first time by myself after dark and I'm still alive. I don't remember if I said this already, but I live down the street from a police station and two blocks away from a military base, so I figure my neighborhood is pretty safe.

Tomorrow we have a free day trip to Orvieto, but we have to leave at 7am, which means we have to leave our apartment at 6am, which means I need to wake up around 4.30am. Goodnight!

[Oh, check this post again and the slideshow around Sunday for pictures. I probably won't have time to do them tomorrow. xoxo]

So... I haven't had internet for what feels like years now, and I have a test tomorrow in Italian. So I'm sitting at my living room table, studying, while my flatmate Gilli is sleeping in her room, and suddenly everything goes black. Literally. I HATE the dark, especially complete darkness... it's night and all our windows are closed so I cannot see my hand right in front of my face. I yelled at Gilli to wake up, somehow made it to the window without killing myself or breaking anything of value, opened it and get some light, found a flashlight, and tried not to freak out because there's really nowhere to go to study around here. And I NEED to study.
Gilli has a friend coming to visit us today and we were expected her to buzz our apartment so we could open the door for her any minute, so we were getting dressed to go downstairs and wait for her when there's a knock at our door. We open it, and there's Gilli's friend Ashley, who is going to study in Spain for 4 months after her week here, with all her luggage, and a wonderfully sweet young Italian guy who helped her carry around 100 lbs of luggage up 11 flights of stairs. Apparently he lives in our building with 4 other students, so we have new friends in the building.
Us three girls are sitting in our pitch black living room, talking and trying to figure out what to do when THE LIGHTS COME BACK ON. We start screaming. Then I start thinking if the whole neighborhood's power was off and then came back on, maybe it would be like the ultimate power cycle and our internet would work. So I'm literally holding my breath while turning my computer on and being ridiculously superstitious, and IT WORKS.
So not only do I have light to study, but I can communicate with the outside world. It's glorious.

Okay, I've decided I'm going to update you in three parts, because I need to go study and it will be incentive to get stuff done. The most exciting thing to immediately happen is that I have official plans for my first break! I am going with three friends, one old and two very new, to Paris for 7 days. Then we're flying to Florence and staying there for 2 days before taking the train back to Rome. We have flights and trains booked so it's officially happening. Isn't that exciting? And I get to see Meghann!
AND. She is doing me a huge favor and accepting packages for me. Apparently in Italy we're just as likely to not get packages as we are to get them, so basically don't waste your money. Letters I will get, just ask for my mailing address. But if you want to send me something via Meg, let me know and I'll give you her address.
Okay I told myself I would get off the internet at 9.30 to go study, so that's what I'm going to do. More later, including details about the Opera and photos of me with Roman Gladiators. Priceless.

Ciao!

EDIT: Get this... as I'm about to press "publish post," the power goes out AGAIN. And then our new Italian friend in the building and two of his roommates walked up the 11 flights of stairs to bring us rose-scented candles. Amore!

EDIT II: Check out the older post "adventures: old stuff with new people" for an amazing new photo.

Hey kids,

Sorry for the lack of posts. Horror of horrors: the internet in my apartment died, so I have had absolutely no connection to the outside world. It's quite the tragedy. We complained to The Man today so hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow. At the moment the honorable Mike Reis is letting me use his computer. When he first came to my apartment, he was really bitter about how nice it was... well, now that I'm at his apartment, I see why. Mine might literally be five times bigger than his, and we only have one more flatmate than they do. Craaazy.

Anyway, the short and long of my life is: I went to the opera [details later], I'm taking Italian and it kind of sucks, aaaaand I'm exhausted. But I'm in Rome, and I had the best gelato of my life today, so sto bene [I'm good].

Arrivederci!

This is going to be a quick one because it's 1.30am and I have to wake up in 5 hours to be in class on time tomorrow. But it's okay, because today wasn't hugely interesting.
First day of class was today - but for the first three weeks it's just intensive Italian class, 5 days a week for 3 hours a day. My particular class is TINY - 8 people, myself included, but one of my flatmates is in the same class and the teacher is really sweet and so I'm not sweating bullets when I don't know an answer. I do have to say three hours of class felt like an eternity today. Oh and the blog title is from a song they made us sing in class today. Yes, you heard that right. Oy. [The ever-popular Ciao, Bella! is not the same as Bella, ciao! The former is a fun phrase that Italian men like to throw at us daily, and the latter means more like "goodbye, darling."]
For lunch I had my first piece of real protein [chicken!!! on a panino (panini is actually plural)] aside from cheese since I've been here. It was glorious. I get out of class at 1.30pm, and my flatmates all have class at the same time, so we signed up for a ton of activities for the rest of the week, including, but not limited to an opera tomorrow night [Tosca? I think?], a Fellini film, an aperitivo, and a trip for Carnival!
We attempted to go grocery shopping today because we're literally out of food in our apartment, but the grocery stores here are very expensive and the mercato all'aperto [open-air market - it's where most Italians get their food. There are stands for everything: fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, fish, other seafood, bread, etc., and everything is FRESH] closes in the early afternoon so we missed it. But don't worry, we now have toilet paper, so the major crisis is averted.
Tonight we had our Welcome Dinner from EAP [the Education Abroad Program]. On the bus to the Study Center, two extraordinarily loud and obnoxious drunkards got on [public drunkenness is rare and highly frowned upon in Italy], one of whom was literally screaming the entire time he was on the bus. He saw two African-Americans (EDIT 1/23/08: [is that the PC term?] - I just realized it was highly assumptive of me to say they were Americans. Whoops.) on the bus and started shouting "VIVA AFRICA!!!" and then saw my redheaded flatmate and my Asian flatmate sitting next to each other and started shouting "FRAGOLA CINESE!!!" (Chinese strawberry). The bus driver flagged down a police car at one of the bus stops and they got off, but it was kind of intense. Anyway, EAP rented out an entire restaurant for us and they served us a full Italian meal - all 5 courses. There was bread, bruschetta [there is NO "sh" sound in that word, Americans], pasta with ham [boo pork], meatballs with potatoes and salad, and tiramisu. I don't actually like tiramisu because I hate tasting the rum in it, but this one had little so it was tasty. Regardless, the food was on the good side of mediocre but the meal was a really fun one.
Afterward, for some ridiculous reason, my friends and I went on a search for gelato [not that we were hungry - we were STUFFED - we just wanted gelato. Because really, who can say no to gelato?], but all the nearby gelaterias were closed, so we went into a bar [an alcohol one] instead. After making friends with the Canadian bartender, some of us got drinks [not me - I'm skipping the 5 to 15 euro drinks (not at that place, but they are commonly that expensive) and saving up for future travels], and then we split up. My flatmate Heather and I went home, and the other three went out to celebrate a friend's birthday.
Heather and I ended up actually bonding and talking for about 2 hours, then we did our Italian homework together, and Heather just went to bed, and I'm eating a delicious orange as I'm writing this. Yum.

Bedtime now, pictures tomorrow for yesterday and today, I promise. You'll want to check back because trust me, there are some GREAT ones.

[See the post below and check out the Flickr slideshow]

Buonanotte!

Here is a new snazzy link to a photo slideshow [<--- click on that phrase] of ALL of the photos I've been taking in Roma, which will be updated whenever I update the blog. If you lose sight of this post and want the link, click our friend the PULL tab [upper right corner] and there will be a link up there [click on "new snazzy link"].

Oh! Please let me know if the link actually works for you, because it hasn't been working consistently and I'm trying to figure out why.

New post tonight, never fear, but I've got a Welcome Dinner to go to so I probably won't finish it beforehand.

xoxo
LK

Today our program provided us with a free tour of Palatine Hill, the Forum, and the Colosseum. We had to take the metro to get there, which we hadn't done before, and when we found our nearby Metro station, it was locked. So were three other entrances. We somehow got in and were told by security personnel that we had to use a different stop. We found a different stop and it, too, was closed. Damn Italians. Eventually some kind locals offered to lead us to where the security people told us we needed to go, and we Metro'd our way to the Colosseum. We thought we were going to be late, but we ended up getting there just in time.
They divided us up into small groups of about 10 people, and our tour guide happened to be a woman who will be my Ancient Roman Civilization professor. Go figure. She was super cute and super excited about everything. She was also real nice to my flatmates and myself and let us run ahead to a kiosk to buy some sustenance [in the form of Sour cream and Onion Pringles] because we didn't have time to eat breakfast. So we munched our way all over the Palatine. Unfortunately, she took about 45 minutes just straight up giving us a lecture about the history of Rome, so we had to rush through everything. But - are you ready for this - here's some random trivia for you: Rome was founded in 753 B.B.C. [before Buddy Christ]... on April 21st. Which happens to be the day I was founded, too! So Rome and I both have big birthdays this year, and we are planning quite the bash.
Anyway, it was such a trip to walk around the Palatine [one's of Rome's disputed seven hills - it's basically the birthplace of Rome] and know that underneath the ruins we were walking through were many palaces and houses of previous emperors that went back way before the birth of Buddy Christ. So much of history has taken places under our footsteps; politics and wars were planned and played out, dictators and empires were overthrown, and entire civilizations lived their lives and left behind incredible monuments that we only have broken pieces of today. It was giving me shivers just thinking about it.
Our guide actually spent so much time explaining everything to us that we didn't make it to the Colosseum before it closed, which was a big bummer, but she felt super bad about it so she offered to buy our tickets to the Colosseum some other time. It was just as well, because we were all tired and hungry and therefore extremely grumpy. It's Sunday today, and at least in Rome, on Sundays, everyone goes to church [or makes ritual animal sacrifices in their homes or something secret like that] and nothing is open. Even though we were in such a heavy touristy area, we had s very hard time finding somewhere to eat for dinner that wasn't an expensive sit-down restaurant [a lot of the sit-down restaurants charge you for actually sitting down in addition to the cost of your food]. Thankfully we found a pizza place, and not a moment too soon; I'm pretty sure that one minute more and we would have started clawing each other to death and eating the remains. I guess that would have been somewhat appropriate seeing as we were at the Colosseum and all. Hmm.
So after another piece of tasty pizza [tonight mine was quattro formaggio (four cheese) with spinach] we made our way back to the bus stop, where we had an unusually long wait [usually we only have to wait a few minutes for a bus to come - there's no actual schedule for the buses, they just go in circles all day]. When the bus finally did arrive, we were shocked and displeased that it was already packed - and I mean packed - when it came to a stop. We decided we would shove ourselves in there anyway, because we were not about to wait another 25 minutes for another bus. Oh my god. Sardines have more breathing room. And Italians are brazen and pushy, so even after another half-dozen people and a man with a baby in a stroller somehow managed to squeeze in behind us, people at later stops would throw themselves into the bus and yell and shove until the doors had enough room to close. And all these old women insisted on moving to the front of the bus. So we're standing there, with barely enough room to plant both feet on the ground [I kid you not], and these little old women and shoving behind us, so if we weren't close enough to our neighbors already, we could now smell what they ate for dinner. It was superfun. We were barely even able to get off at our stop - the doors actually closed before one of my flatmates could squeeze her way through the mush of people, and we had to make a scene and bang on the doors so she could get out.
Let me tell you, our apartment never looked so wonderful.

NOTE: Our internet in the apartment isn't great, and all five of us are using it at the same time to upload pictures, so I will add in my photos later. I know the links to larger versions of the photos in the last post are broken, so I'm working on fixing that, too. Eventually, in addition to posting a few photos in each post, I'll be linking you all to photo albums on Flickr [no, there's no 'e.' I'm not an idiot] so you can see many more photographs of my life and live vicariously through me. Or something like that.

Also, I've been tracking how many people read this blog and other stats, and apparently I have consistent readers in Japan, Romania, and Switzerland. So a special hello to those people [and of course hello to everyone I actually know], thanks for finding me interesting!

There is a very good chance I will begin every blog entry with some form of "I am exhausted." Today I am, more so than the past few days, believe it or not.
Today we got to sleep in! Well, sort of. I was woken up by a flatmate around 10.30 or 11 this morning because apparently we were meeting some friends downtown [what I call the area around the Study Center] to explore the city. Somehow we managed to make the commute in about 35 minutes. Go figure. Anyway, we met up with two friends, one of whom I knew from school and one of whom was armed and ready with a map and a destination: he wanted to find Campo de'Fiori, and on the other side of the river, explore Trastevere [both are areas of Rome where there are supposedly many clubs and discotheques]. Campo de'Fiori was easy to find, and we bought some fresh oranges from one of the fruit vendors there. It was also easy to find places to eat because the area is so touristy, so we gave into our hunger and ate at a pizza place in the surrounding neighborhood. Man, the pizza here is something else. The pizza joints have from four to ten huge pizzas on display, shaped like long and narrow ovals, which are sold by weight. You choose what kind of pizza you want [potato and sausage, cheese, and margherita are three examples I've tried - all delicious] and they cut a big rectangle of pizza for you [you tell them how big you want it], the slice is weighed, folded in half, and the halves are placed front to front and wrapped in a small paper wrapper. Then you pay, then you eat.
After absolutely gorging ourselves on huge slices of pizza [see myself and flatmate Emily, above left], we set out to walk to Trastevere. We had to cross the river [left] and after finding what seemed like a central area, we decided to just put the map away and explore. After a short uphill walk we came upon some serious stairs, which our noble leader decided we would climb, much to our displeasure. We found ourselves in what we thought to be a wealthy suburb of Rome, and wandered the streets for a bit before we made a certain realization: that we were in the neighborhood where the ambassadors to Italy lived, but not before we happened upon an amazing site. Next to the Spanish Ambassador's quarters, there was a clearing with an unparalleled view of the Eternal City. Because we were probably in one of the highest places in Rome, we could see miles and miles of buildings, churches, and ruins. On the opposite side of the street was this gorgeous fountain[below, with all the flatmates in front of it]. We had no idea when it was built or why [FYI: knowing Latin would be a real help if you ever come here], but we took photos and kept on exploring. We found some sort of mausoleum hidden in part of the Spanish quarters, walked through some small town-like things, and stopped in a gallery to use the restroom. When they asked where we were from and we said we were from California, we were promptly told that use of the restrooms would cost us 4 euro per person. Yeah right, lady. Strangely and luckily, there was a free restroom two floors up. Whatever.
We walked and walked, walked up stairs, walked down stairs, walked up hills and walked down hills. And then to mix it up a bit, we walked some more. By some ridiculous fortune, we were spat out of that neighborhood exactly where we needed to be to cross back over the river to get back to the Study Center which our fearless leader shamelessly took credit for. [Ha! Like we would let him get away with that one]. I reluctantly had to give him some credit later, when we decided we were up for some more walking and he led us straight to the Pantheon, which I've been very excited and anxious to see. It really is something else. You just stand there, dwarfed by this perfect half-sphere so high above you it almost seems fake, like a projected image onto a wall. There is some sort of magical quality in the Pantheon, because everyone is so fascinated with the sheer existence of the architectural feat we're in, but also because we all know that we are standing in the same place the ancient Romans used to worship their gods; this place has stood more years and seen more history than we could ever comprehend, and for that, we owe it something greater than respect: reverence. It dwarfs you physically, right here, right now, but it also dwarfs you in the greater scheme of things; your place in the world and your very existence are shrunken into an insignificant piece of the mosaic that is human history.
Wow, that was kind of intense. But truthfully I really mean it all, and I want to go back there and explore it some more. Back to the day... we shamelessly asked the Swiss Guards in the Pantheon if we could take a picture with them, and they were nice enough to indulge us in our touristy ways. After the Pantheon, we all were in need some some sort of sustenance: two of us wanted alcohol, two of us wanted food, and I wanted gelato. Our ultimate destination was the Trevi Fountain, but before we found it or nourishment, we walked right by the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, which I had studied last quarter in an Art History course. We went in. It was very baroque, with varicolored marbles and gold decorations and huge relief carvings and statues, but beautiful nonetheless.
We set out again to find the Fountain, and on our way found a little restauranty-thing that served pizza, other food, beer, and gelato [I held out because the gelato selection was skimpy and not-super-delicious looking]. We found the Fontana di Trevi, which I actually knew very little about. The piazza it was in was full of tourists, but the fountain itself really is gorgeous and very whimsical, although I'm still skeptical and unsure of how Neptune taming the waters is so romantic. Regardless, we all threw our coins behind us into the fountain [ensuring we will return to Rome again - I liked that], took some pictures [obviously], and got gelato. There were two gelaterias in the piazza and we unfortunately chose the wrong one, as the two men inside the place severely messed with us and made multiple inappropriate remarks about our boobies that made even the toughest of us blush. Oh well.
While eating said gelato, we saw two men dressed as Roman centurions and my flatmate Emily and I wanted to take pictures with them. They plunked their huge [smelly] helmets on our heads and gave us their swords to hold for the photos our friends took, and then proceeded to tell us it would cost us 3 euro each. We gave them 5. Damn the man! [EDIT 1/24/08: check out the AMAZING picture to the left]
We made it back home and all fell asleep. Tomorrow we have a walking tour of the Colusseum, the Forum, and Palatine Hill. After walking for more than five hours today, we may be sorry, but it was totally worth it.

[NOTE: There are some great pictures from today that I don't have because my flatmates took them, but as soon as I get my little hands on them I will either put them in the post or set up a link for your viewing pleasure]

Buonanotte! I am exhaustified. This post will probably be long, so I shall attempt to be as witty as possible. The operative word being "attempt." After going to sleep around 2.30am last night, which was a serious mistake, we woke up this morning around 7.30 to be at the Study Center at 10. But it was okay, because I woke up to this [by the way if you click on the pictures you can see them much bigger]:
That is from my bedroom window, folks. Not too shabby. Because I promised apartment pictures and the morning light was so gorgeous, I actually took some.
Below is the view out of my window [I know - I'm so avantgarde with my multiple-photo images]. You can see our lovely not-so-little church there on the right, which has a lovely not-so-little bell tower which chimes a lovely not-so-little chime at 7am every morning and 6pm every evening to call us to mass. So
considerate, really.
My poor roommate Sasha got stuck with a twin-sized cot [I have a queen-sized bed] because I got there first. Whoops. Haha. So... my flatmates are Sasha, Heather, Gilli, and Emily. Three out of the five of us are from San Diego, a different three out of the five of us are from UCSB, and all five of us get along really swell. Not everyone loves their roommates, so we got lucky there, too.
The third picture is the view from our balcony. It is so freakin' awesome that we have a balcony. I intend to make thorough use of it.
So back to today... we were running late so we didn't have to time stop at the Bar next door [for those who are unfamiliar with the term, a "Bar" in Italy isn't where you go to drown your sorrows. A Bar is where you go to get a pasta (a pastry) and a cappuccino in the morning. And then a cafe macchiato mid-morning. And then an espresso mid-afternoon. (But there is a strict protocol of what you can and can't order and when. For example, it is unacceptable to order a cappuccino after about 10.30am.) You order, then pay at the cashier, and then you go to the bar (literally) where you stand and get served your beverage by a barista in a white collared shirt and a vest. You are in an out and on your way to work in five minutes. It's a huge part of the culture here - there are bars on every street]. This particular bar next door is pretty sweet. You can get a Nutella-filled croissant and a delicious cappuccino [by the way, the espresso really IS better here] for 2 euro.
Unfortunately, our amazing apartment [see below - it's the triangular building above and right of the target] does have a downside or two: we are on the opposite side of the city from everyone else, and we have the longest commute to school; an hour by bus each way. Today it was surprisingly easier to find our way around the city. Today's orientation was again pretty unremarkable, except one of the professors brought her dog, Mimi, who took a particular liking to me. It made me miss Tika and Dioji, because she looks exactly like Bella Crouton. Anyway, on our half-hour lunch break before we were actually served lunch, we walked down one of the streets near the Study Center and got, finally and for the first time, some gelato. Oh my lord. A very nice portion [I got half hazelnut and half chocolate and almost had to sit down it was so delicious. They know how to do chocolate here] and a cookie was 2 euro. I can't even tell you how much better it was than any gelato I've eaten in the states. Oh man. I'm drooling all over my keyboard.
Lunch today was strange. It was like an Italian tapas bar, which included little fried balls of batter and vegetables, mozzarella and tomato on a stick, frittata on a stick, some bread, and some dessert that tasted like whipped toothpaste [read: NOT delicious]. Below is a picture of Emily, myself [not my best], and Sasha at lunch. We then took an Italian placement test, which you don't really care about. We all pretty much embarrassed ourselves because they tested our knowledge of English grammar as well, and as we all know, they gave up teaching my generation grammar beyond nouns and verbs in elementary school. Oh well.
Nothing really interesting happened for the rest of the day. I'm fighting off the start of some sort of sickness so I went home and took a much needed nap. A few of my flatmates went out on a search for alcohol, because they drank our huge bottle of 2,50 euro wine, and came back two hours later having met the owners of the pizza place across the piazza who got them drunk on tap beer and limoncello for free, so apparently we now have a highly convenient place to get alcohol and some friends to go with it.
Not too much more to report. I'm working on getting a cell phone and a pair of boots [the Italian government decides when all the stores can have sales, and that period started at the start of January, so now is a good time to buy things], and my Italian classes start on Monday. A day trip to Florence is in the works, and EAP is taking us on a trip for Carnival.
Right now my flatmates are watching High School Musical 2 and I have no choice but to join them until I pass out. Arrivederci!

Hello all! This is the first time I've been able to get on the internet since I left San Diego... life without internet and without a cell phone has been strange!
Let me update you on my life a little bit:

It took about 15 hours to actually get from San Diego to Rome. It was exhausting. [to the left: I was bored and there were some ice crystals on my window. hence, cool picture.] Luckily, there were about 30 kids in my program on my flight from Dulles to Rome, so we were the stupid Americans caravaning around the airport within minutes of our arrival. We had to wait for about an hour for the program people to actually get there, and then we all took taxis to our respective apartments. I happened to find one of my housemates so we shared a 45 Euro ride to our apartment, which was an adventure - the people who drive in this city are fucking INSANE. Anyway, we lugged our suitcases up to the elevator, went up to the 10th floor, and walked in our apartment... which is amazing. It's huge, we have huge bedrooms [there's 5 of us], a huge kitchen, a huge living room AND an awesome balcony. We got hooked up big time apparently; we were told we have one of the nicest apartments in our program. Pictures soon.

Orientation was pretty unremarkable. We got a ton of information, a tour of the city around the UC Center, a delicious eggplant parmesan panino, and some tedious forms to fill out. Oh! During our lunch break, we were free to roam around a bit and we went to Piazza Navona [see above & below], which is just as beautiful in person as all the prints and paintings of it I studied all last quarter. It was SO surreal to walk around Rome. I seriously felt like I was at Universal Studios or something, like the walls were painted cardboard that would fall over if I pushed on them. The buildings here are gorgeous. It's so ridiculous to be driving through the city and then BAM there's the Colosseum, don't even worry about it, BAM there's the Forum, BAM there's all this ruins just right in the middle of the city, next to businesses and apartments, like they just fell out of the sky. It's just amazing; I feel like I'm completely immersed in culture. I don't believe I'm really here. I wish you all could be here and experience this place.

An "official" first post:

Hello family and friends [and Dioji people and Facebook stalkers and strangers]! Welcome to my blog, where I will be documenting my experiences in Europe for the next five months for your reading pleasure, and for my memories.

I just wanted to say hello and thanks for reading!

Also, if you've been to Rome or Italy or Europe in general anytime in the somewhat recent past [no, that's not vague at all], I would love any suggestions for specific places to go, things to do, food to eat, drugs to take [and not to take] in Amsterdam, and any other tidbits you'd like to share. I would love to hear anything you've got for me!
Please feel free to comment [click on the "click to comment" link right next to the title and date of each post] to share any information, update me on anything exciting in your life, or just say hi. It's all welcome and encouraged.

Peace out, Lauren out.

NOTE: I've been informed that people aren't seeing the "PULL" tab on the top right corner of the screen. Make sure to click on that for news and navigation links!

In case reading this blog doesn't completely cover your daily prescribed dose of Lauren, there are other ways to potentially reach me:

First, Skype. It's a free service that allows you to make international phone calls [again, for FREE] over the interwebs. Just click on the picture for the easy download. My skype ID is "kuninator."


Second, I will be getting a cell phone in Italy. I don't know the number yet, but when I do I'll post it. It doesn't cost me anything when you call me, so that's nice, but it will cost you money and I won't have a ton of minutes to use.



Third, I will actually have a physical address in Rome [o rly? ya rly! NO WAI!!!!] to which you can send good ol' snail mail. If you take the time and effort to send me mail I will be sure to return the favor. Like the cell phone, I'll post it when I get it, which will be around the 16th.



Fourth, [this list thing is kinda fun], you can always e-mail me. I'm really good at checking e-mail but I can be a little slow to respond. Anyway, if you have information you simply must tell me, e-mail is the way to go. [EDIT: So dad says it's a bad idea to put your e-mail address on a blog, so it's off. If you can't find it anywhere else on this blog, then just leave me a comment and I'll tell you.] [The story behind the picture is that I couldn't find anything satisfying when I searched for "e-mail" in Google, and who doesn't want to look at a picture of me - or really, a picture of my pooch, Tika?]

Fifth, you could be super-amazingly-awesome-and-fantastic and COME VISIT ME in Rome, but don't worry, I can't really expect everyone to shell out the cash to fly out here. Just be warned, if you're in Europe the weekend before April 21st, and you don't come celebrate my 21st birthday with me, you will owe me about a billion dollars in emotional damages. [picture credit: Google, image search for "come visit me."]

Edit: Also, a couple of people have asked me how to comment on my posts. Next to the post title, see the thing that says "0 | click to comment"? Well, the number is how many comments have been made on that post, and clicking on "click to comment" will send you right to the comments page. <3 style="font-weight: bold;">EDIT: Everyone clicked on the "pull" tab at the top, right? Just checking.]