uuggggghhh midterms. This is the first week I've felt like I'm in college here, even though I really shouldn't be complaining because I haven't really been working that hard. I had a history midterm on Tuesday, a final for my music sprint course on Wednesday, and a French midterm today. And I should still be studying French I guess, but the practice midterm was easy so my motivation is slightly lacking at the moment. Thus this pointless blog post.
Sometime today, if they can figure out the train system in Lux, I'm going to see my family! They got in to Lux around 11 today and still haven't called me so I don't really know what's up with that. But tomorrow we're going to PARIS and then after that, Switzerland. I'm really excited, but I'm nervous the strikes in France are going to disrupt the trains. A bunch of my friends went last weekend with no problems, but there is an official day of national strike today (28th) so I'm really hoping that doesn't carry over to tomorrow. It probably won't, but that would be a real bummer.
I'm kind of tired today because I stayed up until 5am reading a book... for fun... instead of studying. And I finished the book. So... successful night?
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
a city condemned forever to becoming and never to being.
So… It's Friday. About this time last week I was on a train to Berlin. You may have noticed I still haven't posted about Berlin, but it's your lucky day because this weekend I'm not going anywhere and I have PLENTY of time to write all about last weekend!
Truth be told, a lot of time last weekend was spent on the train. It is about a 8-9 hour train ride to Berlin from Luxembourg, so I had a lot of time to catch up on reading for class. Anyways, we got into Berlin around 10 at night and met up with some friends who were able to catch an earlier train. We had gotten an eight person hostel room all to ourselves, and it's always so much nicer to know every person in the room you're sleeping in. Needless to say, we were pretty tired after a long day of traveling, so we went to bed with the intention of getting up bright and early the next morning for a FREE walking tour at 9 am.
These free tours happen in a lot of cities. You just tip as much as you want at the end, which is super nice for us poor traveling college students. The tour met outside Starbucks, which was a great incentive for getting up so early. On an unrelated note, Germany is SUCH A GREAT COUNTRY. Where you can buy Starbucks. So, Starbucks in hand, we met our Irish tour guide, Barry. He had moved to Berlin to be a tour guide and he was absolutely hilarious. We started out a the Brandenburg Gate and the US Embassy. The US Embassy was like… fortified. It was intense. The Gate was really impressive, and it had a statue on it that Napoleon stole awhile back. It's supposed to symbolize peace and was looking up into the sky, but now it's holding a scepter instead of an olive branch and its faced was changed so that its staring pretty pointed at the French embassy. Pretty funny. We saw the Reichstag (government building) from afar and then headed over to this area.
This large area of blocks was the Holocaust Memorial. It was a really profound place because it really makes you think, and the way you feel while you're inside it is hard to explain. The idea behind the memorial is that the Holocaust is talked about so much that it doesn't need more explanations; instead the memorial creates a confused or uneasy feeling when you walk through it because it overwhelms you. It was probably one of the best parts of the tour.
After that we saw the location of Hitler's bunker, which was entirely different because it is completely unmarked. The place where Hitler died is now covered with a parking lot and apartment buildings. So that was that.
Next we saw the old Nazi Air Force building, ironically one of the only buildings that never got bombed during the war. It was later converted into a Soviet building, complete with a socialist realist mural along an entire wall depicting the Communist ideal. In front of the building is a long photograph covered with glass of an actual protest during the period, and the people certainly did not look as happy as the mural. The guide said that this particular strike was one of the turning moments when people in East Germany started to realize that socialist ideals probably weren't going to work out. Even though it has all this kind of awful history, they still use the building because it would be too expensive to knock down (the Nazis built really solid, big block type buildings). It's the tax office (like the IRS) now! Still evil!
:: socialist idealism. look at those smiling faces! ::
Then we saw a remaining section of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall is a pretty crazy concept. The top was rounded so people couldn't grab on to climb over. On the other side of the wall where we looked at it was also the location of the Nazi headquarters apparently.
Next we passed by Checkpoint Charlie, which has a really interesting history as the check point between the Soviet and American sectors of Berlin, but wasn't all that cool to look at. At this point, I was FREEZING because it had been raining all day and I forgot socks, so we stopped for a break in a little restaurant. See how great this tour was? Breaks.
The second half of the tour wasn't as interesting as the first. We saw a few more memorials. My favorite was the memorial for the books that the Nazis burned, a glass plate on the ground that looks down into a white room of empty bookcases. The other one was a memorial for any and all victims of war and tyranny. We ended on museum island, where it would have been cool to see some museums if the lines hadn't been so long. Instead we went inside a restaurant to warm up for awhile. We tried to see the Reichstag later in the day, but the line there was sooo long too. That was one thing I really wanted to see because of the large glass dome thing on the inside that I've seen in some of my friend Eric's pictures from the summer. It would have been neat. Oh well.
:: friends in front of the Reichstag... that we didn't go inside ::
After that we headed off to the other side of the city to see a mural painted on part of the remains of the Berlin wall. It was a really awesome gallery and I would have loved to walk along the entire thing, but it was really long and it was STILL raining.
:: East Side Gallery on remains of the Berlin Wall ::
That night we went out to a few bars and I FINALLY got to go to a club after 3 weekends of planning to but never getting around to it. I really missed dancing, so that was fun. It was a good time… until we got home at 3:30 and had to wake up around 8 to catch a train back to Luxembourg.
Everyone should also know that on the way to the train station in the morning I saw ROCKSTAR being sold in two places and DIDN'T BUY ANY. Isn't that incredible? But I was glad just to see it anyways. Another reason Germany is a great country.
The title to this entry, a quote by Karl Scheffler, is actually significant to my experience in Berlin... One very interesting thing I've noticed about Germany and especially Berlin is their huge attachment to the past - because so many huge events in the last century used Berlin as the centerpiece - while not being held down by their past. Apparently the place is constantly changing. Berlin is one of the most modern-looking cities I've been to in Europe. They have their old buildings, but apparently they're not afraid about knocking them down, or modernizing them like with the Reichstag and the giant glass dome in the middle of it. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that they've had to build it up so many times. It's very different from in Rome where they have been building a new subway for years because they keep hitting ancient ruins and no building is higher than the dome of St. Peters. Part of me really likes that about Rome, but another part of me (probably the more American part) really appreciates Berlin's forward thinking. All in all, I really enjoyed Berlin and I really wish we could have stayed longer than one rainy day. Hopefully I can get back there some time in my life!
Truth be told, a lot of time last weekend was spent on the train. It is about a 8-9 hour train ride to Berlin from Luxembourg, so I had a lot of time to catch up on reading for class. Anyways, we got into Berlin around 10 at night and met up with some friends who were able to catch an earlier train. We had gotten an eight person hostel room all to ourselves, and it's always so much nicer to know every person in the room you're sleeping in. Needless to say, we were pretty tired after a long day of traveling, so we went to bed with the intention of getting up bright and early the next morning for a FREE walking tour at 9 am.
These free tours happen in a lot of cities. You just tip as much as you want at the end, which is super nice for us poor traveling college students. The tour met outside Starbucks, which was a great incentive for getting up so early. On an unrelated note, Germany is SUCH A GREAT COUNTRY. Where you can buy Starbucks. So, Starbucks in hand, we met our Irish tour guide, Barry. He had moved to Berlin to be a tour guide and he was absolutely hilarious. We started out a the Brandenburg Gate and the US Embassy. The US Embassy was like… fortified. It was intense. The Gate was really impressive, and it had a statue on it that Napoleon stole awhile back. It's supposed to symbolize peace and was looking up into the sky, but now it's holding a scepter instead of an olive branch and its faced was changed so that its staring pretty pointed at the French embassy. Pretty funny. We saw the Reichstag (government building) from afar and then headed over to this area.
This large area of blocks was the Holocaust Memorial. It was a really profound place because it really makes you think, and the way you feel while you're inside it is hard to explain. The idea behind the memorial is that the Holocaust is talked about so much that it doesn't need more explanations; instead the memorial creates a confused or uneasy feeling when you walk through it because it overwhelms you. It was probably one of the best parts of the tour.
After that we saw the location of Hitler's bunker, which was entirely different because it is completely unmarked. The place where Hitler died is now covered with a parking lot and apartment buildings. So that was that.
Next we saw the old Nazi Air Force building, ironically one of the only buildings that never got bombed during the war. It was later converted into a Soviet building, complete with a socialist realist mural along an entire wall depicting the Communist ideal. In front of the building is a long photograph covered with glass of an actual protest during the period, and the people certainly did not look as happy as the mural. The guide said that this particular strike was one of the turning moments when people in East Germany started to realize that socialist ideals probably weren't going to work out. Even though it has all this kind of awful history, they still use the building because it would be too expensive to knock down (the Nazis built really solid, big block type buildings). It's the tax office (like the IRS) now! Still evil!
:: socialist idealism. look at those smiling faces! ::
Then we saw a remaining section of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall is a pretty crazy concept. The top was rounded so people couldn't grab on to climb over. On the other side of the wall where we looked at it was also the location of the Nazi headquarters apparently.
Next we passed by Checkpoint Charlie, which has a really interesting history as the check point between the Soviet and American sectors of Berlin, but wasn't all that cool to look at. At this point, I was FREEZING because it had been raining all day and I forgot socks, so we stopped for a break in a little restaurant. See how great this tour was? Breaks.
The second half of the tour wasn't as interesting as the first. We saw a few more memorials. My favorite was the memorial for the books that the Nazis burned, a glass plate on the ground that looks down into a white room of empty bookcases. The other one was a memorial for any and all victims of war and tyranny. We ended on museum island, where it would have been cool to see some museums if the lines hadn't been so long. Instead we went inside a restaurant to warm up for awhile. We tried to see the Reichstag later in the day, but the line there was sooo long too. That was one thing I really wanted to see because of the large glass dome thing on the inside that I've seen in some of my friend Eric's pictures from the summer. It would have been neat. Oh well.
:: friends in front of the Reichstag... that we didn't go inside ::
After that we headed off to the other side of the city to see a mural painted on part of the remains of the Berlin wall. It was a really awesome gallery and I would have loved to walk along the entire thing, but it was really long and it was STILL raining.
:: East Side Gallery on remains of the Berlin Wall ::
That night we went out to a few bars and I FINALLY got to go to a club after 3 weekends of planning to but never getting around to it. I really missed dancing, so that was fun. It was a good time… until we got home at 3:30 and had to wake up around 8 to catch a train back to Luxembourg.
Everyone should also know that on the way to the train station in the morning I saw ROCKSTAR being sold in two places and DIDN'T BUY ANY. Isn't that incredible? But I was glad just to see it anyways. Another reason Germany is a great country.
The title to this entry, a quote by Karl Scheffler, is actually significant to my experience in Berlin... One very interesting thing I've noticed about Germany and especially Berlin is their huge attachment to the past - because so many huge events in the last century used Berlin as the centerpiece - while not being held down by their past. Apparently the place is constantly changing. Berlin is one of the most modern-looking cities I've been to in Europe. They have their old buildings, but apparently they're not afraid about knocking them down, or modernizing them like with the Reichstag and the giant glass dome in the middle of it. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that they've had to build it up so many times. It's very different from in Rome where they have been building a new subway for years because they keep hitting ancient ruins and no building is higher than the dome of St. Peters. Part of me really likes that about Rome, but another part of me (probably the more American part) really appreciates Berlin's forward thinking. All in all, I really enjoyed Berlin and I really wish we could have stayed longer than one rainy day. Hopefully I can get back there some time in my life!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
a couple diplomatic evenings.
Whew. I just had a whirlwind morning of studying for a poly sci midterm that I had no notes for, taking said midterm, and then writing a five page paper in under an hour. So that's why I haven't posted about Berlin yet. But first, let me go back to last week and talk about the visits I got to have with the ambassadors last week.
On Wednesday, everyone got dressed up all fancy for the visit of the US Ambassador, Cynthia Stroum. I got to wear my new shoes that I bought especially for the event and I looked quite snazzy despite the fact that I was sick all last week. The ambassador definitely wasn't what I expected her to be. We've learned in political science that there are two ways to become an ambassador, by appointment by the President or by being a career diplomat. Ms. Stroum was appointed by President Obama for her work on his campaign. When she arrived, instead of giving a formal lecture, she gave an informal question-answer session. It was very interesting! Among other things, we learned that she knew very little about politics until she became an ambassador, she was one of the seed-investors in Starbucks (and is greatly saddened by the fact that there are no Starbucks in Luxembourg), she has been very involved with philanthropy throughout her life and remains so, and she is only legally allowed to leave Luxembourg about 20 days out of the year! That must be very difficult with France and Germany so close... she mentioned that she is unable to go to Ikea 45 minutes away because it's out of the country for her and she would have to take a leave day! She was quite the character - very personable, funny, and informal with us, so it was an enjoyable lecture. Then we had an amazing dinner of salmon salad, pork roast and vegetables, and a DELICIOUS chocolate fudge cake with vanilla sauce. We ate very well that night.
The following night, my political science class was invited to my Professor's house for dinner with the British ambassador to Luxembourg, Peter Bateman. He gave an interesting presentation in the living room about the history of the UK and more recently their role in the EU. Since I've been studying the EU in another political science class, it was quite interesting to hear the UK's point of view as one of the more reluctant countries in the Union. After the presentation and a short question-answer session, we got another free dinner! This time we had rice, vegetables, more pork roast, and apple pie with ice cream. It was very very good. I also had the pleasure of sitting next to the ambassador at dinner, and he was very interesting to talk to! It was especially interesting when our professor Guy de Muyser came over to talk, because he is still quite an important person in the Luxembourg government and you could tell that even while talking candidly to him, Mr. Bateman was still being a diplomat. There was a large difference between Mr. Bateman and Ms. Stoum since Mr. Bateman was a career diplotmat who has also served as a translator in the EU, and as a diplomat in Japan and Bolivia. He was much more professional and knowledgeable than the US Ambassador.
So, that was last week! Once I upload my pictures to my computer and watch the new How I Met Your Mother episode, I'll get around to posting about Berlin, which was a very interesting city!
On Wednesday, everyone got dressed up all fancy for the visit of the US Ambassador, Cynthia Stroum. I got to wear my new shoes that I bought especially for the event and I looked quite snazzy despite the fact that I was sick all last week. The ambassador definitely wasn't what I expected her to be. We've learned in political science that there are two ways to become an ambassador, by appointment by the President or by being a career diplomat. Ms. Stroum was appointed by President Obama for her work on his campaign. When she arrived, instead of giving a formal lecture, she gave an informal question-answer session. It was very interesting! Among other things, we learned that she knew very little about politics until she became an ambassador, she was one of the seed-investors in Starbucks (and is greatly saddened by the fact that there are no Starbucks in Luxembourg), she has been very involved with philanthropy throughout her life and remains so, and she is only legally allowed to leave Luxembourg about 20 days out of the year! That must be very difficult with France and Germany so close... she mentioned that she is unable to go to Ikea 45 minutes away because it's out of the country for her and she would have to take a leave day! She was quite the character - very personable, funny, and informal with us, so it was an enjoyable lecture. Then we had an amazing dinner of salmon salad, pork roast and vegetables, and a DELICIOUS chocolate fudge cake with vanilla sauce. We ate very well that night.
The following night, my political science class was invited to my Professor's house for dinner with the British ambassador to Luxembourg, Peter Bateman. He gave an interesting presentation in the living room about the history of the UK and more recently their role in the EU. Since I've been studying the EU in another political science class, it was quite interesting to hear the UK's point of view as one of the more reluctant countries in the Union. After the presentation and a short question-answer session, we got another free dinner! This time we had rice, vegetables, more pork roast, and apple pie with ice cream. It was very very good. I also had the pleasure of sitting next to the ambassador at dinner, and he was very interesting to talk to! It was especially interesting when our professor Guy de Muyser came over to talk, because he is still quite an important person in the Luxembourg government and you could tell that even while talking candidly to him, Mr. Bateman was still being a diplomat. There was a large difference between Mr. Bateman and Ms. Stoum since Mr. Bateman was a career diplotmat who has also served as a translator in the EU, and as a diplomat in Japan and Bolivia. He was much more professional and knowledgeable than the US Ambassador.
So, that was last week! Once I upload my pictures to my computer and watch the new How I Met Your Mother episode, I'll get around to posting about Berlin, which was a very interesting city!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
no motivation to write this.
Not going to lie, I am so so so unmotivated to write this post right now. I've been feeling a little under the weather this week (and I'm pretty sure I had a light fever yesterday but I had no thermometer to find out). But I figured if I didn't post it before the weekend, I probably wouldn't do it at all and I do want to tell everyone about my exciting weekend in Champagne country!
Last weekend was another discovery tour organized by the student events coordinator, which meant transportation by bus! Much more convenient than train. So we kicked off Friday afternoon by driving to Verdun, the site of a large World War 1 battlefield. We visited a few monuments and saw some trenches and toured a fort, so that was pretty exciting. One thing that really struck me was how beautiful the area was. We see so many pictures of WW1 where the landscape looks barren and brown, but nature has completely taken over now and most of the trenches and craters in the ground created by bombs now look like beautiful rolling green hills. I don't know why that seemed so interesting to me, but it was.
After that we headed on to Reims, a really beautiful French city. I got a wonderful French dinner with my friend Alyssa because everyone else decided to go get Mexican food. Don't get me wrong; I have been craving some good Mexican food, but were were in FRANCE. And it did not disappoint. I shelled out for a good steak and some creme brulee and it was très délicieux. We wandered around the city and stopped for drinks the rest of the night and it was very nice. I really liked Reims.
In the morning we got to experience a nice French morning in Reims. We went to a Saturday morning market and I got some delicious strawberries and strawberry jam. AND I did it all in French. It was interesting; you hear so much about French being a little snobbish about their language, but I felt so much less judged stumbling through my broken French in France than I do in Luxembourg. I really wonder why that is... Every time I try to be polite and order something in French here (where French isn't the mother tongue, but is the official government language and the language on all the signs), people treat me like an idiot. Meh. Anyways, after the market I stopped with a few other people at a cafe and stupidly decided to save money and not get coffee. What was I thinking? After sitting out on the terrace for awhile, we headed over to the Notre-Dame cathedral. Not the one in Paris, but the one in Reims. This cathedral was where all the French kings had their coronations and Jean d'Arc visited it at some point. It was probably my favorite cathedral I've ever been in... And I can't really put my finger on why. I loved their chandeliers. The ceilings were enormous like any cathedral, but the chandeliers were on ridiculously long ropes so they hung just above your head. It somehow made the place seem more intimate. They also had beautiful modern stained glass windows in one section by Marc Chagall because many of the windows were destroyed in the wars. It's actually pretty amazing half the churches in France and Germany are even standing at all...
After some delicious quiche and an eclair for lunch, we went on to the champagne tasting at Pommery where we got to tour their extensive caves where they store the champagne for aging. Now that I've been on a few wine tours, it's really interesting to see the diversity. For instance, the last wine-tasting I went to was on a family owned winery in Germany, where the owner gave us the tour, showed us where he grew the grapes, and then explained each wine to us when we tried them - it was very homey and down to earth. In Pommery, even the caves had an air of refinement. They had art exhibitions throughout the entire thing and the entrance into the caves were these really regal steps. When we did the tasting, we were taken into a private, posh room and were given just one champagne. I liked both ways, and I'm glad I got to experience both. I bought one cute thing of champagne called POP, a new product from Pommery that is meant to casualize champagne. It comes in this vivid pink little bottle and it even comes with a straw to drink it like it was out of a 1950s Coke ad. I don't know if there's ads like that but it sounds right.
After that we loaded on the bus again to go to Belgium! We stopped at a monastery to do a beer and cheese tasting of the Chimay beer and cheese made by the monks there. Despite not liking beer, it was pretty good. The cheese seriously made the experience though. It was some GOOD cheese. After that we just headed home. We had the option of going to museums in Luxembourg City because they were opened until 1am for a special event, but I was exhausted and I just headed home.
On Sunday I had a grand plan of getting on the internet to research for a paper. Epic fail. I had FINALLY found wifi at a kebab restaurant the week before, but for some reason it stopped working for me on Sunday. Come to find out, I have free wifi in the park outside my house, so I ended up sitting out there instead. Unfortunately, children were screaming in the park all day and got kind of cold. I think sitting there all day was probably why I got sick this week. At night my host mom took me out to dinner and it was really really good. Then after we ate she asked the staff and it turns out they have wifi in their front room bar/cafe area, so I might go hang out there sometimes. I also got around to asking if I could just plug in my host mom's ethernet cable to my laptop, so now I finally can get on the internet at home... when she's not using it and when I want to go all the way downstairs.
The only other exciting thing that's happened this week is that I got sick and the US Ambassador to Luxembourg came to talk to us tonight at the Chateau. But tomorrow night I'm going to meet the British Ambassador to Luxembourg... so I'm going to hold off on writing about the US Ambassador until after that so it can be an ambassador themed post.
No pictures in this post yet because I haven't even put them on my computer. Maybe I'll get around to that.
Last weekend was another discovery tour organized by the student events coordinator, which meant transportation by bus! Much more convenient than train. So we kicked off Friday afternoon by driving to Verdun, the site of a large World War 1 battlefield. We visited a few monuments and saw some trenches and toured a fort, so that was pretty exciting. One thing that really struck me was how beautiful the area was. We see so many pictures of WW1 where the landscape looks barren and brown, but nature has completely taken over now and most of the trenches and craters in the ground created by bombs now look like beautiful rolling green hills. I don't know why that seemed so interesting to me, but it was.
After that we headed on to Reims, a really beautiful French city. I got a wonderful French dinner with my friend Alyssa because everyone else decided to go get Mexican food. Don't get me wrong; I have been craving some good Mexican food, but were were in FRANCE. And it did not disappoint. I shelled out for a good steak and some creme brulee and it was très délicieux. We wandered around the city and stopped for drinks the rest of the night and it was very nice. I really liked Reims.
In the morning we got to experience a nice French morning in Reims. We went to a Saturday morning market and I got some delicious strawberries and strawberry jam. AND I did it all in French. It was interesting; you hear so much about French being a little snobbish about their language, but I felt so much less judged stumbling through my broken French in France than I do in Luxembourg. I really wonder why that is... Every time I try to be polite and order something in French here (where French isn't the mother tongue, but is the official government language and the language on all the signs), people treat me like an idiot. Meh. Anyways, after the market I stopped with a few other people at a cafe and stupidly decided to save money and not get coffee. What was I thinking? After sitting out on the terrace for awhile, we headed over to the Notre-Dame cathedral. Not the one in Paris, but the one in Reims. This cathedral was where all the French kings had their coronations and Jean d'Arc visited it at some point. It was probably my favorite cathedral I've ever been in... And I can't really put my finger on why. I loved their chandeliers. The ceilings were enormous like any cathedral, but the chandeliers were on ridiculously long ropes so they hung just above your head. It somehow made the place seem more intimate. They also had beautiful modern stained glass windows in one section by Marc Chagall because many of the windows were destroyed in the wars. It's actually pretty amazing half the churches in France and Germany are even standing at all...
After some delicious quiche and an eclair for lunch, we went on to the champagne tasting at Pommery where we got to tour their extensive caves where they store the champagne for aging. Now that I've been on a few wine tours, it's really interesting to see the diversity. For instance, the last wine-tasting I went to was on a family owned winery in Germany, where the owner gave us the tour, showed us where he grew the grapes, and then explained each wine to us when we tried them - it was very homey and down to earth. In Pommery, even the caves had an air of refinement. They had art exhibitions throughout the entire thing and the entrance into the caves were these really regal steps. When we did the tasting, we were taken into a private, posh room and were given just one champagne. I liked both ways, and I'm glad I got to experience both. I bought one cute thing of champagne called POP, a new product from Pommery that is meant to casualize champagne. It comes in this vivid pink little bottle and it even comes with a straw to drink it like it was out of a 1950s Coke ad. I don't know if there's ads like that but it sounds right.
After that we loaded on the bus again to go to Belgium! We stopped at a monastery to do a beer and cheese tasting of the Chimay beer and cheese made by the monks there. Despite not liking beer, it was pretty good. The cheese seriously made the experience though. It was some GOOD cheese. After that we just headed home. We had the option of going to museums in Luxembourg City because they were opened until 1am for a special event, but I was exhausted and I just headed home.
On Sunday I had a grand plan of getting on the internet to research for a paper. Epic fail. I had FINALLY found wifi at a kebab restaurant the week before, but for some reason it stopped working for me on Sunday. Come to find out, I have free wifi in the park outside my house, so I ended up sitting out there instead. Unfortunately, children were screaming in the park all day and got kind of cold. I think sitting there all day was probably why I got sick this week. At night my host mom took me out to dinner and it was really really good. Then after we ate she asked the staff and it turns out they have wifi in their front room bar/cafe area, so I might go hang out there sometimes. I also got around to asking if I could just plug in my host mom's ethernet cable to my laptop, so now I finally can get on the internet at home... when she's not using it and when I want to go all the way downstairs.
The only other exciting thing that's happened this week is that I got sick and the US Ambassador to Luxembourg came to talk to us tonight at the Chateau. But tomorrow night I'm going to meet the British Ambassador to Luxembourg... so I'm going to hold off on writing about the US Ambassador until after that so it can be an ambassador themed post.
No pictures in this post yet because I haven't even put them on my computer. Maybe I'll get around to that.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
not Rome, for school, but still fun.
Alright. So now you've read about Rome and I've gotten a little less tired so I think I can write up the second part of my week in Italy - on the tracks of Verdi and Puccini, two famous Italian opera composers from the Romantic period.
It started off VERY EARLY in the morning. Rome traffic can be pretty bad, so we woke up at 5am to get down to Termini to catch our 7am train to Milan before the traffic got too bad. Shout of to Francesca, the sweetest girl in the world, who woke up with us, made us coffee, and drove us to the bus stop. The train took about 3 hours and it was a pretty nice train - there were no stops so it went very fast! In Milan we met the rest of our class and the professor at the Duomo cathedral. It was beautiful!
:: why hello there Baroque period ::
Milan was alright, but it was a huge change from the rest of Italy that I've seen. We enjoyed some shopping and looking at the fashion streets where we couldn't buy anything, but the impression I got from Milan the entire time we were there was… grey. I don't know how else to describe it. Still it was a very beautiful city. For our class, we went to see the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, a home for old musicians who couldn't support themselves that Verdi built. It was a really interesting place and it is still in operation today. We were able to meet some of the old musicians and see a concert for them put on by a Japanese University. We also visited the Teatro alla Scala, one of the most famous opera houses in the world. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda interested in operas after all this. I would love to get all dressed up and go see one sometime if it was in a place as nice as this.
I was EXHAUSTED so I didn't do much at night in Milan, but in the morning we got up early again and drove to Busseto, the birthplace of Verdi. We toured the house he was born in, the house he built once he was famous, and had a private concert of a few of his arias. Our tour guide Federico was our age and spoke great English, and since he was with us like all day we got to know him a little bit. At night we went with him and his family to a small restaurant where we got a huge Italian meal and a wine tasting. It was good, but not going to lie… it didn't scratch my top five Italian meals. Still, can't go wrong with a free meal!
:: the whole group... minus me ::
In the morning we made the long drive to Pisa. I took the obligatory picture holding up the tower and got lunch with my friend Erica. We got majorly hit on by a kinda creepster Italian waiter who ended up giving me his card, but his English was really really good because he studied in London and he was actually really cute… so that was nice I guess. Haha it was an experience. After that our tour guide failed to show up so we went over to a nearby town called Lucca for the rest of the night. I really loved Lucca! It was so cute and beautiful. We got to see Puccini's birthplace and I got to eat yummy gnocchi with pesto. I wish we could have stayed there a little longer, but our hotel was closer to Pisa. In the morning we got up and in the morning went to see Puccini's large home in Torre del Lago right on the coast of the lake. It was absolutely beautiful! And the tour was probably the most interesting of the whole trip. While Verdi was a very serious, philanthropic man, Puccini was like a fun-loving, free-spending playboy. So that made for an interesting tour. Haha.
:: don't worry. I had it under control ::
After that we drove alll the way up to Lake Como. Como was probably my favorite location of the study tour. It was SO SO beautiful. I would definitely go back there with my family or friends or someone special. :] We got the night free in the city and I definitely enjoyed my last night in Italy - celebrating with two gelatos in one day instead of my usual one. The next day we got up early and made the long drive back to Luxembourg. We drove through Italy, Switzerland, France, and Germany to get back, so it was never a boring drive. Driving through Switzerland was GORGEOUS. Seriously gorgeous.
:: Lake Como with my friend Erica... and a new leather jacket ::
So that was my mini study tour! I learned a lot about operas! haha… Now I'll just have to go to one sometime.
It started off VERY EARLY in the morning. Rome traffic can be pretty bad, so we woke up at 5am to get down to Termini to catch our 7am train to Milan before the traffic got too bad. Shout of to Francesca, the sweetest girl in the world, who woke up with us, made us coffee, and drove us to the bus stop. The train took about 3 hours and it was a pretty nice train - there were no stops so it went very fast! In Milan we met the rest of our class and the professor at the Duomo cathedral. It was beautiful!
:: why hello there Baroque period ::
Milan was alright, but it was a huge change from the rest of Italy that I've seen. We enjoyed some shopping and looking at the fashion streets where we couldn't buy anything, but the impression I got from Milan the entire time we were there was… grey. I don't know how else to describe it. Still it was a very beautiful city. For our class, we went to see the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, a home for old musicians who couldn't support themselves that Verdi built. It was a really interesting place and it is still in operation today. We were able to meet some of the old musicians and see a concert for them put on by a Japanese University. We also visited the Teatro alla Scala, one of the most famous opera houses in the world. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda interested in operas after all this. I would love to get all dressed up and go see one sometime if it was in a place as nice as this.
I was EXHAUSTED so I didn't do much at night in Milan, but in the morning we got up early again and drove to Busseto, the birthplace of Verdi. We toured the house he was born in, the house he built once he was famous, and had a private concert of a few of his arias. Our tour guide Federico was our age and spoke great English, and since he was with us like all day we got to know him a little bit. At night we went with him and his family to a small restaurant where we got a huge Italian meal and a wine tasting. It was good, but not going to lie… it didn't scratch my top five Italian meals. Still, can't go wrong with a free meal!
:: the whole group... minus me ::
In the morning we made the long drive to Pisa. I took the obligatory picture holding up the tower and got lunch with my friend Erica. We got majorly hit on by a kinda creepster Italian waiter who ended up giving me his card, but his English was really really good because he studied in London and he was actually really cute… so that was nice I guess. Haha it was an experience. After that our tour guide failed to show up so we went over to a nearby town called Lucca for the rest of the night. I really loved Lucca! It was so cute and beautiful. We got to see Puccini's birthplace and I got to eat yummy gnocchi with pesto. I wish we could have stayed there a little longer, but our hotel was closer to Pisa. In the morning we got up and in the morning went to see Puccini's large home in Torre del Lago right on the coast of the lake. It was absolutely beautiful! And the tour was probably the most interesting of the whole trip. While Verdi was a very serious, philanthropic man, Puccini was like a fun-loving, free-spending playboy. So that made for an interesting tour. Haha.
:: don't worry. I had it under control ::
After that we drove alll the way up to Lake Como. Como was probably my favorite location of the study tour. It was SO SO beautiful. I would definitely go back there with my family or friends or someone special. :] We got the night free in the city and I definitely enjoyed my last night in Italy - celebrating with two gelatos in one day instead of my usual one. The next day we got up early and made the long drive back to Luxembourg. We drove through Italy, Switzerland, France, and Germany to get back, so it was never a boring drive. Driving through Switzerland was GORGEOUS. Seriously gorgeous.
:: Lake Como with my friend Erica... and a new leather jacket ::
So that was my mini study tour! I learned a lot about operas! haha… Now I'll just have to go to one sometime.
Monday, October 4, 2010
can someone please explain to me why I ever leave this city?
Whew I'm back from Italy! It was such a great week! I'm going to go ahead and divide this post into two parts for your reading convenience and the first part is going to be about ROMA.
I LOVE ROMA.
This is still by far my favorite city in the world. I am seriously so so blessed that God let me come back to Rome so soon after I left and I was able to reconnect with almost all of the friends I made while I was there in the spring/summer (except of course all my American SP friends who I wish could have been with me!). I even got to stay with my friend Francesca's family and they spoiled us rotten… seriously some of the greatest hosts ever.
:: we finally remembered to take a picture with Francesca's family the night before we left ::
But let me start from the beginning.
On Friday I turned in that paper (I finished it BEFORE midnight Thursday night. I know, you can be impressed) and finished packing (now you can finished being impressed and say "what was she doing packing the day of for a week long trip?"). Then at 3:00 we started our long day of travel by catching the train from Differdange to Luxembourg City where we caught a bus to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport in Germany. We got there about two hours early to get through security and all that, and then our roughly an hour and a half flight left at 8:00. Now here's where it gets interesting. We told Francesca we would get to Termini (Rome's central train station) around 11 at night because our flight landed around 9:30 and we had bought tickets for a 10:30 bus into the city. All of my Roman friends' numbers were safely in my cell phone, but as you know, you have to turn off your cell phone on an airplane. When I turned on my phone when we landed, I just guessed at my PIN number for awhile to unlock it - even though I had a piece of paper tucked under the battery with the number on it. What I didn't know was that after a certain amount of incorrect guesses, the SIM card locks itself up. So now we have ZERO numbers and no way to call Francesca, and we were on our way to Termini, which is in one of the most dangerous areas of Rome at night. Awesome. So we wandered all around Termini station for awhile and by the grace of God found an internet cafe where I was able to look up my friend Pietro's phone number. Aunna called him and it turned out that he was actually at Termini with Francesca because she had gotten scared walking around trying to find us! Ahh I was so relieved when we met up with them! Francesca's little sister Giulia was with them also and she spoke really good English. After we loaded our bags in her car, we got stuck in the parking lot because the parking ticket didn't work for some reason and then got stopped by some cops on the way home who were doing random driving documents checks (or that's what I gathered anyways). So it was an interesting night. Apparently Pietro had been all ready for bed before he came so props to him for being such a gentleman. I have good friends.
We CRASHED when we got back to Francesca's! Haha. But they still served us delicious leftover food before that. We were okay with that.
On Saturday morning we woke up and met the rest of Francesca's family. Her mom made us caffe and cornetti for breakfast, along with some chocolate cookie crackers and Ringo cookie snack bars. It was so good. And here comes something really exciting. We got to take showers and USE A REAL HAIR DRYER. WITH A DIFFUSER. Haha. I haven't really mentioned this on the blog obviously, but my little hair dryer I have in Lux is really a travel hair dryer and it systematically destroys my hair with its insane heat settings. Francesca saw it and was like "oh no, use mine" and I was so happy. My hair was so curly.
Once we were all cute and ready for Rome, Francesca showed us the 80 express bus that would take us down to the center. We did a whirlwind tour of the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Sant Eustachio (favorite cappuccino of all life), random pizza place, Giolitti (apple and cinnamon is still incredible), all the way up Corso with a stop in H&M and Vertecchi, Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo, and Villa Borghese. I really liked wandering in Villa Borghese because it was much more relaxing without the World Cup madness going on there… and it was SUCH a beautiful day. It must have been high 70s or low 80s. So great. Then I tried to cut back and show Aunna the Wedding Cake (Vittoriano), but my shortcut was a colossal failure. We ended up seeing some cool old stuff… We took pictures to ask my friends but we never really figured out what it all was. We ended up stumbling upon Termini (look at a map of Rome; this is hilarious since we were trying to get to Vittoriano), which was perfect because I knew how to get back to Francesca's house from there… although we did have a bit of an adventure on the bus trying to figure out which was her exact stop.
:: it worked twice already! so I'm officially going back to Rome ::
That night, we went with Francesca to meet up with Pietro and Anna to watch the Roma vs. Inter soccer game at a pizzeria. They weren't being too loud about the game because they were all cheering for Inter and obviously everyone else in the room was cheering for Roma. Pietro is obligated to hate Rome because he cheers for Lazio, another sort of rival team based in Rome, and Francesca's whole family cheers for Inter. Giulia had like… a shrine to Inter in her room! It was great. Anyways, they were all pretty mad when Roma won at the last moment. I ended up not seeing much of the match because the TV screens were too small but it was okay because I got to catch up with everyone. And it was pizza. Even though I spent a good portion of dinner defending American food, I was really glad to be eating Italian pizza again. We also had some good bruschetta and meat kebob sticks that I apparently couldn't eat the "right way". I was mercilessly made fun of for trying to take them off with my fingers because I couldn't bite them hard enough… After that Pietro took us to his favorite pub and I still crack myself up just thinking about it. This bar had a serious identity crisis. It was a Titanic-themed Irish pub with Texan decorations that played a mix of country music, Irish music, and what I'm pretty sure was a Blues Brothers soundtrack ripped illegally from the movie.
Seriously, doesn't that just kill you? Oh man. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of it.
On Sunday we slept in and then met up with my friend Davide for lunch. We met up by the Spanish Steps, but ended up taking a cab over to Trastevere to get lunch. It's so pretty over there! I had really good cacio e pepe… And hanging out with Davide is such a riot. He had actually been at the Roma-Inter match the night before and he kept breaking out into Roma songs. He took us to Piazza Navona after lunch, which was really cool because I didn't see it over the summer. Then we got Della Palma gelato, which he claimed was better than Giolitti but I'm not convinced.
:: mmmmm gelato. we got it every day and were teased ::
I was so so so so full at this point. Italian food just fills me up! But we continued on to see the Vittoriano, or the Wedding Cake, (finally) and climbed to the top. I'm pretty sure its a memorial to Vittorio Emanuele, one of their kings, or something like that. Then Davide wanted to look in some stores so we went up Corso again and ended up in Piazza del Popolo. After laying around there for awhile, we caught a cab over to San Giovanni. I was almost asleep in the cab when we got there haha. It was nice to go in San Giovanni, because I had walked past this church all summer whenever I caught the bus, but I never went in it. It was very pretty inside… the ceilings were made of real gold. Craziness. By then we were all exhausted so Aunna and I headed back to Francesca's for dinner. They're from southern Italy and they eat super late, but even though we didn't eat until around 10:00 it was okay because I was still so full from lunch. And this was a good meal. Francesca's mom made amatriciana (I think), which I had all the time over the summer but it had never been this good. After pasta, we had some pork with fruit on it and mushrooms on the side, and it was all so good. I don't even usually like mushrooms. We had been planning to go do something that night (we weren't really sure what…) but after dinner was finished we were so full and tired we decided to just call it a night.
On Monday we woke up somewhat early to go to the Colosseum and the Roman forum. It hasn't changed. Still cool. After that we beasted the bus system to find my friend Giovanni's new apartment to have lunch. He had two roommates who I don't think I've met before and they made us delicious rice with zucca (pumpkin) sauce on it. Giovanni even had olive oil from his family's farm to put on it. It was so good! This is a reoccurring theme in Rome. We were so spoiled when it came to food. Anyways, it was great to catch up with Giovanni. I got to randomly teach him a little swing dancing, which was funny. Almost fell down doing a dip, so we stopped there. Haha. We talked about movies for a little bit too, and apparently everyone in Italy has seen more movies than me. Not surprisingly, Giovanni is into indy-esque film festival type films… But I did a little PR for Inception because it just came out in Italy and everyone should see it… and man that's just such a good movie. They also had this really weird wall decoration/statue right when you come in to the apartment who they had dressed up and named Pumba.
:: seriously, what is this thing? ::
After spending the afternoon with Giovanni and his roommates, Aunna and I headed over to La Sapienza to meet up with Pietro, who had recently finished an exam, and Francesca, who was studying there. (I forgot to mention that Pietro had two exams while we were in Rome and managed to get good grades on both of them while still hanging out with us at night.) After figuring out dinner plans, Aunna and I left them to keep studying and went to get gelato at my favorite gelateria in San Lorenzo where we stayed this summer. San Lorenzo is about the same… I recognized some of the old men who hung out in front of the Salvation Army and got a caffe at Patos for kicks and giggles. We ended up getting dinner in San Lorenzo with Licia, Francesca, and Pietro at a restaurant that I remembered for it's great pasta (for those of you who were there - the place on the way to La Sapienza that had seafood but where we got to eat three pasta dishes buffet style for like 9 euro). And the owner recognized me! I had only been in there two times, but both times were with large groups of American girls so I guess we were memorable… I like that man. Andrea met up with us after dinner and we went to get granita, which I think is Sicilian ice (kind of like an icee but thicker and better). I'm glad I finally got to see Andrea because he had been working or something silly like that all weekend and couldn't hang out. Psh lame.
I seriously love hanging out with these people. Even during the long stretches of conversation when I don't understand exactly what's being said, I start laughing because they're just so funny. How did I meet such fun people? (I hesitate to say cool, because let's be serious… its Andrea and Pietro… ;] ) Anyways, thanks God.
On Tuesday, our last day in Rome, we decided to sleep in. We got lunch with Beth Ann and Alyssa, two of the long-term Crusade staff in Rome, and it was so nice to catch up. I was really encouraged to talk to them, especially about how ministry in Rome is going. They're slowly getting their new Stint team due to some delays in support and I think a few more long-term staff have come on board. Praise God that he's bringing more people into Rome. :] Hopefully I'll be with them in a few years! After delicious pizza, Aunna and I went down to see the Vatican museum. The line was mercifully shorter than when I went over the summer. Thank you Jesus. I could not have handled that again. I actually enjoyed the museum a bit more than last time as well because we were a little more free to wander with less people (two versus 30-something) and without the free vatican sunday crowd. We also climbed to the top of the dome on St. Peters Basilica, which I had never done before. And by climbed, I mean we opted to take the elevator halfway and climb only what was absolutely necessary (still more than 300 steps). The view was beautiful!
:: you could see almost all of Rome ::
After exploring St. Peter for a little bit, we got gelato at Old Bridge, a really good gelato place near the Vatican. Mmm. We finished that in time to head over to Piazza Bologna to meet Pietro, Andrea, Francesca, and Licia for aperitivo. Aperitivo is something like Italian happy hour, but the basic gist is that you get a drink and an all you can eat buffet of "appetizers" for something like 6-8 euro and it's a nice way to hang out with people - especially when one of your friends has an exam the next day and can't stay out late. Now, when I say appetizers, I mean random pizza slices, pasta, veggies, and all that delicious stuff. We ended up at a place near Pietro's apartment where, I dare say, we witnessed a miracle - Pietro found parking on his street. I really liked the place we went… It was artsy and modern looking, even though I'm pretty sure Pietro called it gaudy (the conversation was a little confusing; I'll spare you the details). It was the only night I remembered to take pictures, but lots of people were there so it worked out. :] Highlights of conversation included Pietro's insistence that Francesca was in love with him (we all determined it was the other way around) and my proper usage of the phrase "li mortacci tua" when Pietro was making fun of me not being able to speak Italian. They came to the general consensus that it's too inconvenient for me not to know Italian when they're telling so many hilarious jokes, so I guess I'll have to work on that. I was so sad when we all had to leave… but Aunna and I were getting up at 5:00 to catch a train to Milan and everyone else had to study or something. After saying all our goodbyes, we headed back to Francesca's house just in time for dinner at 9:30! Haha, but this was seriously incredible. Francesca's mom made lasagna. Oh. My. Lord. It was delicious. It was so delicious.
:: my wonderful friends... I miss them already ::
So that was Rome. As you may have noticed, I love this city. I love these people. I am so freaking blessed that I got to come here again. I will be going back as soon as possible. As for the rest of Italy… I'm tired. I'll write that later.
I LOVE ROMA.
This is still by far my favorite city in the world. I am seriously so so blessed that God let me come back to Rome so soon after I left and I was able to reconnect with almost all of the friends I made while I was there in the spring/summer (except of course all my American SP friends who I wish could have been with me!). I even got to stay with my friend Francesca's family and they spoiled us rotten… seriously some of the greatest hosts ever.
:: we finally remembered to take a picture with Francesca's family the night before we left ::
But let me start from the beginning.
On Friday I turned in that paper (I finished it BEFORE midnight Thursday night. I know, you can be impressed) and finished packing (now you can finished being impressed and say "what was she doing packing the day of for a week long trip?"). Then at 3:00 we started our long day of travel by catching the train from Differdange to Luxembourg City where we caught a bus to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport in Germany. We got there about two hours early to get through security and all that, and then our roughly an hour and a half flight left at 8:00. Now here's where it gets interesting. We told Francesca we would get to Termini (Rome's central train station) around 11 at night because our flight landed around 9:30 and we had bought tickets for a 10:30 bus into the city. All of my Roman friends' numbers were safely in my cell phone, but as you know, you have to turn off your cell phone on an airplane. When I turned on my phone when we landed, I just guessed at my PIN number for awhile to unlock it - even though I had a piece of paper tucked under the battery with the number on it. What I didn't know was that after a certain amount of incorrect guesses, the SIM card locks itself up. So now we have ZERO numbers and no way to call Francesca, and we were on our way to Termini, which is in one of the most dangerous areas of Rome at night. Awesome. So we wandered all around Termini station for awhile and by the grace of God found an internet cafe where I was able to look up my friend Pietro's phone number. Aunna called him and it turned out that he was actually at Termini with Francesca because she had gotten scared walking around trying to find us! Ahh I was so relieved when we met up with them! Francesca's little sister Giulia was with them also and she spoke really good English. After we loaded our bags in her car, we got stuck in the parking lot because the parking ticket didn't work for some reason and then got stopped by some cops on the way home who were doing random driving documents checks (or that's what I gathered anyways). So it was an interesting night. Apparently Pietro had been all ready for bed before he came so props to him for being such a gentleman. I have good friends.
We CRASHED when we got back to Francesca's! Haha. But they still served us delicious leftover food before that. We were okay with that.
On Saturday morning we woke up and met the rest of Francesca's family. Her mom made us caffe and cornetti for breakfast, along with some chocolate cookie crackers and Ringo cookie snack bars. It was so good. And here comes something really exciting. We got to take showers and USE A REAL HAIR DRYER. WITH A DIFFUSER. Haha. I haven't really mentioned this on the blog obviously, but my little hair dryer I have in Lux is really a travel hair dryer and it systematically destroys my hair with its insane heat settings. Francesca saw it and was like "oh no, use mine" and I was so happy. My hair was so curly.
Once we were all cute and ready for Rome, Francesca showed us the 80 express bus that would take us down to the center. We did a whirlwind tour of the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Sant Eustachio (favorite cappuccino of all life), random pizza place, Giolitti (apple and cinnamon is still incredible), all the way up Corso with a stop in H&M and Vertecchi, Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo, and Villa Borghese. I really liked wandering in Villa Borghese because it was much more relaxing without the World Cup madness going on there… and it was SUCH a beautiful day. It must have been high 70s or low 80s. So great. Then I tried to cut back and show Aunna the Wedding Cake (Vittoriano), but my shortcut was a colossal failure. We ended up seeing some cool old stuff… We took pictures to ask my friends but we never really figured out what it all was. We ended up stumbling upon Termini (look at a map of Rome; this is hilarious since we were trying to get to Vittoriano), which was perfect because I knew how to get back to Francesca's house from there… although we did have a bit of an adventure on the bus trying to figure out which was her exact stop.
:: it worked twice already! so I'm officially going back to Rome ::
That night, we went with Francesca to meet up with Pietro and Anna to watch the Roma vs. Inter soccer game at a pizzeria. They weren't being too loud about the game because they were all cheering for Inter and obviously everyone else in the room was cheering for Roma. Pietro is obligated to hate Rome because he cheers for Lazio, another sort of rival team based in Rome, and Francesca's whole family cheers for Inter. Giulia had like… a shrine to Inter in her room! It was great. Anyways, they were all pretty mad when Roma won at the last moment. I ended up not seeing much of the match because the TV screens were too small but it was okay because I got to catch up with everyone. And it was pizza. Even though I spent a good portion of dinner defending American food, I was really glad to be eating Italian pizza again. We also had some good bruschetta and meat kebob sticks that I apparently couldn't eat the "right way". I was mercilessly made fun of for trying to take them off with my fingers because I couldn't bite them hard enough… After that Pietro took us to his favorite pub and I still crack myself up just thinking about it. This bar had a serious identity crisis. It was a Titanic-themed Irish pub with Texan decorations that played a mix of country music, Irish music, and what I'm pretty sure was a Blues Brothers soundtrack ripped illegally from the movie.
Seriously, doesn't that just kill you? Oh man. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of it.
On Sunday we slept in and then met up with my friend Davide for lunch. We met up by the Spanish Steps, but ended up taking a cab over to Trastevere to get lunch. It's so pretty over there! I had really good cacio e pepe… And hanging out with Davide is such a riot. He had actually been at the Roma-Inter match the night before and he kept breaking out into Roma songs. He took us to Piazza Navona after lunch, which was really cool because I didn't see it over the summer. Then we got Della Palma gelato, which he claimed was better than Giolitti but I'm not convinced.
:: mmmmm gelato. we got it every day and were teased ::
I was so so so so full at this point. Italian food just fills me up! But we continued on to see the Vittoriano, or the Wedding Cake, (finally) and climbed to the top. I'm pretty sure its a memorial to Vittorio Emanuele, one of their kings, or something like that. Then Davide wanted to look in some stores so we went up Corso again and ended up in Piazza del Popolo. After laying around there for awhile, we caught a cab over to San Giovanni. I was almost asleep in the cab when we got there haha. It was nice to go in San Giovanni, because I had walked past this church all summer whenever I caught the bus, but I never went in it. It was very pretty inside… the ceilings were made of real gold. Craziness. By then we were all exhausted so Aunna and I headed back to Francesca's for dinner. They're from southern Italy and they eat super late, but even though we didn't eat until around 10:00 it was okay because I was still so full from lunch. And this was a good meal. Francesca's mom made amatriciana (I think), which I had all the time over the summer but it had never been this good. After pasta, we had some pork with fruit on it and mushrooms on the side, and it was all so good. I don't even usually like mushrooms. We had been planning to go do something that night (we weren't really sure what…) but after dinner was finished we were so full and tired we decided to just call it a night.
On Monday we woke up somewhat early to go to the Colosseum and the Roman forum. It hasn't changed. Still cool. After that we beasted the bus system to find my friend Giovanni's new apartment to have lunch. He had two roommates who I don't think I've met before and they made us delicious rice with zucca (pumpkin) sauce on it. Giovanni even had olive oil from his family's farm to put on it. It was so good! This is a reoccurring theme in Rome. We were so spoiled when it came to food. Anyways, it was great to catch up with Giovanni. I got to randomly teach him a little swing dancing, which was funny. Almost fell down doing a dip, so we stopped there. Haha. We talked about movies for a little bit too, and apparently everyone in Italy has seen more movies than me. Not surprisingly, Giovanni is into indy-esque film festival type films… But I did a little PR for Inception because it just came out in Italy and everyone should see it… and man that's just such a good movie. They also had this really weird wall decoration/statue right when you come in to the apartment who they had dressed up and named Pumba.
:: seriously, what is this thing? ::
After spending the afternoon with Giovanni and his roommates, Aunna and I headed over to La Sapienza to meet up with Pietro, who had recently finished an exam, and Francesca, who was studying there. (I forgot to mention that Pietro had two exams while we were in Rome and managed to get good grades on both of them while still hanging out with us at night.) After figuring out dinner plans, Aunna and I left them to keep studying and went to get gelato at my favorite gelateria in San Lorenzo where we stayed this summer. San Lorenzo is about the same… I recognized some of the old men who hung out in front of the Salvation Army and got a caffe at Patos for kicks and giggles. We ended up getting dinner in San Lorenzo with Licia, Francesca, and Pietro at a restaurant that I remembered for it's great pasta (for those of you who were there - the place on the way to La Sapienza that had seafood but where we got to eat three pasta dishes buffet style for like 9 euro). And the owner recognized me! I had only been in there two times, but both times were with large groups of American girls so I guess we were memorable… I like that man. Andrea met up with us after dinner and we went to get granita, which I think is Sicilian ice (kind of like an icee but thicker and better). I'm glad I finally got to see Andrea because he had been working or something silly like that all weekend and couldn't hang out. Psh lame.
I seriously love hanging out with these people. Even during the long stretches of conversation when I don't understand exactly what's being said, I start laughing because they're just so funny. How did I meet such fun people? (I hesitate to say cool, because let's be serious… its Andrea and Pietro… ;] ) Anyways, thanks God.
On Tuesday, our last day in Rome, we decided to sleep in. We got lunch with Beth Ann and Alyssa, two of the long-term Crusade staff in Rome, and it was so nice to catch up. I was really encouraged to talk to them, especially about how ministry in Rome is going. They're slowly getting their new Stint team due to some delays in support and I think a few more long-term staff have come on board. Praise God that he's bringing more people into Rome. :] Hopefully I'll be with them in a few years! After delicious pizza, Aunna and I went down to see the Vatican museum. The line was mercifully shorter than when I went over the summer. Thank you Jesus. I could not have handled that again. I actually enjoyed the museum a bit more than last time as well because we were a little more free to wander with less people (two versus 30-something) and without the free vatican sunday crowd. We also climbed to the top of the dome on St. Peters Basilica, which I had never done before. And by climbed, I mean we opted to take the elevator halfway and climb only what was absolutely necessary (still more than 300 steps). The view was beautiful!
:: you could see almost all of Rome ::
After exploring St. Peter for a little bit, we got gelato at Old Bridge, a really good gelato place near the Vatican. Mmm. We finished that in time to head over to Piazza Bologna to meet Pietro, Andrea, Francesca, and Licia for aperitivo. Aperitivo is something like Italian happy hour, but the basic gist is that you get a drink and an all you can eat buffet of "appetizers" for something like 6-8 euro and it's a nice way to hang out with people - especially when one of your friends has an exam the next day and can't stay out late. Now, when I say appetizers, I mean random pizza slices, pasta, veggies, and all that delicious stuff. We ended up at a place near Pietro's apartment where, I dare say, we witnessed a miracle - Pietro found parking on his street. I really liked the place we went… It was artsy and modern looking, even though I'm pretty sure Pietro called it gaudy (the conversation was a little confusing; I'll spare you the details). It was the only night I remembered to take pictures, but lots of people were there so it worked out. :] Highlights of conversation included Pietro's insistence that Francesca was in love with him (we all determined it was the other way around) and my proper usage of the phrase "li mortacci tua" when Pietro was making fun of me not being able to speak Italian. They came to the general consensus that it's too inconvenient for me not to know Italian when they're telling so many hilarious jokes, so I guess I'll have to work on that. I was so sad when we all had to leave… but Aunna and I were getting up at 5:00 to catch a train to Milan and everyone else had to study or something. After saying all our goodbyes, we headed back to Francesca's house just in time for dinner at 9:30! Haha, but this was seriously incredible. Francesca's mom made lasagna. Oh. My. Lord. It was delicious. It was so delicious.
:: my wonderful friends... I miss them already ::
So that was Rome. As you may have noticed, I love this city. I love these people. I am so freaking blessed that I got to come here again. I will be going back as soon as possible. As for the rest of Italy… I'm tired. I'll write that later.
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