Longest Day of My Life

Monday, April 24, 2006 was literally the longest the day of my life because I traveled between time zones, adding six hours to my day. This might be my longest blog entry ever.

I woke up around 9am to get reading to head to the airport for my 1:30 flight. I had my last Italian breakfast at my cousin's: Yogurt, tea, apricot juice, she had toast with jam, but I wasn't that hungry.

When I was checking my luggage, the first suitcase weighed 32.6 kg. I started getting nervous because the limit was 32, but she didn't say anything. After saying goodbye and thanking my cousins for everything, I headed toward the terminal. I knew that one person from the Temple program was going to be on the flight with me, but there were about six other people. We were at gate 26, but an annoucement was made that it was actually going to be gate 24, so we all had to pick up our shit and move it down the terminal.

Since we had a bunch of time to kill, I went to the cafe to buy a drink and I was going to get a cornetto for the last time but it was twice the regular price, so I decided to get a gelato for the last time (limone e fragola). I also spent the last of my euros on two chocolate bars for my parents.

The flight from Rome to London wasn't too bad and the ham and cheese sandwich was actually a ham and cheese sandwich (in case you don't remember, on my way from London to Rome in January, my "cheese and pickle sandwich" was really a cheese and relish-like sandwich and was gross).

Because there was only an hour between our connecting flights, British Airways sent people to meet us as we got off the plane and took us in vans to the other terminal. They dropped us off right at the security check. Apparently, it's not just if you're flying from/within the U.S. that require stricter security check than Europe, it's also if you're flying to the U.S. When I had a layover going from London to Rome back in January, I didn't have to take my laptop out of my bag and the security was the same as the other flights I've taken within Europe.

This time, however, not only did I have to take out my laptop, I was also stripped searched. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but not my much. She felt all over my whole body. Seriously, the only place she didn't touch was my boobs and my crouch. She even made me unbuckle my belt. What hell could I be hiding there?

It's a good thing they did come pick us up because we barely had enough time to go to the bathroom (or smoke in some people's case) before we started boarding. The flight was pretty good, it just seemed to take forever because I was excited to come home.

The food was good. I had a chicken platter with carrots, green beans, and funghi; a roll with butter; and for dessert, something like Jell-o with whipped cream. The second meal was an "eggsalad" sandwich. It was more of a cut-up hard-boiled egg on bread with Mayo, lettuce, and tomato, but it's basically the same principle.

Anywho, since I wasn't tired, I decided to watch the Chronicles of Narnia. It was good, but pretty damn violent for kids. Shortly after the movie had ended the person sitting next to be got up to use the bathroom. I figured that would be a good time for me to go too, so I wouldn't have to bother her later (I had the window seat). Apparently everyone's movie had gotten done and they had decided to use the bathroom because there were lines at all three.

Since I still wasn't tired, I decided to watch Syriana. That was one fucked up movie. It was good, but really confusing. I especially didn't get the ending. It seemed like it just stopped in the middle of the action. If anyone can explain it to me, I'd appreciate it.

After that movie was finished, I still had another couple hours 'til the plane landed, so I tried to sleep, but it didn't work. By the time I dozed off for a few minutes, they were bringing me the egg sandwich. I couldn't get back to sleep after that.

On the plane they gave us "customs cards" to fill out, where we had to declare what we bought. I was traveling and shopping for four months, I seriously didn't remember what the hell I bought. I put down the big stuff (the five purses I bought, wine, and a bunch of shot glasses), and then misc. gifts. I was so worried about getting stopped and interrogated. Courtney had said I probably wouldn't get stopped, but there was still that chance that worried me.

The plane finally landed and I went through the first customs point before getting the luggage (it was weird to be in the "citizens" line, since I've had to go in the "non-EU" line for the passed four months). My luggage came out right away, and then we had to stop and hand in our customs cards. Everything went fine and I was officially back in the country. I only had to drag my luggage a short distance before I saw my parents...and APRIL!!!!

After getting my shit in the house, we went to WAWA as was my original plan, then I was able to escape across the street to say hi to Josh. Shortly after getting there, he offered me a drink, which isn't too suprising, but I found out later there was an elaborate plan to get me drunk. It worked. After two "root beer floats" (root beer schnapps and Bailey's), a couple shots of Jameson and Hyptoniq, I was pretty damn tipsy. After his Japanese food was not enough fill us up, and see cheesesteaks on TV, we thought it'd be a good idea to go to Pat's and Geno's. After much deliberation, we settled for the Big L last night and then Cheesesteaks later in the week. Whit was just getting home, so she came with us. The freakin' bill was almost $50 for four people, I forgot how expensive diners were. At least the water and the refills were free. And we didn't have to wait for an hour for our check.

After, we went back to the house and put in a movie. Not surprisingly, I fell asleep, and I eventually decided to go home. I fell asleep a little before 3, so I was up for almost 24 hours.

Last Week In Rome

Easter Monday is a Holiday in Italy and a bunch of people go to the beach. Tina, Lauren, Meg, and I followed this tradition. Unfortunately, it wasn't at all sunny. In fact, it even rained, but we still managed to have a lot of fun. One of the best parts was the trampoline. It cost 1.50 euros and we got 10 minutes to jump. Tina was doing all kinds of flips and jumps, it was awesome.

Tuesday, I did a little studying and took my Art History final. It wasn't too bad and only took 45 minutes. After, I met the girls near the Pantheon for our final dinner all together in Rome. It was all really good, cheap, and it was fun.

Wednesday, I watched some ER with my roomies and then studied for my final, which I think I did decently well on. I also found out that I got an A- in my Italian class.

Friday, Tina was leaving Rome to meet up with her parents in London, so we out for cappuccini in the morning to say good-bye. That night, a bunch of people went to Botticella's for the last time. We started out with a Cinnamon shot, followed by a red-headed slut, multiple orgasm, and screw driver. Some (almost) 7 foot basketball player bought Mary and I a tequila shot. After she was good and drunk, Courtney decided to try and smoker her first cigarette, which was quite entertaining. Mary was supposed to try too, but then she changed her mind. After the bar closed, the roomies and I went to another bar we did a shot of SoCo. Needless to say, we were all feeling pretty good by the time we got home at 4am.

Saturday, I walked around alllll day (and I'm not really exaggerating). Mary, Meg, and I went to see the Castel Sant'Angelo around 9:30. On the way home, we did a little shopping, then went home for lunch. After lunch, we went to Piazza Navona for some more last minute shopping, I still had more shopping to do after everyone else was done, so I finished up around the Vatican. Then we went to dinner at Alfredo's for his famous fettuccini, which was actually really fucking good. After dinner, we had to pack.

Mary, Courtney, and Stacy left for the airport around 7:30 on Sunday morning. I had to do some more packing and my cousin picked me up around 11:30. After getting to her place, I took a both (see "baths, showers, mirrors" post), then had lunch. She made pasta with an artichoke sauce, beef with tomatoes, and fruit salad. After lunch, we went to her parents' house, who gave me gifts for me, my mom, my aunts, and my cousins.

For dinner we had fried pizzelli (small pizzas), pizza, eggplant parm from my great-aunt, asparagus, and gelato for dessert. Unfortunately, it didn't taste as good the second time around as it did the first.

Easter in Rome

I know this a little late, but now I'm at home with internet that actually works...

On Good Friday, I went to Stations of the Cross with the Pope at the coliseum. It was actually pretty cult-like: Millions (probably an exaggeration) of people gathered around around with candles listening to one person and then chanting in a foreign language (Latin)...all that was mission was the Kool-Aid.

It was actually pretty cool. I got a little worried after they said the first station in 7 different languages (Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and another one I couldn't identify) because I thought the whole thing was going to be repeated 7 times. Luckily, it was in Italian, and just the "titles" of the stations were repeated. I also got lucky because a priest who was standing near me was translating the Italian to English for a couple people.

Trying to get home was a bitch. It was too late to take the metro, so we had to take a bus. We had to take a bus to Termini and then get another one home. Usually, this wouldn't have been bad, but because of the tourists, it was fucking hell. First, it took forever for the bus to get to Termini, then the bus home was crowded there was no way we were going to fit. We decided to not even bother waiting for the next bus, because it would be just as bad, so we went to get a cab. There was a line, but we didn't have to wait too long because a bunch of taxis kept coming. Apparently, we were supposed to be waiting at the corner, so this cabby was getting all pissed off and wouldn't pick up anyone until we moved. None of the girls wanted to give this jackass any business, but we wanted to get home. 15 euros later, we were finally at the Residence.

On Sunday, we had tickets to Easter mass given by the Pope in St. Peter's Square. It was a cool experience, but it was so crowed and so hot. Then everyone started moving forward to try to get communion. My roommates decided that'd be a good time to leave, so we went to a cafe for some cappuccini and pastries.

I went to my cousin's for Easter dinner. She made: hard-boiled eggs, stuffed artichokes, lamb, and her mother-in-law made a ricotta pie just like my grandmother used to make (she hasn't made in a few years, so it was awesome to have it again). After dinner, the "kids" (Andrea and Laura, who are about 14 and me) opened our chocolate eggs (Italy's version of the Easter Basket). Even though my mother thinks I'm too old, apparently no one else does.

When I got back to the Residence, the girls were making their Easter dinner. They were making fish, but unfortunately, it wasn't filleted, so Meg had to behead and gut three fish. It was so gross, I can't believe she did it. At least the result was delicious.

We ended the night by stopping by the toga party next door.

Baths, showers, mirrors (and some nudity)

I've always known that Italians like to have lots of mirrors in their houses...both sets of grandparents have huge mirrors in their living rooms and my mom has a smaller one, but do you really need full length mirrors in the bathroom. I was under the impression that most people don't really like looking at their naked bodies.

As I was taking my last shower ever in my apt in Rome on Sunday, I realized that I had left the medicine cabinet door open and could see my myself in the mirror (Our curtain was too short to close completely and the doors, which were mirrors swung out completely).

Later that day, as I was taking a jackass bath at my cousin's, I looked to my right and once again saw the reflection of my naked body. Now, I don't have any serious issues with the way I look, but I still don't really want to see myself get washed.

Speaking of baths...

I haven't taken many baths since elementary school (but I do shower daily), but I pretty much figured it was just because showers are quicker. After all, I loved baths as a kid. I tried taking one this semester and was planning on relaxing and reading a book while in there, but after about five minutes I got bored and got out.

I figured out what the difference between baths now and when I was a kid--toys. I realized this when on Sunday my cousin pointed out her bath toys and said they didn't take baths without them. I tried to play with them, but it was kinda boring by myself (fyi, baths with other people are a lot of fun, especially if breakfast is invovled, but that's really an entirely different subject). I really think I'm getting old. When I was little I could play with myself...I mean by myself (pesky little prepositions) without any trouble. Apparently, I've lost my imagination, it's kind of depressing.

Money

Besides the fact that I don't have any, I have another complaint about the stuff that makes the world go 'round...

First of all, the largest bill they have in Europe, is the Five; the rest are coins (2 and 1 euros, 50, 20, 10, 5, 2, 1 cents). At first this was really difficult to deal with. I never knew if I was getting the right change or getting screwed. Now, I'm used to it, so it's really not a problem.

Next...Everyone in this country wants exact change. Now this isn't that surprising with the small little stores or the market, but big museums like the Vatican?? Come on, you have millions of people a year, get some fucking change. To make this even worse, the damn ATMs love to give you 50's. One of them (the one by school) only gives 50's. The one near the Residence and some other ones will give you mostly 50's and then smaller ones for the rest.

I find in surprising in the US with major chain stores, the largest bill the ATM will give is a $20 (i've taken out a couple hundred bucks and still haven't gotten anything bigger), but in a country fill of small family stores, they give you 50's.

A friend's theory: They printed too many 50's when they switched to the euro.

Also, the change machine in the laundry doesn't always give you the right amount. When a 5 is put in, sometimes 4 euro coins come out, sometimes 6.

Finally, the vending machines at school don't always give the correct change (or any at all). Cappuccinos and espressos cost 35 cents, but if you put in 40 cents, you're not gonna get the 5 cents back.

March 9

As you should have realized by now that my favorite source of topics is friends' blogs, so here's fun facts about March 9 (from www.wikipedia.org):

Events:

1796 - Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.
1841 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Amistad case, concerning captive Africans who seized control of the slave-trading ship carrying them: the court rules that they had been taken into slavery illegally.
1842 - Giuseppe Verdi's third opera Nabucco premieres in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost opera writers.

1959 - The Barbie doll debuts.

1993 - Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating King's civil rights when they beat him during an arrest.

2005 - Dan Rather presents his final broadcast of the CBS Evening News.
2006 - Liquid Water discovered on Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn.

Birthdays:

1454 - Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer and cartographer (d. 1512)

1943 - Bobby Fischer, American chess player

1963 - Terry Mulholland, American baseball player (I saw him pitch a no-hitter)

1987 - Bow Wow, American rapper and actor (I remember when he was Little Bow Wow)

Deaths:

1440 - St Frances of Rome, Italian nun (b. 1384)

1996 - George Burns, American actor and singer (b. 1896)
1997 - The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (b. 1972)

Holiday:

Feast day of St Frances of Rome. (I'm Catholic, you think my boss will accept "I know it's my birthday, but I'm taking off because it's a religious holiday"?)

Sex with Kids

I heard on the news the other day that a teacher was arrested for having sex with her 12 or 13 year-old student 28 times in one week. First of all, ewww to screwing the kid. Second, 28 TIMES?! How is this possible. That's like 4 times a day, for 7 days. I have done it about 5 times in one day, I didn't continue to do it for the rest of the week. And the most I've done it in a week was about 12 times. I really don't understand how this is physcially possible.

Then this morning, I heard from Preston and Steve (I had downloaded Friday's podcast) that the Director of Homeland Security was arrested for having sexual online conversations with a girl he believed to be 14. It was actually an undercover-cop. Apparently he had convinced her to buy a webcam, gave her his phone number (and name and title). She called him to tell him that she had bought the cam, so he said he'd go home to talk to her, which is where he was arrested. Once again, ewww. Second, is he really that stupid. Even if he likes little girls, why the hell would he tell her his identity?? And these people have the nerve to talk about Clinton! Oh, and he hasn't been fired yet.

Computer Update

So, luckily, my power cord came today by noon as promised. The bad news: it cost me 30 euro, which is about $40. Then I looked at the invoice on how much the shipping cost was--$45. SO...the total cost of this power cord was $170, which was a $100 more than it should have cost. So needless to say, I'm trilled about this.

Update Your Blogs!

Holy Shit, I can't believe this thing is actually updated...other people need to catch up on theirs...seriously February 1st??? I know you're still alive (I just read other stuff you've written that's now on a website--maybe if you hadn't dropped off the face of the earth, I wouldn't have been so surprised by it), so what have you been up to. Even the people I can usually count on to help me procrastinate, have been failing me. Seriously, there's only one blog that has been updated weekly consistently. In fact, his was the only that gave me more than five minutes of entertainment when I came back from spring break...and according to him, he works all the time, so the rest of you have no excuses...Entertain me!

My Computer Hates Me

Recently, I noticed that occasionally, the power cord would stop charging my battery on my laptop. I'd have to fiddle with it for a few minutes, and then it would work again.

Tuesday morning, I put the last touches on my paper and goofed around until it was time to go shool. I packed up my laptop and headed out...

It's a damn good thing I only needed to print out my paper. I kept fiddling with the power cord, but it wouldn't start charging. I tried again yesterday, but the same problem.

I tried calling DELL to see if it would be possible to get a new one shipped here (because I have another 10 page paper due on Wed). When I tried calling the Italy number, big shock, they were closed already. It took be forever to get through to the U.S. number and when I finally did, she had a lot of trouble hearing because I was calling from an Italian payphone. So I finally tell her what I need and she's asks if I'll be shipping it outside the U.S. She had to ask three times b/c she couldn't hear me ask if there was any way I could possibly get it by Tuesday. Finally, she said "We don't ship outside the U.S." So why the hell did she ask me if I wanted shipped outside the U.S. GRRRRRRR

In class, Andrea let me borrow her power cord, and I checked out the DELL website. I couldn't find the cord I needed on the Italy (or even the UK) site, so I had to go to U.S. one. I found the one I needed and it would ship within 1 day. $70 for the cord, another $16 for next day shipping, plus whatever the hell it's gonna cost to rush it from home to here.

OH, did I mention, I really won't be needed the laptop after next Wed. It couldn't last another 8 days? It's only 192 hours...

Well, I'm going on a cool trip this weekend including the Parmasan Cheese museum and the Ferarri museum.

Fun, Semi-Productive Weekend

Even though I withdrew from the class, I still had the option to go on the trip since it was already paid for. Some people had suggested I go since Ravenna is pretty and all my meals would have been paid for. I thought about it, but I decided that not only didn't I have friends in that class, I didn't want to go through 3.5 days (they were leaving on thurs night) listening to that prof lecture. Also, it would give me time to work on my other papers (I wanted to go with the girls to cinqueterra, but it was too expensive).

Do you think I actually worked on those papers?

Of course not!

Friday was gorgeous, so I went to the beach with Kelly, Ann, and Liz. After laying around, we went home and had dinner at Kelly's. After dinner, we went to see all the sights at night: Colisseum, pantheon, Trevi fountain. Kelly and I made a sign that said, "Ciao Fratelli di Phi Sigma Pi!" and tooks pictures...they are so cute.

Saturday, I planned on working on my paper, but you know me, I'm the biggest procrastinator ever. I finally started to actually do some work around 9, when Meg stopped by. Then Liz called and said they were going to get gelato and see St. Peter's at night. Of course, I went with them.

We went to get Millenim Gelato because it's close and we've heard some many good things about it. They didn't lie. It was amazing. It was so good, in fact, that after we each finished ours, split another one to try more flavors. But's it's ok, we walked it off. After getting some pics at St. Peter's, we walked down to Castel Sant'Angelo and hung out there for awhile. After we got home, we watched two episodes of Sex And The City, which of course I loved. They were the two epidsodes where Sam dated Maria. I think it would be fun to soak in a tub like with some one...oh wait...it is ;)

Best Line from that episode:

Maria: Do you call this a relationship?

Sam: Well, it's tedious and the sex is dwindling, so from what I hear, yes!

So, Sunday I was finally productive, I wrote 4 of the 8 pages I planned on writing. On Monday, I was in the library all day and wrote another two. After not eating all day and having some wine from the art opening (yes, provided by Temple), I was a little drunk and decided to give. On Tuesday, when I added the footnotes and the pics, the paper ended up being a little over 8 pages (he had said he didn't want it any more than 10 with pics)

Toscana

The weekend of March 24-26, I went on a trip with my Art History Class (Early Renaissance) to Siena and Florence. I had heard a lot of good things about Siena, including one person telling me that it was his favorite city, so I had some pretty high expectations.

We had to meet down the street at 6:15am. When I got there, people were starting to walk toward the bus, so I followed them. Apparently, I was supposed to check in with my prof, but I didn't realize that.

Someone who was checking to see if missing people were actually on the bus asked if there was a "Jackie Boreba." I didn't think there was another Jackie, so I asked if he actually meant me. He said, "no" rather bitchy, so I didn't worry about it.

About 20 minutes later while we were still waiting for people, my roommate called and said that my prof had called my apt. looking for me. I told the guy who had said it wasn't me that she had called and asked my name. When I told him all he said, was "OK." He didn't even seem to notice that I had already asked if was looking for me.

The bus ride up to Siena was pretty uneventful except for learning that the bus had a black-box-like thing that recorded the driver's every move and his speed. The thing is, I've never seen any speed limit signs in Europe.

Anywhoo, by the time we got to Siena, I was pretty well rested. I don't really remember what I saw where because there was just so much. We weren't in Siena that long and it was rainy, but it was gorgeous. Definitely prettier than Florence. The food was amazing too. Actually, I think Tuscan food in general was good.


I spent the weekend hanging out with Kelly, who's a Brother from Alpha Pi (who, ironically, hosted Brother Bowl that weekend) and Dorothy, who goes to Temple, but I didn't know before. We pretty much ate all weekend when we weren't taking notes.

So some of the cool stuff we saw:

• Donatello sculptures
• Michelangelo's Bacchus
• Michelangelo's David and som other unfished sculputres
• Cimabue's cross
• Giotto paintings
• and a bunch of other stuff that I'm not going to bore you with.
  

People had been to Florence a few weeks ago for another and said there was a really good Mexican resturant, so we looked for it. After an hour or two, we just decided to have Italian. We find this "little" place and went it. It was actually huge, there was a large dining area on the second floor. Everyone seemed to enjoy what they ate. I what I thought was going to be manacotti, but it was more bready on the outside than pasta, but it was really good. After we got back to the hotel, we discovered that Dorothy had Doritos. Now, this might not seem that great to you, but it's been 3 months since I had them, so they were amazing. Kelly even threatened to kill her in her sleep for them, but I (being the voice of reason) argued that if she was asleep, we could just eat them, and it would cause less problems than a dead body.

On Saturday morning, we decided to load up on breakfast because it was free, so we didn't have to spend that much money on lunch. By the time our lunch break rolled around, we found a cool American-like resturant and ate there. We all shared a salad and then we eached got our own sandwich. We were stuffed and it only cost about 10 euro each.

Saturday night after we were finished with "classes," Kelly, Dorothy, and I did some mad shopping. We went to Ponte Vecchio to get Kelly a Cameo ring (she ended up getting it from the same place that Mary, Courtney, and Stacy got there's). While we were waiting for it to be resized, we got some gelato on a waffle. I had tried this the last time I was in Florence, and it sucked, but this time it was amazing.

We weren't really hungry so we decided to go into some bar that that had Mexican food to have Nachos and beer. We stayed there for a couple hours and then decided to get an Italian appitizers. That plan didn't work out so well--we ended up splitting a cheese plate and then each getting a meal. I got ricotta and spinach balls, which were really good.

On Sunday morning, we figured we'd be eating a lot again, so Dorothy and Kelly had a small breakfast. Unfortuantely, because we spent our lunch break doing last-minute shopping, we didn't get a chance to eat. Dorothy and I grabbed some kabobs on our way between sites, but Kelly didn't get to eat until late that night when we got home.

I was lucky when I got home. When I walked in the door, everyone (if you don't know this by now: Courtney, Mary, Stacy, Meg, and Tina) was there and cooking. We watched an episode of Project Runway. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Getting Out of Shitty Classes

I was supposed to pick up my late antique/early byzantine Art History midterm on thursday, but I didn't have time because I had to meet Celie. The prof told me that he was going to email me the grade, but he never did. I had to wait until class the following Wednesday. I ended up with a D+ which was actually kinda suprising (I wasn't expected to pass). I really don't need this class to graduate, so I asked if I would be able to withdraw. He said, "People don't withdraw, I kill them." I knew this wasn't true b/c I had talked to someone who had withdrawn from another one of his classes. Unfortunately, I had heard from her that the last day to withdraw from classes was the previous Friday. I decided to look into this...I couldn't find it posted anywhere on this campus and I checked Temple Main Campus' deadline and it wasn't until Monday. The next day, I decided to talk to the dean and beg to be withdrawn. Turns out, no begging was required. He signed the form and even said I could have until Monday to submit it, so that I could be certain my other classes would be enough to satisify my major. My Italian advisor told me the other classes were fine, so I withdrew from the class.

I remember sophomore year, when I tried to withdraw from Organic I because Williams had told me I was going to fail. The Honors advisors had given me so much shit about wanting to withdraw. "You know, you can only withdraw from five classes in your entire college career at Temple?" I told them I had intention of using those all up...

So here I am two months away from graduation, and I've only withdrawn from two classes. And I least I now only have 2 F's on my transcript (and only one that counts b/c that prof was a total dickhead, but that's a completely different story).

Celie in Roma

I called Celie's hostel on the way back from the train station, but they told me she had checked out. I was a little worried because she hadn't been there before I left and now they were telling me that she was already gone. As soon as I got home, there was an emailing telling me that they switched her hostel, which worked out well for me because it was actually closer. The email also said that she would like at 10:00 in the piazza near the hostel. I checked my watch: 10:45. I rushed over to the square, but I couldn’t find her. I went to her hostel to leave her message, then I walked over to St. Peter's to check there, but I soon realized that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so I gave up and started walking back. I was just hoping that she’d stopped back at the hostel and get my message sooner rather than later.

As I was walking back to my apartment, I say her walking down the street. It was soooooooo good to see her. I hadn't seen her since Beck’s going away party in August.

After coming back to my place so I could shower (I always feel gross after being on a train for awhile, especially 12 hours), we wondered around the city. There is so much I still haven't seen. We discovered some fountains and a park. We sat down and watched the kids and parents. I really wish I grew up in Italy, kids here have it so great.

We had dinner at my apartment with the usual crew plus Tina's friends, Bridget and McGrath. It was lots of fun and Stacy even made me a birthday cake. It was yummy and the icing was amazing. I almost made myself sick from eating the extras. Oopsies Tina and I did a couple Birthday Car-Bombs.

On Monday, we met up and went to the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and the Forum. She was so excited, it was great. Then I took her to St. Paul’s which is really pretty, but not as popular as St. Peter's. It doesn’t make sense since Peter was a Roman citizen, but oh well. After all that walking, I had to get ready to go class. After I got home, we went to Falcone's for dinner. Apparently, a liter of wine is a lot for two girls. By the time we finished, we were pretty buzzed.

On Tuesday, we walked to Piazza del Popolo and walked around there and the gardens for a bit. Apparently, they were filming a movie there, so that was kinda cool. After that, we walked to the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon. I showed her the bars I go to and Piazza Navona where we ate lunch. After a little more wondering, we split up, so I could go to class. We went to the restaurant downstairs and then went out Karaoke-ing with Tina, Megan, Lauren, Bridget, and McGrath. It was so much fun and even though the wine wasn’t that good, it did its job and made us nice and drunk. There was this one (old) guy there that kept singing and dancing with us. It was a great time. I don't think I've ever seen Celie drunk before, it was awesome.

Wednesday, I had class all day, but when I met up with Celie that night, we found a little restaurant to go to. The food was really good, but Celie said the wine sucked. I had to go home after dinner to work on a damn Italian paper (it was the midterm that I handed in 3 days late).

Thursday, we had planned on shopping but I had forgotten it was siesta-time. Celie had already bought the souvenirs she wanted and it had been raining all day, so we decided just to have lunch and dinner and chill at my place. We ate some sandwiches and I made the spinach and artichoke tip that Tina first introduced us too. I forgot a less-important ingredient, so it wasn’t quite as good as before. For dinner we had pasta with vegetables. Since we had to get up at like 5:30, Celie went back to the hostel pretty early. After I helped Celie get to the airport at the ass-crack-of-dawn, I come home and went back to bed.

After Celie left, I was alone because Mary had gone to Sorrento and Capri and Courtney was with her family. Being alone for the weekend was good for me because I was actually productive. I finished my Italian paper and caught up on some readings for my other classes. The time I left the apartment the whole weekend was to go to club on Saturday night with Mary, Tina, Bridget, McGrath, Meg, and Lauren.

Overnight Train #2

Since I had been on an overnight train less than two weeks prior, I thought I knew what to expect and my expectations were pretty low. Fortunately, this experience was different that from Spring Break. Instead of Six-person cabin’s, there were only four. Plus, they gave us blanket and sheets. When the train started to move and no one else had entered our cabin, we started thinking, "hey maybe we don’t have to worry about other people." But I knew that there were different stops, so I didn’t get my hopes up. However, after a few stops and we were still alone, I started thinking it actually could be possible to have our own cabin. Unfortunately, shortly after this, two guys joined us. It was pretty awkward, especially not speaking the same language. But it turns out that one of the guys did know some English, so we talked for a few minutes and then worked out sleeping arrangements. Because there were only 4 beds, we didn’t have to worry about all going to sleep at the same time. I stayed up and read for a bit, but then when the train got on the ferry (I’m guessing this is how we got across the straights of Messina), I started getting sea-sick, so I went to sleep.

I actually managed to sleep pretty decently, which was good because I didn’t have time to sleep because I planned on meeting up with Celie.

Palermo

Even the view from the airport was gorgeous. We could see the mountains and the sea. One of the next things I noticed about Palermo was that there were high-rises and very few Smart cars. While we were waiting for the shuttle to get to the hostel, we started talking to these Scottish girls who were staying in the same place. They seemed to know where they were going, so we followed them.

When we finally reached the hostel, there was a big hole in doorway. I was expecting the owner to speak English, since the people at all the hostels spoke English. Nope. And to make matterns worse, I was the only person who understood any Italian. When he figured this out, he made me be the translator for him and the Scottish girls. It was very interesting.

Then we went upstairs to our room. It looked like someone's living room/kitchen. He didn't give us a key, even when I asked, so we were really freaked out. Fortunately, a few minutes later, he came back with a key. I guess the maid had it or something.

We walked around for a bit and then went to get some lunch. The waiter wasn't even going to give us time to look at the menu until I asked for five minutes. Then the food came out quick--too quick. I'm pretty sure it was microwaved. He took our plates as soon as we were done and asked if we wanted coffee. He brought that out right away. Then the brought our check. This is not something I'm used to. In Rome (and elsewhere in Italy), they let you sit there as long as you want and make you ask for the check before they bring it to you. I asked one of my prof's about this and he said it was probably just the one place, it's not standard custom in Palermo.

After lunch, we wandered around to the historic section of Palermo. We some cool churches and sites. Somewhere along the way, we had Canoli. They were soo good. (I wasn't impressed by the one's I'd bought in Rome). One the way back down the street a couple hours later, we got some more and the guy remembered us.

By the time we got back to the hostel, we were tired, so we took a couple-hour nap. Then we decided to go search for some food. The neighborhood we were in seemed kinda shady, so we just got some pizza, and soda to take back. Then we say a wine store, so we bought a bottle (since I love Sicilian wine) and some snacks. I asked for "peperoni" not realizing that it means "peppers," but it was yummy anyway. It wasn't thick like the Sicilian pizza in America; it was round and thin, which is less common it Rome.

On Saturday, we went for a little walk around the hostel, then we headed to the train station to drop off our luggage. We had planned to go find the beach, but it was pouring. Basically, our day was pretty much wasted.

London

While waiting for the shuttle to go to the airport, I started talking to this girl from the program who was also going to London for the weekend. We hung out until we landed (we were able to sit next to each other on the plane because they aren’t assigned seats). I was supposed to meet Jay at the hotel, but he had just gotten to the airport around the time I landed. I told him to meet me at "Arrivals."

I didn’t know it would be so hard to get into England. As usual in Europe, there were two passport control lines: One for EU citizens and one for non-EU. The non-EU people had to fill out a card with our name and address and stuff and the line took forever to move. When it was finally my turn, the woman asked me how long I’d be staying in London. "Until tomorrow morning." I guess I hesitated when she asked me what hotel I was staying in, so she asked to see my plane ticket out of London. When she saw that it was 6am, she said, "Wow, that is an early flight." I wonder what she would have done if I didn’t have that paper with me. When we went to Prague, we didn’t have our tickets to leave until after we got there. Seriously, since when do you have to have a flight out to enter a country?

Since the Stansted Airport is so far away from central London and we had to be back there at 4am, we decided just to have dinner at the hotel. Since it was England, the TV shows were all in English. I never thought I’d be so excited to see The Simpsons. I also insisted on watching Ten Years Younger.

We were leaving too early for the full breakfast, but we were able to get a light one. I was excited to have some Kellog’s Frosties (aka Frosted Flakes—are they still called this back in the States?)

Jay in Rome

So, to continue with my posts from the previous blog...

By the time we got back to Rome, two of Courtney's friends and Jay and had already arrived. After meeting up with them, we had dinner at our place.

Sunday, we went to the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. We went to dinner with one of his fraternity brothers and one my favorite restaurants, Falcone. The waiter really pissed me off. He told me what I ordered was too simple and that I should order something else. I've been in Rome for over 2 months and I've had "complicated" stuff, I was in the mood for what I ordered. Then as usual, it took awhile for us to the get the check. We had ordered a liter of wine and by the end, I was feeling slightly tipsy.

Monday, we went to the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. It was really cool to be able to explain what the stuff in the Forum was. I guess I did learn something from that class on Late Antique Art (which I just withdrew from). The restaurant downstairs is closed on Monday, so I just ended up cooking here. I made some sauce with peppers and carrots and pasta.

Later that night, Jay wanted some coke, so we walked to the 24-hour drugstore. On the way back, it started to rain. Some girls were having car trouble and must have asked for help. We didn't understand what they were saying, so we kept walking. They cursed us off, and Jay responded wit h"I don't speak English." Ah, he finally admits it.

He left on Tuesday morning to go to London, and I had to stay for classes. On Thursday, March 9 (aka my birthday), I only had one class. In the morning, Courtney had asked when my b-day was, and I said "today." She felt so bad for forgetting, that when I came home from classes, I found a poster in my room wishingme a happy 22nd Birthday.

I knew Celie was getting into Rome on Thursday, so I tried calling her hostel, hoping to see her before I left for London, but they said she wasn't there yet. Since I am such a big procrastinator, I had to pack before heading off to London (which I was only staying in for 12 hours. The only reason I went there was because I could fly to Palermo from there).

New Blog

So, I've run out of space on my other blog, so I had to create a new one. Since everyone else seems to be using blogspot, I figured this would be a good one to have. If you want to see older post go to http://italian_whore_17.tripod.com/blog/ Happy reading :)