So I wish I could blog more during the week, but that just doesn't happen. Way too busy for that nonsense right there. Last week was full of salsa nights, going out nights, and Paul's mom time. I can dig it. :)
Love that salsa.
Tuesday Temple Rome had a salsa night where Italians came in and taught us some basic steps. Dance. If you haven't figured that out yet. It was a lot a lot a lot of fun! It was a little easier than the stuff I'm used to doing, just because it was super basic, but I still loved it. Afterwards, they put on some music and the instructors went to town. Salsa dance is amazing and I think it would be so fun to learn more of!
Also, the Italian boys/men I got partnered with said I was picking it up well. Regardless of my experience, I still felt pretty cool.
I got my room clean, art history paper done, stuff like that. I have clean underwear now, which is also an accomplishment.
On Thursday I spent the day with Paul and his mom. I actually spent a lot of time with her, and it was really lovely to have a visit from her. Lots of dinner and walking around, it was wonderful!
In fact. She finally got me to the Colosseum. Study Abroad student A+!
The Arch of Constantine. You know.
Oh hey, large thing behind us.
IT WAS SO AMAZING!
And a lot bit sunny.
I have about seventy-four million pictures.
This child has a giraffe backpack. I'm jealous.
CRAZY.
The view from the second level.
The detailed work of those ancient Romans.
Down on the ground level.
I have so many pictures it is out of control. Also, Mrs. Hyer is going to send me a bunch. So if I see fit, I'll add some more. Share the photography credit on here. :)
Then on Friday, we went on a Naples and Capri tour. So I'll put that in a different post. Perhaps tomorrow! Just because I have a bunch of pictures from there too.
But for now. The cooking something new adventure of the week.
I'll never be a food photographer.
It's macaroni and cheese.
WITH.
PUMPKIN.
Yes, that's right. I was half on Twitter and half doing my work earlier when I saw this. It made me want to eat it right then and I wouldn't take no as an answer for dinner. It's on Eat, Live, Run (well, that's the PBS recipe link anyway) and I am SO glad I forced my cooking partner to make it with me.
We cut the recipe in half and it still made this much. We ate about half of it and were totally satisfied. It was great! The pumpkin isn't super overwhelming, but it makes the cheese taste four hundred times better. Oh my gosh. It was great.
AND THE OVEN DIDN'T DESTROY IT. YESSSS.
We might have broken our oven door more. But that's besides the point.
Ciao. Sono stanca e affemata. Non ho il cibo perche ho una vacanza venerdi e non vuole comprare il cibo. Ma mangio Nutella stamattina con le mie dite. I had to look up that last part. So it might be wrong. Honestly, why would I know how to say my fingers? But everything else is right.
Sorry that this post is all over the place in every direction. I'm warning you now.
This, my friends, is the Aurelian Wall.
You see that wall up there? I have rammed into it and fallen to the ground. I have officially hit the wall of studying.
You may call me overdramatic (oh ho ho, I'd be a Hellinistic statue if I've ever seen one), but my mind is so full of Art History facts that I don't even care what you think about me. I wouldn't care anyway, but those are details. This is really a blog post of procrastination. Hopefully, it also alerts you that I am surviving this week.
Some important things happened this week.
I dressed as a six year old for my Italian oral exam.
Kids will be kids, I suppose.
It went well. Jules was a wonderful teacher and Sarah and I really played the part of kindergardeners extremely well. We got swively chairs to swivel on and clearly my hair is in pigtails. I'm very much a method actor.
And then I studied some more.
Oscar Mayer has a way with b-o-l-o-g-n-a.
Last night I was studying for Anthropology. Did you know that Kertzer wrote about politics in Bologna with the issue of civil religion? Well he did. And thanks to Andrew Kurtz, I can remember that. So thanks, bud. I also couldn't handle pronouncing Bologna the sophisticated way that wouldn't disrespect a city in Italy and fell into a fit of giggles every single time. But that's where I am.
Now, don't get me wrong. Studying has been fun too. I mean, maybe not fun, but at least I was outside and it was beautiful weather. I studied in the Villa Borghese and I wouldn't have it any other way.
IT IS SO PRETTY!
This is my study face. That's Paul's monster bug bite.
BRAIN FOOD.
Also, you should be aware that the Art History exam went off without a hitch. Hopefully? I feel good about it. Which is good because I studied for it from Friday to Tuesday. Also my English one was last week. So you know. I'm not too stressed out.
HA.
SPENCERFRANKMICHAEL.
I wrote about giraffes and the Olympics for one of my Anthropology essays. I hope he enjoys my quirky and adorable style.
Now I'm done studying. Homeworking. Functioning. Even though I have another midterm left. Sorry to disappoint anybody who has faith in my studying skills or my studious nature.
See, I'm being redundant.
But there's one thing keeping me going through all of this.
He looks like he's hugging me. It's precious.
I leave for Fall Break on Friday. I'mma make it. And in reality, I complained a lot in this post. But I'm doing alright! I'm not homesick! And besides not having food, life is GRAND. :)
Don't yell at me for venting. If you don't want to read it, then don't.
So this is a lot for myself, and I promise that I'll get back to updating you on my life with lots of pretty pictures and witty comments soon. But because I'm an emotional slob, I need to share this to. Or rather, I want to share this. It's been about a month in to my study abroad experience, so I think it's about time I introduce you to Part I of my feeeeelings. I'll do it every month, maybe if I feel like it.
Studying abroad so far has been awesome, as I'm sure you know by my blog. I'm having a great time, but I am wrestling so badly with homesickness. Now, I'm a pretty good wrestler, but I seem to be losing this one hardcore. So I'mma make this list. It's not organized at all. This is stream of consciousness, baby. James Joyce. (AP English, holla.) Maybe it'll make me feel better. Maybe not. But at least you'll know where I'm at and that Rome is NOT all pasta and gelato.
Even though a lot of it is.
You Will Eat and Cook A Lot: Now, this has been really exciting for me, because I love love love cooking. And I definitely have learned to shop the markets and shop with the seasons (I mean. It's only been hot but whatever.) more than I have at home. Which is really cool, because that's one thing I wanted to improve about my life. I don't really eat out a lot because I don't want to go broke. But I love cooking, and it's made my days so far coming back and cooking dinner. Because I'm a nerd. And a sap for that. BUT I MISS FALL BAKING. I keep seeing pumpkin flavored things on the internet and I literally ache for it. But. I'll be back for Christmas! Otherwise I would lose it.
This pizza we made doesn't make me feel so bad.
Italian is Beautiful: I love the language, I really do. I have wanted to learn Italian for forever and a day. And I'm learning it! But I HATE when I can't say what I mean. I HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT. It gets me so frustrated and I just wish I wasn't the equivalent of a five year old. I'm getting there. I have to be patient. But I'm not. Maybe that's my fault. Okay. That is my fault.
There is No Kinesiology or Theater Here for Me: Big shocker, right? English, Anthropology, Art History, and Italian. That's totally not what I am. Not what I DO. And I have all these huge plans and dreams with what I want to do with my life (saaaappy) and now I just feel stuck here. I want to do what I want. Not this anymore. They aren't awful. But like. BAH. I did this on purpose and I thought I could handle it. I can't as well as I thought, apparently.
Money Stresses Me Out: This conversion thing makes me feel like I am flushing my money down the toilet. I'm going to have loans out my butt when I get back and graduate.
I'm Stuck in Pseudo-Vacation-School-Land: I'm in Rome. Like. Is this real? At all? I'm going to different countries and I'm headed to Florence tomorrow. I'm one of the luckiest people in the whole wide world. But school just freaks me out. I do my reading for the most part, but it's weird. Not bad. Just weird. And toying with my emotions. Tease.
JDSDubs teaching away. Me being sidetracked.
Communication is HARD: Not only from Italy to the United States, oh no. While that's nearly impossible, over here is tough too. Yes I have a cell phone, but it costs me money and I just miss my unlimited text Verizon plan and my purple phone. I'm shallow and materialistic. Sure. But I'm a social being. Sorry. I keep getting left out of the loop and it just drives me nuts. Because I'm needy and self-centered. SO SUE ME.
I Miss Philadelphia Sports: I miss them all. Temple, the Eagles, the PHILS. Jesus. This is a lot harder than I thought. If I were missing Super Bowl Sunday, I'd be strangling somebody. The playoffs/World Series are enough.
Unbelievable pride in my sports teams.
I Just Want to Run: I don't want to worry about getting lost. Or getting my stuff stolen. I just want to run. I just want to go to the gym. I want a yoga mat at the very least so my apartment floor doesn't bruise up my back.
Making Friends is Hard: To all of my friends back home, YOU. SUCK. You are all so amazing I have set my standards WAY beyond what they should be. If they don't laugh at the same things or accept my antics straight off the bat, I just don't care. How awful is that?? I am an awful human being. And that's just the way I am. But I love my friends. And I have great ones here, don't get me wrong. BUT WHY CAN'T WE BE ALL TOGETHER!? I have separation anxiety.
My life does, indeed, suck without you.
Travel Buddies Save Your Life: It's really nice when you have somebody that's along on your trip that wants the same thing out of a study abroad experience as you do. And it can be anybody, I'm not just saying the boyfriend title is a special help. Even though it is. That's not what I'm focusing on. There seems to be a million people milling about and going in different directions and it's just nice when you want to do something else and somebody else wants to do that something else. It's nice. Fine. Hate me.
Dancing Isn't the Same: Whine. I'm rooted in Philly. Complain. I miss it. Angst. End of that story.
SO PRECIOUS. SO MUCH LOVE.
Rest Days Can Save Your Life: Anybody that's met me for more than twenty minutes probably knows that I get cranky when I am (a) tired, (b) hungry or (c) sick. Today I was all three of those things at once. RIGHT? I bet you would have run in the opposite direction. Please, ladies and gentlemen, take your rest days. As with running, they will cause you less pain and suffering.
Christmas is a TEASE: I want it. I want it now. I guess this isn't only studying abroad. But the weather here hasn't changed at all. And I don't even have Halloween or Thanksgiving to hold me over this year. OOF. This is a LONG HAUL, people. I kind of can't wait for all things winter. And ice skating. And snow. And warmth. And hot chocolate. And music. And Christmas with my sister. And the princesses. And my friends. And my family. And my family. And my family. (I think that's all the families?)
There's Christmas music playing.
Prancer misses her reindeer.
Princesses always keep it classy at Christmas.
So. I think I might have whined enough, yes? I'm sure you all want to slap me in the face, and maybe it's justified. It probably is justified.
BUT IT'S THE WAY I FEEL AND MY I FEEL STATEMENTS MEAN IT IS VALIDATED.
So, Philly, I miss ya. And everybody there. Even that one padiddle I called that one time which was not the classiest thing I've ever done in my life.
Maybe I feel better. We'll see.
My face looks like this a lot. This was our goodbye party.
I'm such a whiner. Shut up.
Tomorrow I leave for Florence. Then when I get back, we should return to normal blogging as usual.
Oh. Trivia question. How do you know when you've watched too much How I Met Your Mother?
This is probably disrespectful.
How about when your Art History professor describes the ancient She-Wolf statue of Rome as the Roman "Liberty Bell," and so you decide to take a picture pretending to lick it. Just like Ted and Barney.
Life is still awesome. I know back home, I've talked to some of you that have those "college" moments. Where you walk down the street and you're just like, "Oh. Wow. I'm in college." Well, I'm having them, but in Rome. And it's really cool and actually making me super happy instead of sad. So that's really nice. Since I last left you, I've been eating delicious things, doing some fun things, and going to school.
School's good, I'm participating, doing my homework, you know. The school stuff.
Last Friday night (good lord, I'm sorry) was date night! A bunch of my friends went to Venice last weekend, but I decided to stick around Rome. This was partly because I'm in Rome and figure I should get to know Rome, and partly because I'm trying to save up my money. But I might be going on a trip next weekend.
Side note: I still haven't gotten my fall break plane tickets. It's frustrating and dumb. It's coming though, I swear.
ANYWAY. DATE NIGHT.
We went to a place called Trastevere to eat and walk around and do all that fun stuff. I will not harass and bore you guys with date nights, but I tell you. This one needs to be brought to your attention, because it was SO FREAKING DELICIOUS.
This is where we ate.
Bruschetta con ricotta e pesto.
Pizza con pomodori, mozzarella, e salame picante.
Calzone con ricotta e NUTELLA.
EVERYBODY'S HAPPY.
This dessert was absolutely amazing. We got a small one and split it, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have exploded afterwards. Nutella would be everywhere, and nobody would like it. We cleaned our plates hardcore. And I'm not one bit ashamed.
After that we wandered around a bit. We wound up at the Trevi Fountain where I subsequently missed on my first two wish tries AND got hit with somebody else's wish. But I still think it'll come true. Nothing to worry about. There were people EVERYWHERE and we were there at 10:30 or so. It was fun to see everybody making their wishes. It was also fun to discuss Disney World, because that's my favorite topic. Well. One of them.
It was so pretty. :)
Second dessert? I can deal. We walked an awful lot.
We finished it no problem, don't worry.
Just now as I'm uploading pictures, I realize this is going to have a lot of pictures. So sorry if you don't like my face. Or Paul's. Or Rome. Get out. :)
The next day was fun! We went to the Stadio Olympico and got our minds blown by how amazing it was. We also went to Scholar's Lounge to watch a certain game that I will not mention. Lots of shouting and being obnoxious. For nothing. But I digress.
Here. Look at the happy part of that day.
This is the ground. The detail ON THE GROUND. It's nuts.
The globe? Maybe? At one time?
Pictures are never going to do it justice. So ready for 2012.
Getting crazy with the statues. At least he's clothed.
I'm close enough to an Olympian.
I spent the day pretending I was in the business school.
I LOVE THE OLYMPICS. SOMEBODY GET ME TO THE OLYMPICS. It will be on in my apartment all day, every day this summer. You wait. If you think I'm joking, you've got another think coming.
Is it think or thing? Because I always thought it was thing. But then I saw it with think used and it got my mind wondering.
I AM SO FULL OF TANGENTRY THIS MORNING. (It's a word. Kind of.)
Sunday: homework, gelato, eating, chilling, HIMYM
Monday: school, blah, more school, HIMYM (always)
Tuesday: freaking art history, school
ROUND TABLE!
Last night at nine, we had a round table where we all crammed into a classroom and Gianni brought us a bunch of Italians. We asked each other questions of all sorts. Found out where to go, what they thought of Americans, brought up the bidet issue, all kinds of stuff. Then afterwards we got more food (I swear, I'm not ginormous. Yet.) and got to talk to the Italians on a more one-on-one level. It was nice! And we learned some words in Italian, so that was cool.
Our new friend. I'm such a creep, asking to take pictures.
They also decided this would be a good time to debut our flash mob video. It was hilarious, and I was literally in tears the whole time because I was laughing so hard. But it was great and I loved it. LOVED IT.
Just in case you haven't seen it. What up?
Tell me it's not stuck in your head after that.
I'm super proud of everybody that did it, and I had a great time making it. I love dancing.
But you probably already knew that.
Now today I'm lazing around a bit before class. I figure I'll shower and run to the market. Those seem like big girl things to do.
BUT BEFORE I GO. I have a very important message, to a very important relative of mine.
Disney. <3
OH HEY KRISTINLEE. IT'S YOUR EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY TODAY.
Best picture of our liiiiiives.
Even though it's a really uneventful birthday party-wise, AT LEAST YOU'RE A BIG GIRL NOW. Although, I'm twenty and it hasn't set in yet. So good luck with that.
It's sparkling apple juice, calm down.
And hey, last night I told Adam I'd make sure you were twenty-one before I was married so you could have a nice time at the wedding/pre-wedding festivities.
You're in my thoughts, chick-a-dee.
Freaking A. More Disney.
And even though our attractive pictures are not on the plentiful side, I love you and miss you SO VERY MUCH. HAVE AN AMAZING BIRTHDAY AND DON'T SMOKE BUT BUY A LOTTERY TICKET OR SOMETHING. What else can you get?
Oh. Don't buy that. That's gross.
I'm sorry I'm ruining your life by using Disney stuff.
It's lurking around every corner. I know you're afraid. Don't forget last year. Say happy birthday to my sister if you see her, people.
