Week Two

Jimmy’s Dinner
Last Monday (14/1/07) we went to a small trattoria for one of the boys’ birthday. It was quite the adventure trying to find the place. Earlier on Monday we met this girl named Manon (the second ‘n’ is silent, French) and she was telling us where we could go out to eat. So we all jump on the metro (which is what they call their subway), go to the intersecting metro, jump on it, and head to some piazza to wait for everyone else to show up. All in all we ended up being about 32 people, which is slightly hard to seat in a small Italian restaurant but we tried anyway. Manon and Katy (one of the American girls not with Arcadia) led us down two winding streets to a small place that was, of course, closed. Everyone was getting restless at this point. We head down this street and stop at two places before finding a place that could seat us all. We had a four course meal for about 18€ and it wasn’t half bad. There were a lot of good conversations going on and it was nice to be in everyone’s company without it being planned by the staff. I have a feeling it might be the last time we all go out as a group before the last week here so it was pleasant.

Our waiter was a complete jokester who spoke enough English for us to understand but none of it was in full sentences. They put us in a small room all to ourselves. I think this was partially because we were a big group but I think it was also because they know we are loud Americans. The waiter kept coming into our room yelling things and saying little jokes. It was cute. He brought Jimmy a cake with a single candle in it and made us sing him “Happy Birthday”. Right before Jimmy blew out the candle this woman came in, gave our waiter a look and he said something to her in Italian, Jimmy blew out the candle and he took the cake. The place was nice but I’m not so sure if I would go back. More places out there to discover.

Classes
Classes started on Monday and I’m pretty sure that I’m gonna love most of them. My first class is Italian and our instructor speaks only in Italian. He’s somewhat difficult to understand but I follow along fairly easily. On Monday’s I also have a Greek and Roman Mythology class which promises to be a lot of fun. We haven’t actually started it yet because our teacher was out of town but I was told that we will be going out into the city to visit certain sites that have sculptures of various Roman Gods.

I have a full day on Tuesday. It starts with Italian and then I have a class called Masterpieces of the Vatican. I’m going to love this class. We have two trips planned to go to the Vatican museums and two trips to San Pietro Basilica. I am very excited. Rolf, our instructor, started talking about the different artists such as Michelangelo and Caravaggio and my heart skipped a beat. Lauren had to write a paper about Caravaggio last semester and I remember hearing about it almost everyday. It kind of makes me all warm and fuzzy inside thinking about it now but she and I had some good laughs and cries over that stupid paper. Miss you Lauren! In addition to learning about the artists, we will be learning about different aspects of Catholicism. Oddio, va bellissimo!

After that class I have Photography of Rome. This will be vying with Masterpieces of the Vatican as my favorite class. The teacher, Mario, does not speak English very well and he keeps telling us that he will make mistakes but if you understand him just correct him later. We already went outside to start taking pictures and it was so carefree and fun. He said that because it was the first class he just wanted to get a feel for how we like to take pictures, our styles if you will. He also wanted to have a look at our cameras and he said that mine was very nice and will be fun to work with. We were only outside for half an hour because of the rain but before we went back inside I told him that he would be impressed by my work and he had no idea what I was talking about. It took a good two minutes for me to try and explain what impressed is without using the actual word. When he finally understood what I was saying he laughed because the picture I said he would be impressed with was a picture of Chelsea’s eyeball. In the end, I think he will be my favorite teacher.

On Wednesday I have Italian in the morning (again) and then I have Baroque and Renaissance Art. I didn’t actually go to this class because I was sick but I’m sure it’ll knock my socks off. I was told that we would go out into the museums and learn about different styles of painting. The professor for this class is the same as my Masterpieces of the Vatican class and I really like him so it should be good. Then on Thursday I only have Italian so I have the rest of the day and the weekend to travel! Yea-ah!

The Men
So… you should pretty much expect me to write about the men here in every entry. This time all I really have to say is they are great, very charming, and somewhat unexpected. On our way back home from school, Nicole and I wait at the bus stop for the 30 to come. When we were waiting on Tuesday, this man handing out newspapers approached us. He looked directly at me and asked if I wanted one. I said “No, grazie.” Then he says, and it was very charming, “This works better” and he put it over his head. It had been raining and he was offering the newspaper as my semi-umbrella. He asked if he had seen me there before, which he had because he hands out the newspapers Mon-Fri at that stop. He told me I had nice hands and asked if I would like a tour of the city. I told him if I go anywhere Nicole has to come with me and he laughed as if I were joking. I gave him a look that let him know I was oh so serious. He said he would send me an email and we could meet somewhere public. Don’t worry anyone. Nicole and my other roommate, Megan, have agreed to go with me. And I told the Arcadia staff about him and they had a good laugh but said that they wanted to meet him before I go anywhere. They said I have to send him an email letting him know that he has to get their approval before I can go anywhere with him, and they are oh so serious too. It’s almost like having an Italian Lauren and Jeffrey here, except the Lauren doesn’t yell with me and the Jeffrey is sooo much cuter and more charming and has a lovely accent and a tattoo on his neck and I, like Nicole, have thought of naming my first son after him, or at least my dog.

Transportation
In my city there are a few types of transportation. The one that I use most frequently, next to walking, is the bus. Almost every time I get on the bus I think about Jeffrey and Matt. Jeffrey and Matt live in Chicago and they have to take the L or the bus everywhere. Every time I go up to Chicago I end up telling them that I think they are so smart for knowing how to get around and that if I lived in a city where I had to get around in a way other than a car I would be lost. Well, guess what? I’m not lost! I am so very proud of myself. I know the stop closest to me and I know what stops are nearby so wherever I am I know what I can and cannot take to get back home. I am still getting use to what time the bus shows up. As most of everything in Italy, the time schedules are very laid back. Some days it comes at 8 in the morning, another day 8:15, the next 8:12. I have missed the bus more than once and that is really frustrating to see the bus pull away just as you are a block down. Oh, I don’t know if they do this in other cities but in Rome they will try and cram the whole city on one bus. If you are standing and not a single part of you is free from touching another person and you think that there is no way that one more person can get on bet again because they will. It is the most uncomfortable thing ever. Getting off when the bus is that full is just as difficult a task as dealing with it being that full.

We also have a metro, which I have already said is their form of subway. Its kinda funny but they only have two lines and they make an X shape. I think that they tried to add more lines but during the construction of these other lines they came across some ancient ruins so they had to stop. Now these attempts at subway expansion house the community cats. Its kind of sick but at the same time very intriguing. Anywho, the line that is closest to me is the blue line. It’s really dirty and has tons of graf all over it, not really good graf so it just seems like a waste. The other line is the yellow line and it is so nice. I’ve only been on it once but I think it goes to a better part of town so it looks cleaner and has TVs on the inside.

Other than that we pretty much only have the taxis. We have found out that they aren’t really that expensive but you are better off going a long distance with a group of people because they cost about 4€ for the first km and then 0.11€ for every additional km. To me, that seems really cheap.

Food
On Monday, I had so many things that I needed to do and I had all the time in the world to do it so I went to the bookstore down the street from our school to have a panino (this is just a sandwich) and sit and try to accomplish some things. I had a great panino with tomato, mayonnaise, and chicken on sourdough bread, fantastico. When I finished my panino I sat at a table and pulled out a few things from my bag: my laptop, Kite Runner, my Under the Tuscan Sun event calendar, my Thomas Kinkade journal, and some blank cards. I sat at the table for about 20 minutes doing various things and this man walks up to me, one of the workers at the café. He starts talking to me in Italian and he was using hand gestures pointing every which way, all the while sounding very nice. I didn’t understand him completely but the gist of it was that I could not sit at the table because I was not an eating customer and if I wanted to be on my laptop I had to move to the bar that was no deeper than 8 inches. I told him I was sorry and started to pack up my stuff. The whole time I was thinking that it wasn’t that big of a deal for me to move because I could understand why he didn’t want me there but then I spotted something out of the corner of my eye that left me puzzled. To my left there was a table that had two women at it who where neither eating nor drinking, simply talking to each other. I thought to myself, ‘Eating customers my ass, what are they eating? Air?’ Maybe it was a snub because I am American or maybe it was because I was alone or maybe it looked like I was doing too much but it left me very low. I still don’t know what to take of it. If you could give me a clue, please do, anything would be accepted.

On a happier note, my roommates and myself decided to try the Chinese food place down the street and it wasn’t half bad. I had some sort of shrimp dish (mostly because if I’ve never been to a place I don’t trust their meats) but it was pretty good. Next time I think I’ll try the cashew chicken. It’s nice to have something that reminds me of the things that I can get back home here. I love Roma but the comforts of home do make it a little brighter.

The Rain
Back home, one of the lovely parts of January is that you can count on snow. Most of you that know me know that I love the snow. I’ve never really figured out if I love the snow because it makes me think of the North Pole (and my love for Santa) or if it reminds me of being a little kid going sledding with my family, but I do love the snow. Well, here in Rome, I’m not sure if it ever snows because all I have seen is rain. I don’t even think it gets cold enough for snow to form over here. Anyway, since I arrived here last Monday, it has rained half the time and I don’t mean for a few hours half of the days. I mean nonstop for days. It will go from a very light rain to downright downpour. I like the rain, not as much as the snow, but it has its own perks. Right now I cant think of any because my poor shoes and feet and jeans absolutely hate the rain but when I figure out what’s so good about it I will let you know. In the meantime I’m going to keep an eye out for some boots.

Talking to People in America
It’s very hard to get the time zones straight here. I got out of class on Monday at 11 and left the school around 11:30. I thought to myself ‘It might be nice to give Jeffrey a call so that he knows you’re ok.’ So I did. The conversation went like this:

Jeff [confused voice]: Hello?
Me: Good morning.
Jeff [still confused]: Good morning.
Me: Let’s see. It’s 11:30 here so it must be 4 in the morning there.
Jeff [no longer confused; very excited; could almost see him jump through the phone]: WHOA!!! How are you?!?!

It was really nice to have that kind of a greeting. We hadn’t spoken since I got on the plane leaving JFK for Zurich and he sounded like he was missing me already then. You know, it makes me laugh just thinking about that call. It’s funny because over the break Jeff kept telling me that when I got back it would be as if I never left and that it wont be hard at all because its not like we saw each other all the time anyway. But when I was leaving I think it really hit him that I would talk to him even less that I already did. Makes me laugh.

It must be Karma at its best because now I’m getting all kinds of calls early in the morning waking me up. My mom called me at 1am Friday and for a split second I thought that maybe something was wrong but then I figured that she must not have realized it was so late. It was a very special treat for me because I got to talk to Nana. I guess that she and Uncle Bob went to Tennessee and she had a lovely time. It brought back some great memories and she cried a little (but when does she not, haha). Then Dad and Katie called me at 5am and again at noon on Friday and it was nice talking to them. I think I’ve talked to my mom more than anyone else so it was nice to hear my dad’s voice. Now if only my brother would give me a call.

It’s weird to think about how much comfort can be brought to you just by hearing someone say hello. The amount of energy in everyone’s voices when they call me makes the being woken up five times a night completely worth it. I love knowing that people are thinking about me and that when they get the chance to talk to me, they get excited. I think that is a major reason as to why I’m not really home sick here. You all don’t give me the chance to forget you or miss you. I mean, I miss you but, you know what I’m saying. Keep the calls coming.