Rome, and some other stuff:)

Hello blog people!
Oh geeze... I know I called this correctly when I started up this whole blog thing:/ I dont know where time is going! I really dont. These weeks are flying by. So anyways, last week...good grief, I really should be blogging more cause I cant even remember what happened. I guess last week was Valentines, which was nice. I wish I was on the same continent as my Valentine, but soon enough I suppose:) We made several dinners, and didnt really do anything super out of the ordinary that I can remember. And then over the weekend, we went to Rome, which I do remember so I can elaborate a little on that:)We woke up early on Friday and caught a train out of Florence. Before our train we went to McDonalds, I know I know. How could we? It had to be done:) A cappuccino and a brioche for 1.90? That is the greatest price Ive seen thus far. And you know what? It wasnt the worst cappuccino Ive had since Ive been here. Then we ran accross the street and bought our tickets. Its so simple here. You just punch in the time you want to leave, and it prints your ticket, and then the ticket is good for pretty much any trip that is the same price, as long as you validate it before you get on the train. Theres a good story that goes along with the ticket validation, but well get to that later:) So then we got to Rome like 4 hours later. And Shelby, Madisons friend who is studying there, picked us up and we went to her apartment. On the way we ate our first Suppli, a traditional Roman dish, basically a friend all of rice with cheese and red sauce, only the most delicious and fattening thing youll ever eat. Shelby studied in Rome for a semester last year as well, so she knows a lot about the area. She took us around on our own little tour, we saw the Pantheon, The Four Rivers fountain, Vittorio Emanuele (typewriter), Roman Forum, St. Peters, and the Trevi Fountain. The typewriter is a massive white building in the middle of Rome, that the Romans call the typewriter because its so big and clunky in the middle of everything. It also isnt ancient like the other ruins, it was finished in the 1930's so its just kind of out of place. But nevertheless, pretty sweet. So after that busy day, we got a little bit of sleep and got up the next morning and went to the Vatican Museum. Holy Cow. So many tourists. Have I mentioned how badly I HATE tourists. I dont know if its just me, but I have this amazing skill. I can look down, at my phone, at the cobblestone, and still see whats in front of me you know what Im talking about? Peripheral vision. LOOK WHERE YOURE GOING YOU RIDICULOUS ASIANS!!! Oh ive never been so frustrated with my own species. So Sally and I pushed and shoved, litterally, I was shoving people to get through and see what I wanted. Which included the Sistine Chapel, twice:) Yes twice because the Vatican Museum is like Ikea. They make you walk through everything before you can see the Sistine chapel and whatever is before it.

     So theres my illegal picture:) Thank you Iphone with a flip camera:) I also touched the wall, I dont know that that is illegal, but i touched it. I touched a wall with ancient frescos on them. We saw some other cool pieces, and a whole load of tourists. Did I already rant about tourists? I hate them. Everybody in that museum was taking pictures of everything, I guarantee you 90% of the people in there, possibly more, have no idea who any of the artists are that are in the museum, nor could they tell you anything about the historical content. So in that case, GET OUT OF MY WAY. Bah.
   After the museum, which took a while. We got the most incredible gelato. Three flavors, on a huge cone with whipped cream. For two Euro!! I got coconut and coffee and nutella flavors. So delicious. While we were sitting on the corner eating our gelato. We watched a local drive up and squeeze his tiny car into a tiny spot and squeeze out of his car and get the same gelato that we got and then drive away. For a local to brave the traffic and park and get gelato and go home? Thats a sign. Get on a plane. Eat this gelato.
   That night we made dinner, well Shelby made dinner:) Risotto with veggies and chicken and sausage. Sooo good:) The next morning Sally and I went to St. Peters in attempt to go in, however. It was Sunday. Why did I not think of that? On the plus side, we got to see the end of the Sunday service and....drum roll...see the Pope!!!! He blessed us and the other 2 million people squished in the square. It was pretty awesome. So then we headed to the train station, left in plenty of time to catch a bus to the train station. Ps if you ever buy a bus ticket or metro ticket, and put your money in the machine and then nothing happens, check the slot where the money would be spit back out if there was something wrong. People put cigarette butts in the slot so that it catches the bill and confuses me so that I leave thinking the machine is broken. And the bums that rig that, gain the 10 euro bill that I slid in. Luckily Shelby caught it:)
   So anyways the bus took forever, we arrived at the train station with literally 7 minutes to purchase our tickets and get on the train. We are running. Sprinting, we buy all of the tickets and run through the crowds to our train, which of course, is the farthest possible point away from the train station entrance. Great. Were sprinting, pushing more ridiculous people. Crying, cursing, laughing. Long store short, we miss the train. Awesome. However, and heres that story I was talking about earlier. We were in such a rush that we didnt even remember that we needed to validate our ticket. If we had gotten on the train without the ticket validated, we each would have had to pay a 60 euro fine. So it was such a blessing in disguise that we missed the train:) We wasted some time, went to McDonalds and ate a Baci McFlurry. Delicious.
   We made it back to Florence in one piece. Its so funny how much I miss Florence when were away. Rome was great, it was beautiful but it felt like such a big city. Florence is more quaint and lovely:)
   So now, good grief Wednesday is already almost over. We leave for Paris tomorrow. I feel like such a little traveler:)
   Last night, I made a lasagna for our weekly group dinner:) It was pretty good, I dont wanna toot my own horn but it was pretty dang tasty. There was none left in the pan so Ill take that as a good sign:)

   Theres a map that was on a tray at McDonalds. Take a look at that all you North Carolinians. NOT ok. NOT ok. And thats my latest Batik scarf:) I thought it was pretty cool:) Each color required a layer of wax and a separate dying and drying. So its taken a while, but I am pretty proud.
   So anyways, I have to go to class now. I dont want to go to Creative Writing. Ok im going im going. Ciao blog peeps!

i know:/ its been a really long time:(

Ciao blog followers, if I still have any that is:/
Good grief I know its been forever and I know I promised that I wouldnt go more than 3 days:/ Im so sorry:( Time is flying people. It feels like the last time I wrote something was yesterday:/ I know its been a week maybe even more than that:/
   Im trying to think of anything cool weve done that is out of the ordinary:) Weve been making a lot of dinners in, its been so freezing outside, weve been avoiding that at all costs. We did go to a place called "The Diner" its basically a little American diner, I had a burger ( I know that is usually not something I would eat in America, let alone in Italy, but i had to go for it:) It had spicy pesto on top so that was pretty delicious, and I also had a cup of drip coffee. A weird combination, but I love and miss drip coffee:) We also went to a little bakery over the weekend, it was across the Arno, they also had drip coffee with free refills. Yes, free refills. Clearly an American joint, but also, oh its making me happy thinking about coffee with free refills:) I also ate a homemade english muffin with peach jam on top. Oh my heart:) It was so delightful. I would go get another one, it is just a little bit of a walk, and in the wind, the distance something is to where I am, has a great effect on my choice to go or not:)

   Today for lunch I made homemade chicken noodle soup and a grilled cheese with pepperocino cheese, which is like pepper jack, and then Sally, my roommate had the brilliant idea to sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the bread while it was in the pan. It sounds weird but im telling you, do it. Sprinkle just a tiny pinch on your next grilled cheese, I swear you wont be sorry.
  Some other things I have discovered that I absolutely love lately: lemon jam, I bought no-sugar-added lemon jam to try to supress the raging Nutella addiction I have, and let me tell you, its working. This stuff is amazing, there are pieces of lemon zest, oh its so good. Ill bring some home:) Also, coffee or hazelnut flavored yogurt. Again, it sounds weird, ITS INSANE! I want to eat it all the time, its so good. And they also make this kind that comes with a little pouch of crunchies, I dont know what it is, probably just cookie, but its delish. And lastly (for now anways) hot tea, I know thats not really a strict Italian thing, but I have been downing some hot tea lately, its yummy, its basically just water, its cheap and most importantly its warm. Ive found that the only successful way to stay warm in an apartment where the heat is off for most of the day is to have a constant intake of warm beverage. Its working:) Ive also found that I can get 2 or 3 cups of tea from one bag, you know youre in college when youre triple steeping a bag of tea that you left out the night before:)

   Ive been running more lately, Im getting back into my normal running groove:) Its been so cold, like snowing cold. My face burns but underarmor is amazing:) I love running, especially on the Arno. Today I was up at one of my farthest bridges and stopped to take a picture for the blog:) And the water was frozen over and there were birds walking on the water. It was just such a funny sight to see birds walking around on the Arno:)
   Honestly the cold has kept us from doing anythign super crazy outside. Walking by the Duomo every morning is like a joke. The wind whips around the whole circle of the Piazzo and its abosolutely insane how fast the wind blows. My face is slightly chapped but thats alright:) We did go to the Lindt store on Sunday, oh people. You would not guess how many flavors of overpriced truffles are in that store:) I ate 6 in one sitting:) There was a nocciola one, which is basically nutella:) And a coconut one, which tasted kind of like sunscreen but i still liked it:) And my favorite was probably orange, just get on a plane and come it for yourself, I cant do any of the food here justice trying to describe it:)
   Classes have been good, again, time is flying. Ive been able to work some on the wheel in ceramics which is great:) I love sitting there with the clay but im so terrible at it, I worked today for about an hour and a half trying to center one blob of clay, its so hard, and its so difficult on your arms and shoulders to work the clay like you have to. Batik has been going well, I just kind of do my own work. Our teacher has been super spacy lately, just doesnt seem to know whats going on or anythign. Thats ok, luckily, that class is pretty much just solo work with some instruction from her. I dont need her every class. I finished my first Batik, i have a picture but its pretty bad. I didnt realize how out of proportion my ladies head was:/ oops thats ok, its my first Batik ever after all, It couldnt be perfect:) And Ive also started working on my second, its gonna be a bit harder and were doing a different dying technique so Im excited for that.
   The weeks seem to go so fast here, its hard to describe, maybe its the 4 day, school week thing. Maybe its just because im here, i dont know:)
   Ok I think im getting a little sleepy, watching the superbowl and not getting in bed till 4 am Sunday night kinda messed up my sleeping schedule, but thats alright:) Im in Italy right? No regrets:) I honestly will try to post more, I dont want to forget this trip or any of the things weve done, so for no other reason than to document, I will try to write:)

Ps. I miss my Michael
pps. but guess what weve made it more than half way through the time till I see him!!! =]