Sun

It's been absolutely beautiful the past couple of days. Chilly but beautiful. I've been walking to and from class cause apparently at some point I lost my bus ticket and I don't want to buy another one yet ha. I've been taking full advantage of the park next door and watching little kids feed the swans lettuce and crackers....soooo wonderful!

We went to Piazza del Popolo for carnavale last Sunday! It was so cool! First the piazza is beautiful and has the coolest fountains that are lit up at night. Then there were hundreds and hundreds of people there most with little kids dressed up in the cutest most elaborate and stylish costumes I've ever seen. Then there was a really cool horse show with people like going underneath the horse while it was galloping or doing flips off the side and then getting back on. Pretty amazing. But the main reason we went was because there were suposed to be fireworks and I had wanted to see them since 2 weeks before. But there was just all this horse stuff and we were hungry so we decided to go eat. Which is fine, but as I'm finishing the most delicious pizza I've ever had, I begin to hear fireworks. Of course my friends say "O no those are just drums." Not true. We missed them! But I've decided to be okay with it cause I got tiramesu to make up for the missed fireworks....might have been even better!

My classes are wonderful so far. At first I thought the reading was going to be too much, but it's really interesting and I have field studies in both of them which is wonderful! I start my film class tomorrow which is really exciting, but we had to watch Rome an Open City, soooo sad, as was Bicycle Thieves so I'm afraid that we are going to be forced to make a depressing movie which I really don't want to do. Hopefully that won't be the case. Italian is going well, although I don't quite understand her method of teaching. We usually get a page of lyrics with blank spots and then listen to the song about 6 or 7 times and try to fill in the blank. Either that or we go around and tell her things that we want to learn to say in Italian. But we've yet to go through specific grammar points like all language classes I've ever taken. Maybe this is the Italian way or maybe I'm learning more than I think. We'll see.

I'm going to Florence this weekend with Courtney, Christian, Tyler, Andrew, Melissa, Becky, Jes, and I think two other girls. Courtney and I are going to stay with her best friend so I don't have to pay for a hostel!!! Yahoo! Courtney and I also booked a ticket to Sicily for the last weekened in March! Only 59 dollars round trip! Can't wait. But my goal for the next week is to find a cheap playable ukulele. In my advising meeting we were talking about culture shock and the importance of keeping some things that you did at home. Immediately I realized that the thing that I was missing was playing music! So I need to fix that.

O funny story, yesterday I was walking home from school and I saw a car pull over and a man got out who was obviously flustered and frustrated. He walked around the car and pulled out a 3 or 4 year old girl, I'm assuming his daughter. He takes her behind a tree, but behind this tree was only if you were directly on the opposite side of them, otherwise you could see abosolutely everything. He pulls down her pants and panties and for a minute I thought that I was going to have to say something cause I was getting really nervous as to what was going to happen. Then he lifts her in a seated position and I begin to see the sparkling reflection of pee hahahahaha! All the while she is talking to him in Italian like this is no new way of going to the bathroom. Then he gives her a shake or two pulls up her pants and puts her back in the car. I immediately imagined having to pee while you're driving in the car and I just know that dad could not handler her complaining anymore so ha just pulled over hahaha. Then tonight I had to pee so bad and had a long bus ride ahead of me and wanted so badly for someone to lift me to pee....no one did.

"No human being can really understsand another, and ho one can arrange another's happiness"

I'm so glad I made these quotes of the day!!!

Miss and love you!

A day in Liz's life, kind of...

okay typical day for liz in rome since classes started this week= walk
35 minutes to school (the most beautiful walk ever!! i'm going to put
up pictures soon), have class at 9 30 on monday tuesday friday. first
class is italy in the 20th century with prof moro. he doesn't have
english down very well so i think there was a total of 20 minutes of
silence if you added up all the time he spent thinking about how to
say something in english. this kind of sucks cause it's a history
class and it's hard to understand if things are not explained properly
but he'really nice and i think the subject is really interesting and
we have a book so hopefully i won't get too lost. second class is
ancient rome history and myth with prof nocera. very smart lady...a
young archaeologist. wow i know nothing about ancient rome...i should
right? i kind of felt like an idiot, but this will be really good for
me and i think it will be cool to have ancient rome info combined with
rome in the 20th century info. we'll see. and both of these count
toward my minor which is awesome. then i have italian 2 hours 3 tims a
week with daria who is adorable and just so happy all the time. which
is good cause i really really want to learn the language and i think
i'll learn a lot from her! but i made a B plus on my first
quiz...french really messes me up but o well it will get better i'm
sure. i havent had my film class yet cause my prof is in india
shooting a documentary!! how cool is that?! i'm thinking about adding
another class just cause i guess i will have the time but as of now i
don't have class on wednesday which could be really nice to explore so
i might just keep it like that! i was gonigt o do a community service
internship, but i just erally don't know italian and i think i would
just feel stupid and useless if i did that plus it is 10 hours a week
which would take up a lot of time.

last night christian came over and i made us supper! it was good but
cold by the time he got here so i felt bad haha. then we started
watching ellen until some girls from downstairs came over. then he
wanted to buy me gelato so we went out in search of some but
everything was closed. so we went to the trevi fountain cause the
gelato places are opened really late there. we saw a couple get
engaged!!! it was sooooo cute. and we just talked and then we threw
3 coins in the fountain. 1=you will return safely to rome 2=you will
fall in love 3=you will be happily married! then this crazy guy trying to
sell us stuff would not leave us alone and made me kiss him on the
cheek it was sooo awkward and i didn't know what to do. they're so pushy!

i need to figure out where all i want to travel. i might be going to
berlin in the middle of march and iàm hoping to go to florence at the
end of march. iàm definitely going to greece to see leslie over my
spring break yahoo!!! but itàs just so expensive!! so we'll see how
much i can do. the food is amazing ahhh and you know how much i love pasta!!! this is heaven!! i havenàt shopped much at all
mainly cause iàve realized that i didn't bring many spring clothes so
i think i will save shopping money for when the temperature warms up.
it's been quite chilly but that's okay i dont' mind.


"time is the most important coin you have. only you can choose how
you spend it. be careful lest you let others spend it for you."

i'm still reading a quote per day! it's really been nice having them. love you and miss you!

Valentine's Day

I like Valentine's Day in Rome. It's actually not a big deal at all! I forgot it was Valentine's Day five different times yesterday which would have never happened at home. So as opposed to trying to avoid the dreaded question..."What are you doing for Valentine's Day?" I carelessly wandered through Rome and treated myself to gelato. We were hoping to walk through the botanical gardens, but you have to pay so I'm going to wait until spring time when the weather is nicer and the flowers are in bloom.

Last night we had a delicious meal of which I suggest to Mom! It's easy and delicious and all depends on making the pasta correctly! So here's the deal....put the water in the pot, before it starts boiling put a ton of salt in it (to taste, it should be salty but not too salty) this is to avoid having to salt the pasta when it has already been served, when the water boils put in the pasta. As the water is boiling put extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan with 3 to 4 cloves of garlic (not minced), as the oil heats up lean the pan on it side toward the pan making a puddle of oil for allowing the garlic to fry to a light gold color, then turn off that burner. finish the pasta, but don't overcook! tear up fresh spinach and place on plates. remove garlic cloves from oil and pour pasta into frying pan with the oil in it. pour pasta and oil back into pot then add pesto...a generous amount. plate the pesto pasta over the spinach then put chunks of mozzarella on top with a little oil on top. yum yum yum yum!!!

Honeymoon Phase...

So, according to my guide from IES I am in the honeymoon phase of my study abroad experience. And although I have a hard time believing that that this wonderful feeling is going to end, I'm am definitely enjoying it now! Villa Pamphili is right across the street from my apartment. It was the home of a very very rich roman family back in the day. Now it's a park. Not just a normal park that we are used to, but one with huge old fountains and walls with carvings and maze hedges, ponds, and beautiful used-to-be homes. It is just absolutely beautiful!!! The coolest part is that my piazza is quite busy with cars and buses, but just going through a small arch I was transported into a beautiful land where everyone was smiling and enjoying the chilled sunny day! The perfect way to start a day!

Yesterday I walked home from school for the first time! I didn't even use a map! We have the perfect walk consisting of a view of the entire city!!! I'm soooo lucky to be here and hoping that I will soak everything in! Last night Daria took us to a delicious restaurant, Roma Sparta. I had pasta with bacon, I don't know what it was in Italian but it definitely made my tummy happily full. Afterwards we headed to find a fun bar in Trastevere. It was freezing so we skipped most the way....my idea hahaha. We stopped and got nutella pizza....quite possibly the most satisfying dessert ever. Then we went into a bar and there was a guy playing acoustic guitar and singing! Mostly in Italian but some English songs too so that was fun. I ordered Lemoncello, which is a drink Italians have after their coffee after their meal. It was toooooo sweet for me. Think of lemon drop candies in liquid form with oh I don't know 10 pounds of sugar mixed in a very strong liquor. But I drank it don't worry. I haven't wasted a euro since I've been here! I bought flowers for myself yesterday too! Ooooo and they love their flowers. I picked out 2 different kinds and he made a bouquet for me. It took like 15 minutes but it was definitely worth it. I smile every time I look at them!

Miss you all and I've found some cheap places to stay if anyone decides to visit....which you all should!!!! Happy Valentine's Day! Love you!!

Bella Roma!

I'm here I'm here!!! It's wonderful!! My apartment is so bit and cute. My roommates are very very nice, Courtney is sharing a room with me. She is from Albany, NY and super nice and cute as a button. My Italian roommate is just adorable and full of spunk! She has been our lifeline and I'm so so lucky that she's living with us!! I still have one roommate missing, I think she is still stuck in London due to a horrible snow storm!

The plane ride was long, but uneventful. The televisions were broken so I guess I'm going to get some kind of compensation which will probably just be a bag of peanuts. I was the first person to my apartment cause Daria (my Italian roommate) was taking an exam. After three of my other roommates arrived we sat around and talked then went to the grocer which is just around the corner! I got shampoo that was like 7 bucks for a third of the amount that I get at home. O well. Last night Daria and Michela (another Italian roommate from downstairs) made us a wonderful meal of pasta, potaoes and risotto! And they said they would teach us how to cook some things!! Going out now, but will write more later!!