Hauling All My Stuff is a Nightmare 2.0

So my last day in Rome was supposed to be relaxing; cleaning and packing and then visiting my favorite piazza one last time before journaling a bit and hitting the hay.  In my attempt to leave our apartment as nice as we found it, I was doing some dishes.  One of our glasses was cracked, but we had been using it and it ahd been holding up fine, that was until I decided to wash it.  Then it broke in my hand and cut me just below my pinky.  It was kind of deep, but I got pressure on it right away so it didn't really bleed, but all i've got along with me is a little Johnson&Johnson first aid kit that didn't have any athletic tape in it and I needed some to keep the pressure going.  Flash foreward to me and Sienna running around our building looking asking the guys if they had any and just my luck, the only guy that had a first aid kit in their apartment left for the Czech Republic an hour earlier.  Great.  So Sienna ran down to the pharmacy about a block away and got me some tape so I could bind my hand up good.  It's fine now, but trying to pack and transport all my suitcases to the airtport with a bum hand was not my idea of a good time. 

Sienna and I did make it down to Piazza Navona one last time.  I love all the art vendors down there!  I picked up a couple pieces to bring home.  On our way back to the bus we saw a priest rollerblading down Via del Corso, in his full habit.  No joke.  It was hilarious.  Too bad I wasn't quick enough with my camera. 

The next morning Kayla, Sienna and I left our apartment to get to the airport for our 11am flight.  We had to pack on to the 90 Express to Termini to catch the train to the airport and we got lots of dirty looks from Italians who were making their morning communte, but we couldn't help it!  The train to the airport was supper fast, but we had to wait in line for our boarding passes for FOREVER.  They kept letting people for other flights ahead of us in line and so we ended up having to run through the airport after security to get to our gate.  We got there in plenty of time though and Easy Jet is first come first serve boarding so we pushed our way to the front and got good seats.  We played MASH on the flight to Athens -- y'all will have to see my journal because the result was pretty funny.

We caught a bus from the Athens airport to Syntagma square and there was this lady on the bus who was super pushy and yelling at us because of all our luggage.  Then she started talking to us about how much she hates Athens because of all the immigrants and how she literally picks physical fights with them on the street.  She even showed us all her scars.  There are only so many ways to seem polite in these kind of horribly uncomfortable situations. 

We dropped our big suitcases off at school and repacked for the week and then went off in search of food.  What we found was cute boys.  Lots of cute boys.  Everywhere.  I think I'm going to like it here.  We did eventually find food which was good because we realized that none of us had eaten in 14 hours.  Then we jumped aboard the metro to the port.  It took some navigation because one chunk of it is shut down for repairs.  But we got there and FYI the Athens port is HUGE!!!!  It took us forever to find our dock and it was dark which made it even harder to see where we were going.

We finally found our boat and it was huge! We stopped to take a picture and this really cute Greek boy stopped and honked and smilled at us :) We got on and found our cabin (that we had to share with a little old lady who didn't speak any english) and then explored the deck a bit before heading to sleep.  We ended up getting to Crete and hour and a half later than expected, but hey that's and hour and a half more sleep for me.

VESUVIUS!!!!!

So our last weekend trip was to Paestum, Pompeii and Sorrento.  Apparently I am inept at reading emails because I completely missed the part of Elaine’s email that said there would be a pool at our hotel and thus I did not bring my swim suit.  I like to swim. 

The drive, per our itinerary, was supposed to take 1 ½ hours, but in actuality we got there in 3.  It was a really long bus ride, but I brought my own lunch along so I didn’t have to scramble about when we got there to find food. 

Paestum is a Greek colony in the south of Italy near Naples. It is INCREDIBLY well preserved and we got to go with the archaeology professor from school so that made it even better.  We got to see some temples and ruins of theaters, walkways and an ancient tomb to the unknown soldier.  I was in a really goofy mood, so therefore there are lots of goofy pictures from that day.  We got gelato at a little shop while waiting for the bus to come back and get us before heading to Sorrento where our hotel was.

We drove to Sorrento in the dark and got to see the coast line all lit up.  It was beautiful!  So sparkly and Narnia-looking.  Our hotel was super nice; lots of marble and glass, and we got a really good dinner there.  I had spaghetti with clams, chicken, cheesey zucchini, and amaretto cake. Yummmmmm!   It turns out that the pool closes at 6pm, so we missed swim time which made me happy because then I didn’t miss out on swim time.  My roommates and I fell asleep before 11 while watching a movie and fake studying for our history final.

Then next morning we had a really good breakfast at the hotel before jumping back on the bus to go to Pompeii.  I LOVED IT!  I remember checking out books from the library when I was little about Pompeii so it was doubly fun to see it in person.  I wasn’t expecting it to be so big!  There were so many different districts, religious ones, business ones, residential ones.  We were there for nearly 7 hours and didn’t scratch the surface.  It was so cool to go inside all the buildings and pretend that I was in ancient times.  You could even see the tread marks in the paver stones from all the carts, so cool! 

We saw some of the plaster casts of the people who were killed in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79AD that covered the city in rubble and lava.  They made me feel a little uneasy because it made you think that one day the whole city was there and functioning and the next it was covered and people were trapped.  

I loved seeing Vesuvius though!  So cool!  We took a bunch of picture pretending to be freaked out that it was erupting.  CSB|SJU study abroad photo contest winner, yup, that’s gonna be me. 

The ride home was horribly long though, because again they told us it was going to be 2 hours shorter than it was and every one smelled like wet dog because we had gotten rained on.  About half the bus was seriously car sick by the end.  Not the best way to end a really good weekend. 

Being Classy is Classy.

So this past weekend we decided to hang out in Rome after our trip to Ostia Antica instead of going somewhere else, but while we spent some time doing homework, we decided that a fun night was in order too.  So begins Classy Night. 

Here are the rules:  dressy up classy, act classy, drink wine and try your best to stay classy. 

Dress classy.  Check.  Molly even borrowed one of my dresses because it was so classy. 

Act classy. Semi-check.  I did spill my drink.  Not classy.

Drink wine: Check.  Sparkling rose wine.

Stay Classy.  Check.  In bed by 1.

The following is classy: living in Rome, dressy outfits, scarves, rap music, curly hair, nutella, marble floors (we got 'em!), cheesy zucchini, women, youtube, gelato, heels, the David statue, not doing homework (I'm being EXTRA classy right now), and our terrace.

The following is not classy: puking, pissing off Italian neighbors, boys, yelling, crawling on the floor, going to the bathroom in public, slurring, spilling, not drinking, showing undergarments, mohawks (Steve on my trip literally shaved the sides of his head last week!), being late, dirty feet, crying, hairy armpits, not showering, and having a one syllable name.

We made signs of these notices on grease stained pizza boxes (not classy) and hung them on the wall for everyone to see.

We went around all night saying things were or weren't classy.  Example: (Molly to Sienna) Eating cheese is classy!  (Kayla to Sam and Jordan when they came and hour and a half late)  BEING LATE IS NOT CLASSY!  

We had some fun playing Never Have I Ever and Hot Seat in the living room.  I have discovered that these games are the best way to get to know people in a very short amount of time.  Things get quite personal quite fast and afterwards you have no choice by to be friends with these people because they now know intimate details about your life and feelings that you wouldn’t want them spreading around. 

While we intended to go dancing after spending some time chatting at our apartment, that never happened.  Kayla, my roommate, was asleep by midnight and the rest of us just had no motivation to ride the bus for an hour to get there. 

This, we decided, will be happening again in Greece and hopefully we’ll make it out the front door.  

Jan to Rachel: I didn't think you could run!

So I realize I haven’t written much about school so I understand why some may think that I don’t actually go to class or do anything worthy of academic credit, but loh, this weekend was another “working weekend” as we went to Ostia Antica for our History class.  So I gave y’all the low down on Paolo the Art History prof, so here’s the skinny on the History prof, Jan (yahwn). 

He’s tall.  He’s Belgian.  He walks REALLY fast.  He speaks innumerable languages.  He will sacrifice you to the gods of ancient Rome if you are 1) a sissy, 2) a slowpoke, 3) sassy, 4) irritate him for ANY reason.  In his words, “the streets of Rome run red with the blood of my students.”  Oh, and he’s also a robot, doesn’t think and doesn’t care.  All from his mouth. 

Don’t get the idea that he’s some kind of student-whipping psycho, he’s just one of those profs that takes extreme pleasure in scaring the shit out of you.  But if you’re on his good side (like, say, if you’re a history major) then he’ll give you a nickname and call it good.  Mine’s Raqu-ell-ay. 

He’s a prof during the school year, but works at the dig site for an ancient Roman villa in the summers as an archaeologist, so it was a treat to get to go to Ostia with him. 

Ostia Antica is kind of like Pompeii without the lava.  Lots of really well preserved homes and shops and baths, pretty much the whole city is intact.  We chased Jan around looking at everything and getting quizzed.  At one point we ended up in field of wild fennel and mint where there was this thorny vine a tripped on and got a thorn stuck in the top of my toe.  We got to go up onto the THIRD FLOOR of an ancient apartment building too! 

It was a perfect day for this trip too.  Sunny and in the 80s with a breeze.  Take that Minnesota!  Just kidding, I hear it was hot there too.

We ran ourselves ragged for about 6 hours with no break for lunch and then Jan had to get home to watch his 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter who is, and I quote, “a pain in the ass.”   Since I’ve been through the Jan ringer, I was anticipating that we wouldn’t stop for lunch, so I packed some food in my Sparky Bag and was eating my little lunch at the train station.  I went to open my yogurt and what happens?  I spill half the cup all over my skirt.  And it was the good yogurt too that tastes like Honey Walnut cream cheese from Panera.  Oh well, I needed to wash it any way. 

Since we left on the train at 8:30 in the morning, we got back to our apartments before 3 and had just enough time to do some homework and shower before Classy Night began :)

Rennys!

So last week one of our school-sponsored activities was a Renaissance Dinner with dancers and WILD BOAR.  Legit wild boar to eat.  It was pretty darn good to, kind of beef stew tasting.  AP, you would have liked it.  We all got fancy looking to eat in our desks from IKEA that have severely slanted tables. 

The best part of the night was the dancing though.  There were some professional Ren dancers that preformed for us in the main lobby.  Their leader lady was suuuuuper cranky.  Definitely had one of those “I used to be a prima ballerina and even though I run this 2-bit dance company now, you need to treat me like a queen” attitudes going on.  Plus she had blue hair.  I don’t know quite what to think about that. 

After they cleared out, everyone stood awkwardly around the dance floor clearly wanting to dance, but too afraid to be the first ones out there.  Then Mark asked Andrea if any of the dancers spoke English to which Andrea responds “Come with me” and dragged him over to the dancers and told one of them that Mark wanted to dance with her.  So then we all crowded in on the dance floor to stare at Mark dancing with this Italian dancer who spoke no English like they were at the 8^th grade dance.  Hands on the shoulders, just moving from side to side. 

After that we all got the courage up to go dance and did our best to fake Renaissance dance which just turned into us running around in a circle and yelling “Ohpah!”  Apparently our Renaissance happened in Greece. 

There is another group of students form Californian and Colorado at our school, but they were lame and left right after dinner (after they showed up late, really??) so the staff said that we were definitely more fun and made the event for them.  Good work team. 

Firenze!

We left bright and early for our big weekend away in Florence. Our train left at 9:30ish.  It was a fast train which means that we got there in under 2 hours and had our own little table.  It was nice to ride in such comfort without having to pay through the nose like in Cinque Terre.  We got there just before 11 and went straight to the hotel (Hotel California :) to drop off our stuff before heading out to our first museum – the Bargello gallery.  That was the first sign that this was going to be a boom-boom-boom fast, action-packed trip.

The Bargello is the best museum in the world for Renaissance sculpture.  The first room we went into had no less than 6 Michelangelo’s.  Cool right?  We spent a couple of hours wandering around taking tons of notes, this was a working weekend after all.  We worked well into the afternoon and I’m still not adjusted to the late lunch Italians are fond of.  Afterward, we went looking for lunch only to find it was raining out.  So we ducked into the first little place we found with 5 euro pizza and a bathroom.  We ordered ourselves a nice big lunch and talked our way through the afternoon.  By that time, we could check into our hotel.

We had little rooms with little, tiny twin beds.  But none of us cared because we were ready for a nap.  The thing about European hotels is that in order to get the lights on in your room, you have to put the key card in this little slot next to the door.  It took everyone a while to figure that out, but some people got creative and took the opportunity to wait till their roommate got in the shower the pull the card and leave them stranded in the dark.  I, however, kept it classy and restrained myself from doing this.  

That afternoon/evening we got a walking tour of Florence led by our crazy Art History prof Paolo.  Let's just say he's not one to keep his personal opinions under wraps and gives us some of the most frank (and sometimes a little crude) advice for life.  Example: to Elaine (or director)  "and is he your legal husband?"  "yes, at least I think so (laughs)"  "eew, I'm sorry for you.  I don't advise husbands, only lovers."  Not add a the most stereotypical accent to your voice, read that and envision a man dressed in an I LOVE ME shirt.  that was my weekend.  

Florence is a real good walking city.  Entire streets are blocked off from cars so you can just wander around without fear of getting hit.  The streets are really narrow and just stop randomly so it's easy to get lost, but that's part of the fun right?

That night was our group dinner in the hotel.  On the way down we all agreed that it’s real nice to get fed.  Bread and pasta and potatoes and meat….yummmmy!  Plus we got gelato for desert.  After dinner we went up on the terrace of the hotel and sat around this big table playing Never Have I Ever and drinking boxed wine.  My new, but persistent, cough made me turn in earlier than the rest, but even though the beds are infant sizes, they were super comfy.

In the morning we were split up into two smaller groups and the end-of-the-alphabet-ers went to the Accademia in the morning.  We went in a wandered around the intro room for a little bit before turning down this hallway to see, drum roll please, the David!  He was standing at the end in this little dome with all these windows.  And the heavens opened up and the angels sang a joyous hallelujah! 

A bunch of the other girls and I stood in the around him gawking for seriously 45 minutes.  We did have an assignment to do people, don’t think we’re creepers.  Actually we being a little creepy, he’s really pretty ;)

The rest of the museum was filled with Early Renaissance art.  Not my fave and after seeing 200 crucified Jesuses spewing blood, I was ready to leave.  But this place would not let you leave.  It was a labyrinth of epic proportions to get out of there.  Winding through tiny little rooms and hallway and, of course, the gift shop.  

Afterwards, the people that were left went to wander around the leather markets and do some other shopping.  I was on a mission for some certain Christmas presents (I'll give you a clue, Mom and Dad, they're not purple or a triangle), but shopping in Florence was a lot different than at home.  First of all, all of the market vendor people will haggle you and try every trick in the book to get you to look at their stuff.  They also overprice things a lot and then you’re expected the barter with them.  Even after how many years of garage sailing with the grandparents, I don’t have the gift of price negotiation so this whole experience was a little uncomfortable for me.  But Mark on our trip managed to get a 480euro leather jacket down to 95, but he didn't buy it, he just wanted to see how low the guy would go.  

After some time shopping we decided to get lunch and sat in front of a church eating sandwiches and swatting at the disgusting pigeons that walked really close to us.  I HATE BIRDS.  They’re dirty and molted and gross and they fly at you.  Not ok.  I actually, hate to admit it, screamed and cowered when one particularly icky one flew by my face in the piazza by the duomo.  Now I'm that girl that's afraid of birds.  Let the mocking begin.

Later we went to the Uffizzi gallery aka the holy grail of Renaissance painting.  We saw everything from Boticelli’s Spring and the Birth of Venus to the Long Necked Madonna.  This museum visit, however, was not so enjoyable.  We were all exhausted and the museum was hot and crowded and we couldn’t hear Paolo. 

Paolo’s a pretty entertaining guy, but even with all of his side comments and interesting wardrobe choices, we were getting super annoyed.  There were some other weird people who decided to join our group and take up all the good listening spots.  Plus they creepily would look over our shoulders at our notes and generally be a pain in the butt. 

After the Uffizzi, we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner at Paolo’s favorite restaurant.  He told us it was a 15 minute walk from our hotel, but 35 minutes later, we still weren’t there.  Plus when we got there, they didn’t have enough room for us because our reservation was made for 20, not 36, people.  I got this really good spicy pizza with hot sauce and peppers and spicy sausage.  We slowly made our way back to the hotel, taking a pit stop to ride the carousel, and by then it was past midnight and we all crashed. 

The next morning we went on a short tour of the Medici Chapels and then were let loose in the city for 4 hours before our train left.  And what did we do?  Shopping!  More and more shopping!  I ended up getting a black purse to replace the one I currently have that's held together by a twist tie.  We were on a mission to get boots for a few girls, so that’s what we did with the afternoon. 

We started to head to the train station a good hour before we had to be there, but it still took us longer than expected to get to the train station.  But Sienna did get some good lookin’ boots along the way.  Even after a long train ride back, it still takes us longer than I’d like to get back to our apartment.  By that time I was getting sleepy, but then the roommates were on skype and talking to them was more important than the shower I was in desperate need of taking.  They caught me up on all the happenings of Johnnie-Tommie Homecoming and I’m not gonna lie, having the Johnnies loose makes it easier to be away.  Then after a skype session with the parents, I showered quick, tried to clean my feet, and when to bed.  Thank the Lord baby Jesus that Elaine cancelled class for the next morning because I don't think we would have made it our the door in time.