Don't cry over spilled milk. Spilled wine, on the other hand...

What you have right there is the quite-literally shattered dreams of a child. I am that child, and that bottle represents an afternoon of my life. Mommy, Daddy, I have failed you. I really, really felt bad about not getting the vino nobile from Montepulciano when I was there, as did just about everyone else who went on the Tuscany trip. Then I went to Assisi. At a grocery store, I saw Montepulciano wine! I was thrilled. I realized that a wine store would be even more likely to carry the different years, and I wanted, really bad, a '99 reserva. Well, as they said at the tour, there weren't many of those left, but the 2001 was just as good a year (and I thought it was just as good as the '99), and after a lot of looking, I found a 2001 reserva! I get to have a big secret, and surprise my parents with a beautiful gift! Party!

God clearly hates me. At some point last night, I am lying on my bed, and I smell something truly delicious. Only problem is, it's the wine (my roommate said it was the best smelling room in history. He is not a wine drinker; neither am I. He was right). Somehow, the wine fell, and only the top broke. It fell into the base of the bottle. We have no idea how this happened. Anyways, God hates me, like I said. I am never dropping that kind of cash on alcohol ever again (that bottle cost more than the pub crawl, let's just say that). EVAR. (Luckily, God does not hate me too much, because it could have broken in my bag with my clothes, or it could have gotten on anything other than the floor). Ugh. I am a failure. I am sorry Mommy and Daddy. I have failed you.

More on the trip later (tomorrow I shall post. It's getting late here.).

Musei Vaticani

So yesterday I woke up at 4:45 AM. Allow me to repeat, for dramatic effect: four-freaking-forty-five (editor's note: the alliteration adds to the effect. It enhances the sense of frustration).

I could not fall back asleep. It was tragic. Being the Boy Scout I never was, however, I decided to make do with the hand my body was dealing me, and by 7 I had eaten and went out to stand in line for the Vatican museum. The picture is the line in front of me for the opening. At 9 AM. People are insane. Anyways, I knew it was a free entrance day for some World Tourism Day or something like that, and I have an art history assignment where eventually I have to go to the museum, so I figured yesterday was as good as any day.

After a few hours in the museum seeing the sites (though not the Pinacoteca... somehow I missed the signs for that one, which is aggrivating), I exited out into St. Peter's Cathedral, where I had to be for another art history assignment, so I looked at the Pieta in a little of detail, and I was off to JCU for an afternoon of writing two art history papers (after a stop for gelato at Old Bridge).

I was dead tired when I finally got home around 8 last night. Hit a wall around 10, and promptly passed out. So that's a long day.

As far as other things of note, it has turned rainy here. October is supposed to be a rainy month, and we're close enough, I suppose. It has cooled off significantly since we arrived, which was badly needed. Yesterday I saw it hit 16 degrees C, so that's.. ummm... (16*9/5+32). Whatever that is. around 60. So, yes, a bit chilly, but not terrible.

At 3 PM today me and about 15 students are leaving for a retreat in Assisi. It should be a good time, and at the very least it will be a heavily-subsidized time, which is always a plus. It cost 5 euro for trains both ways, lodging, and bus rides over the weekend. We have to pay for food, methinks, but all in all that's still pretty sweet.

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over: the Internet has been restored to Medaglie d'Oro.

The intergoogles go boom

Terrible, terrible news from the Medag front: the internet has died. I do not know why. I did not realize how much time/energy/effort in my life revolves around the tubes, but I found out last night: I was without direction. In less than 20 hours, I have 38 things to read from Google Reader. I have 12 new emails in my ND box. Argh. Me needs internets to survive. And, right now, the only ways I can get them is walk all the way down to JCU, a place I generally avoid as much as possible, or pay for an internet cafe, which isn't happening. I hope they fix this, stat.

As far as life, it's been a fairly normal Monday-Wednesday. That means fretting about my classwork and my grades, which will be worse here than at Notre Dame. Unreal.

On Monday evening I set up my plans for the first weekend of November. I am spending a day and a half in Prague (2 nights), and 2 days/2 nights in Vienna. I am also taking a night train into Rome from Vienna, so that should be cool/new/interesting. I think there's a big group of girls going, but as of right now I am the only guy.

Under the Tuscan Sun

That's me outside of Pienza, a cute little town I visited today on my Tuscany tour.

We got up at six AM, because we had to be at Piazza Trilussa at 7:30. Long walk, followed by sitting around the incredibly dirty Piazza (it's hangout for the locals at night). Got on a bus, then went 3 hours to Pienza. We got a tour of the city, which was lovely, but we had to be on the bus again in less than 90 minutes to go to Moltepulciano, another cute town. We didn't even get that much time to look around the city, because we went on a really, really cool tour of this underground wine cellar. The barrels of wine in this family vineyard were unreal, and it was in these old Etruscan caves that kept stretching on and on. We then (eventually, after staring at barrel after barrel filled with the vino) came up, and we had an extensive wine tasting. The famous wine from Moltepulciano is vino nobile, and it was very good. Generally, me no likey wine, but this stuff was quality. The whole wine tasting thing was a great scam, too, because it seemed everyone (about 50 kids) except me bought 75 euros worth of wine. I bought a nice little dessert treat that I will save until my parents come. Maybe.

We then went to a restaurant on the side of a hill overlooking the rolling hills of Tuscany. We then proceeded to have the best meal I've had since I got here. 4 courses. Cooked by this grandmother and her kids who run the place, and make all the food, including the pasta. First was your typical Americanized pasta and red sauce. At least that's what I thought, until I tasted it: best. Americanized. dish. ever. Then we had another pasta dish, with a delightful mushroom concoction, followed by a cheese and cold cuts (lots o delicious meats, and that area is famous for some specific cheese, which was good), followed by some biscotti with a dessert wine. We finished the meal at 4:30ish. It is now 11:00. I am still full.

All-American night

The enormity of the last two days has been unreal: I spent them writing papers (and that is the correct meaning of enormity, dammit).

That situation resolved itself around 5:30 this afternoon, just in time for All-American night in Medag 123. That's right: it was hamburgers and french fries for all (I actually didn't have fries). I was the only one who got the hamburger at the market, and I got a lot. As you can see, and this is no camera trick, my hamburger and the incredibly tasty bun that I also bought from a bakery in the market was as tall as my Coke can. Delicious. I also fried up some onions, as you can see. We also listened to great American music: Born in the USA; God Bless the USA; God Bless America; America, Fuck Yeah. You know, the classics. Good times, good times.

ROMA ROMA ROMA

Wow. Soccer games are really freaking awesome to go to. Obvs, me likey sports and stuff, but even the girls that went had a blast. The 40,000 people that were there were way way louder than any football game I've ever been to, save USC-Notre Dame '05 (and I try to suppress memories of that anyways).

Here are some pictures.

Whining about JCU

Another day of class means another day of worries. I do not like having all this work to do. Sharing genes with Lee Ann McGinnis has millions of benefits, but it also precludes me from having the "chill out when there is work to be done" gene. Notre Dame, however, apparently has the whole library thing down pat (like I am supposed to know this; I've been to the library all of 2x for academic purposes), and I will be able to do all my research reading from my computer at the Medag.

Thank God for that, too, because I hate JCU with a burning passion. Partially, I will admit, this is due to my classes. Why in God's name should I be doing more work while studying abroad then while at an elite academic institution in the States? Ugh. Me no likey the pressure from that. Side note: I have no idea why they are loading us up with work. Perhaps I am putting too much pressure on myself. It is clear to me that the 30 ND kids are smarter than anyone else around, and the other kids don't seem too worried. Maybe because they don't care, or are only taking their classes pass/fail (how great would that be? Some kids, I think MSU kids, are doing that). I really should move on from this, but I can't. It's a cloud hanging killing what should be completely sunny days.

HOWEVER, I am going to my first soccer match today! Like, in 5 minutes. I am so very, very pumped for that. Wish me luck that I don't get killed: I am sitting near the visiting section (Dynamo Kiev, crazy Ukrainians) but am wearing my Roma jersey.

Today was a blah day. Very, very blah.

As with all Tuesdays, I had an on sight class this morning. We met at Largo Argentina, and hiked around taking notes and whatnot. No big deal, right? Wrong. It was raining off and on the whole class. It is damn near impossible to take notes, carry an umbrella, and walk at the same time. The teacher did not seem to realize exactly what she was asking us to do, and it was a pain. Everyone was clearly struggling, but Mrs. Oblivious kept yapping. Then she would say something comforting like "oh, what a struggle it is to teach in this kind of weather", as if talking in the rain is a pain in the ass while everyone else is trying to write down what is being said. Harumph.

It cleared up and got really humid. I came back to the apartment (this being no small feat; it was an hour walk home), cooked up some veggies for pranzo, the Italian big meal of the day around 2PM which nobody in our crew really does (hey, I just realized I use Italics for Italian... appropriate, I guess?). Then I napped. First or second serious nap of the trip. I feel more pressed for time in general here than at ND. I guess travelling on weekends will do that, but still. It's not like on football Saturdays in the States I would do any work, and not all that much on Sundays, either. I think it's being in all these silly humanities classes that believe papers are cool and decide to assign 30 of them, all having the exact same due date. Harumph. I hate when work is hanging over my head. I love Econ because it is based solely off tests (except the econ here: 8-12 page paper, with 2 more papers as well! I love JCU!). You go, you take it, and you're done. No guilt/worries about stuff to be done. Well, I guess the point is ARG ME NO LIKEY PAPERS. Maybe I shouldn't go to law school.

This evening was class (5-8), followed by cheese and crackers with nutella and peanut butter. Nothing like a totally unhealthy way to end the day. I feel like I deserved it, despite the fact that I got no work done and I took a nap.

Oh, and I'm going to an AS Roma game tomorrow! Not only that, but it is a Champions League game! Not only that, but my tickets were 15 euro! Not only that, but the tickets say row 5! Color me excited.

Lucca/Pisa

Well, it certainly seems that I picked a good week to not watch the Notre Dame game (ND-0 Michigan-38). Actually, it seems I picked a good semester to go abroad. Oh, and Tim Tim, I just realized on the train today that if you go all Morehead on us then I can stay with you next year at the UNC-ND football game. I'm just saying...

But football is not the important part of this post. I actually did some stuff this weekend. Like travel alone. And stay in a hostel for the first time. And other stuff. If I didn't have my pictures, this would be an awful post because to me it seems like a blur, but due to the brilliant innovation that is digital photography, I can take 100,000 pictures so I won't forget anything ever. One of these days we'll be able to have a teeny tiny camera in our glasses that constantly records our life, and humans will not even need to use any space in their brains for memory. Imagine the possibilities.

Anyways, I set off at the bright and early time of 6:50 to catch a 7:35 train to Pisa. I got to Termini early, because I wasn't all that sure how getting my ticket would go (I bought the ticket online and wasn't sure how I got it). Well, that was easy-peasy. Trains in Italy are pretty sweet. Anyways, it was a short 3 1/2 hour train ride to Pisa, but upon getting off the train I realized I had an hour to kill, so I randomly walked in the opposite direction of where the main stuff is in Pisa (Cathedral, Leaning Tower, Baptistry), just to get a flavor of the town. The flavor: boring. So I got back and hopped on the train to Lucca.

Lucca initially struck me as really cool. It is surrounded with some still standing 12th or 13th century walls, which are awesome (the actual town has expanded beyond the walls now). I guess the walls are the main draw to the city (that and the food), and you can walk around them. At night I chilled out on top of the walls on a green space (Rome is lacking green space, so it makes it really enjoyable when you find it elsewhere) and listened to my iPod.

But I should not quite be talking about the night yet. Anyways, I was really hungry, so I made a little splurge (13 euro meal. Oh God, that's 20 bucks) at a trattoria that was recommended by my favorite food critic: the Internets. Once again, general consensus is the bomb (the Internets are 2/2: that and Dal Baffetto). A Finnish woman who was also travelling alone ate with me (the place was packed), and we had a pleasant conversation (in English) about... I can't quite remember. I guess we probably weren't discussing philosophy.

I then proceeded to get lost. Lucca's streets are all over the place. Eventually I found the hostel, and it was cheap (18 euro) and really nice inside the hotel. Really nice, like 2 or 3 star hotel nice. The rooms/bathrooms? Not so much. But at least I was given sheets and a locker to put my stuff. It could have been significantly worse.

My time spent in Lucca was very much alone. It struck me as a perfect city for a honeymoon or for people with some serious cash, because you could eat very well there if you had some money to throw around. It was not very touristy. Not much excitement outside of food either, and I wasn't in the mood for dinner after the big lunch. I ate gelato and did a lot of walking and people watching. It was pleasant, but I wouldn't go back until I hit #250 on my must-see list, which I'm guessing is probably something like, oh, I don't know, Newfoundland. I went to bed at 11:15 or so.

Quicky highlights of Lucca: the meal, the gelato (me likey food), strolling, laying out over the walls

Quicky lowlights of Lucca: not finding the trattoria for about 35 minutes, realizing there wasn't all that much to do, imagining that my roommates were probably having a slightly better time in Barcelona

This morning I woke up around 7, and walked out into the city. It was dead quiet. It was actually really cool. I went to this bakery I saw the night before which advertised that it was open on Sundays, and to my surprise it was very much open that early. I got this raisin bread that they had in the window as their speciaty house bread, and the loaf is (is because there is still the least bit left) delicious. I then went to the antiques market area that I saw being set up the night before, because it was supposedly going to open at 8PM. Lies, damned lies. By 8:30 it still hadn't started up, and I wanted to catch the 8:40 train, so I skedaddled to the train station.

Arrived at Pisa around 9:20. It was a little more happening than Lucca, even at that early hour on a Sunday. I took the long way to the tourist highlights in order to see this cute little church that is right on the river. It was cute, and it was little.

The touristy areas were, surprisingly, packed. Like, super packed. I was a little surprised. It was a Sunday morning. Anyways, it was very pretty and all. I took some pictures of the Basilica and the Leaning Tower. I did not climb the tower because I wanted to make an 11:45 train (which I did, luckily, because I got totally lost on my way back), and I would have had to pay 15 euro to wait an hour and a half to climb it, and there's not even an extreme risk of death, because they fairly recently installed railings. Lame.

Anyways, I posted some pictures. I'm especially proud of my trick photography.

Today was a good day. Actually, that's not really news; maybe I should only note if I have a bad day. Good is the norm.

Anyways, I woke up a little early, so I went down to the pastry shop at the market. I got this blueberry (or blackberry... or something. Large blackberries, most likely) crostatina (little pie-thingy) for breakfast, and picked up another pastry for the future. It worked out well, because that will be breakfast tomorrow en route to Tuscany.

I had a Renaissance Rome and its Monuments class as a makeup for some day that she can't be there in October. I think it's the last week of October, which should be nice because then my friends from ND will be here and we can go out tuesday night. In class we walked down the Via Recta (one of the three roads Martin V ordered clean at all times! an emphasis of our teacher), and spent a lot of time at Santa Maria della Pace, which is an awesome church located just outside of Piazza Navona. Only gets one star in the Michelin guide, as opposed to two for the San Clemente. Wrong wrong wrong.

On the way home I was talking about the future with Jon and I had a bit of a revelation. Like a $25K revelation. I remarked that I could maybe graduate in 3 1/2 years. Then I thought about it a little harder this afternoon. I really could graduate in 3 1/2 years, basically without even trying. I wouldn't even have to load up my schedule in the slightest. Especially if I did a research project next summer. Hmm. We'll see how that goes.

So I spent the afternoon in lonely time. Ate a later lunch, did some dishes, did a lot of Internet cruising and started a Dickens book about his travels in Italy I got for free because some student left it last year. Then I got bored, and went upstairs to see if any girls were still around. Boy, was my timing excellent: they cooked for just about everyone who was back, and they cooked very, very well. They did some manicotti-like pasta in a tomato sauce with spinich stuffed in there along with ricotta, a sausage and tomato base, some steamed veggies, and had homemade pudding with whipped cream and some little crackers in there (how do you make pudding? Nobody asked, but I should have). We then played cards, and now I am back in my room typing away. I have to wake up in 7 1/2 hours to catch my train, so I should probably go to bed soon.

Work work work

It's hard for a guy like me to read this and not get excited for my upcoming weekend trip to Lucca. Maybe a night isn't enough for this place, but that's what I'm working with. Interestingly enough, I hadn't heard of it until last weekend.

Not too much has been going on with me. Lots of schoolwork. That pretty much will explain Monday-Wednesday for the next 3 months. Not fun.

Part of the schoolwork is pretty interesting, though. For example, this morning I went to the Basilica of San Clemente, located south of the Colosseum. For our Renaissance Monuments in Rome class (the workload for which is seeming insane, I may have to talk to the prof) we are to go to a monument each week and write a paper about some artistic aspect of it (this is only the smallest part of the potentially insane workload; in fact, for forced work this is downright delightful). By the way, if you're on a basilica tour, that one is rather skippable. It got 2 stars (out of 3) from Michelin, which essentially means "see it if you're here for longer than a week", but no way. The art was all out of whack (great 12C art in the front, lame 18C art on the top, boring chapel I was forced to write about).

What else is there to talk about? Last night I cooked for Dan and Andy. I found a delightful pastry shop at the market, which provided a delicious apple streudel and a sfoglia that was also excellent (it was intended for Dan, but he ate too much of my pasta and veggies last night and couldn't handle a dessert, so I ate it this morning). We ate at Dal Baffeto for dinner. So, yeah, a lot of my thoughts involve food. Between food and sports (I still have my podcasts!), I would say that probably occupies 70 percent of my thinking time. And that's probably being conservative, because I really can't think of anything else I spend a lot of time worrying about

The world is conspiring against me. That's the other 30 percent.

Here is the highlight of yesterday: we hopped on the Metro and took the train over to the Circus Maximus. They had a light exhibition thingy, where these balloon-looking pieces of glass lit up in different colors. There must have been hundreds of the balloons.

Also, I set down some plans: I am going to London the last weekend in November and going to Cinque Terre the Thursday/Friday/Saturday before my parents get here the 2nd weekend in October

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday was pretty much a lost day, after the long day/night thing I pulled before. Lots of lounging around and planning my next weekend. My decision (with the help of Rick Steeves, of course):

Lucca and Pisa. I plan on training up on Saturday to Pisa, then promptly going to Lucca from there. I'll spend Saturday afternoon/night in Lucca, then Sunday morning head to Pisa, and Sunday afternoon come back. Hopefully I'll get to climb the leaning tower. It says it is open on Sundays.

The reason I am not going anywhere else for longer is a class that I have on Friday. Bad teacher of Renaissance for doing that, I say. Oh well.

The 21 hour day

That's right, I was up for 21 straight hours yesterday: from 7:30 AM to 4:30 AM. Yet, for whatever reason, I only slept 4 1/2 hours last night. Non comprendo.

Long days like that are usually pretty good, and yesterday was great. I went on my first day trip to Orvieto with Dan and Michelle. We went to catch a 9:15 train, and got to Termini a little early because we had no idea exactly what is going on at the station. Well, it was completely painless. The trip was 7 euro each way, which was a steal. After about 80 minutes, we were at the Orvieto station, and took the funicular up the side of the rock, which made the trip worth it on its own. The rest was a whole lot of icing on top of the cake. The Duomo was beautiful, and the town was very, very cute. Plenty of excellent views of the hilly countryside, lots of little streets to explore. My kind of day. There were also some interesting Etruscan caves and pottery there. Fun fun fun. Plus, I got my first panino since I got here, if you can believe that. It was at a butcher shop, and he had this great machine that made the finest possible cuts of any kind of meat you wanted, which meant the food was really, really good. I need to find a place like that here.

We took the 5:30 train home, and on one stop about 100 kids got on. Why? La Notte Bianca, the huge, all-night Rome party where all the city museums and a ton of civic services are open and free. It was absolutely insane out there. So many people, especially on Via del Corso and in the Piazza del Popolo, where people were shoulder to shoulder. The coolest thing that was free to me was Castel Sant'Angelo, so I took about 8 girls over there. Excellent, excellent decision if I may say so myself. Went to the top, and we could see the whole town all lit up for the big night. Fantastic. Next, Michelle and I went to Piazza del Popolo, which took about 3 to 4 times as long as it should have because of the crowds. We then climbed up and walked over to the top of the Spanish Steps area, which was also packed. At this point, I wanted to watch some ND football, and my dad sent me a text saying that ND had scored a touchdown. Excitement! So we hurried to the bar where I thought everyone would be (Abbey Theater), and it turned out that there were only 2 girls there from ND. Oh well, I wasn't going to miss the game, so I watched the first half there. ND was keeping it close with Penn State (17-10 at half), and so I ran over to the other Irish pub, Scholar's Lounge. Nearly all my fellow students, along with the new Architecture students just in from South Bend, were there and having a good time. Until, oh, somewhere in the third quarter when Notre Dame's defense and offensive line decided to stop playing. Penn State ended up killing Notre Dame (31-10, I think), and I was sad. And it was late, like 3:30 late. Though not feeling tired, I knew it would have been a terrible mistake to not go and crash. So I did, and after a 45 minute walk I was home.

So that's my long day, and here's my photo documentation of it (or at least some of it). I need to go get my laundry.

Dal Baffetto

Another day, another fantastic day. Woke up earlier than my roommates (this is going to be a common refrain. perhaps I shall shorten this to "woke up"), went to the market by myself to see what I could see. Got some cheese and a little thing of bread from a baker there. The bread was fantastic. Super good, and 40 euro cents. Life is good.

Much of the rest of the day was spent trying to eat as little as humanly possible in hopes that somebody wanted to go to Dal Baffetto with me for pizza for dinner. Some of the girls were talking about going "somewhere Jackie wanted to go" for pizza, but they weren't sure where. Well, at 6 PM I go upstairs and lo-and-behold Jackie wanted to go to the same pizza place in Rome I did. She had been, and confirmed that it was in fact the best pizza in Rome, as the InterGoogles had told me.

It was in fact the best pizza in the world. Amazing. Mom & Dad: we are eating at Dal Baffetto one night you are here. Your job is to find out what the nice restaurants are for those kind of meals, but one night I am definately treating y'all to the best pizza of your life (not to build it up or anything).

We then went out to the Piazza Navona, and went to Giolittis (slight detour) for desserts. Had a cannolo. Delicious again. Seriously, best eating night of my life. I was so happy I was glowing. Then we stopped by the Pantheon, and it for whatever reason was open at night.

Overall, a great night. Tomorrow I go to Orvieto and come back to the Notte Bianca and the ND-Penn State game, so that should be a full day.

Pub Crawl

How's that saying go again? "When in Rome... do as the upper-middle class bored rich white foreigners do", I think. Because, if I remembered that correctly, we totally nailed it last night: About 15-20 of us went to the Spanish Steps pub crawl, and I can truly say that I am so very happy to have done it, had a blast, and there is no chance in hell I would ever pay to do that again.

I took no pictures. I regret this moltissimo.

We went over to the Spanish Steps on the Metro, and met the leaders of the pub crawl, and watched the kiddos who were joining up trickling in. Unsurprisingly, everyone there looked exactly the same, and spoke exactly the same language: English (the most different group of kids there were British study abroad students, as opposed to American study abroad students). Believe it or not, pub crawls did not originate in Rome.

We paid 20 euro. This price very nearly scared me off of it in the first place(that and the fact that I am not much of a drinker; more on this later). I mean, that's like 28 bucks. There's no way I would be getting my money's worth in alcohol, even with the first hour being a "all you can consume of beer/wine" hour. There had to be some catch.

Of course there was: at the first bar, they served the world's two worst wines (one a painfully awful white wine, the other a completely watered-down tasting red) and an awful, awful beer. They have this down to a science for making money: it wasn't light beer, so it was rather filling, so the most beers anybody in our group had was probably four (also, they feed you really cheap pizza to sober you up, so that you'll be more likely to buy beers/shots at later bars). I had all of two, and a cup of the awful, awful white wine.

For a guy who hasn't felt the effects of alcohol since New Years Eve, this got me pretty well buzzed. I, however, probably had the least alcohol in our group by far. People really tried to get their money's worth, but in my mind you were giving up a chunk of self-respect every time you tasted the beer or wine.

We then took off for another bar. We walked all the way from the Spanish Steps area nearly all the way to the Piazza Venezia. That's like 3/4 of a mile. Watching the far-more-drunk kids stumbling along was hilarious. They hand out a shot of something at the door at each new bar, but I gave mine to one of my roommates. The next bar had a lot more dancing (grinding), terrible lighting, and loud, pumping Eurotrash music mixed with American favorites. My personal hell would be having to be in that for the rest of eternity. It was fantastic to be there for one night though. Unintentional comedy at its peak.

Clearly, this was not my scene. I had passed the peak of my "drunkenness" (not so drunk, thankfully), and far too self-aware to be enjoying this in the way that a lot of the other people there (like 60 kids and 3 or 4 guys who looked like they were around 40 trying to get with some young student, which is hilarious in a completely depressing way).

Let me say that I did get my money's worth, for a variety of reasons (though certainly not in alcohol; you could buy 15 bottles of cheap wine at a grocery store for that kind of cash if one was looking to get bombed). It was a new experience, but at the same time it was familiar, like a very crazy dorm party. For me, both involve a whole lot of enjoying watching people act like fools and wondering what, exactly, the point of it all is. That question I have still not solved, but after last night I think I'm getting closer to understanding.

It's 10:16. I've been up for three hours. I haven't seen anybody who went to the pub crawl in 10 hours. The rooms with open doors do not contain my roommates. I hope they're still alive.

Back to the positive

My new class works for my philo requirement: success!


So tonight may have been the most fun I've had since I got here: we cooked. For the girls. Lots o' fun. Dan and I took over (with a little help, of course. Though not all that much, actually) and made a seriously delicious meal. We surprised ourselves, and had a blast doing it.

We (and by "we", I mean "I") made pasta and an amazing (if I may say so myself) meat sauce with some sauteed veggies and tomato base. Dan made some bruschetta. The girls threw together a salad and put out some olive oil with bread. It was fantastic. Everyone except me somehow managed to go for Old Bridge gelato later, but I had gorged myself on my meat sauce.

Here are pictures. EDIT: ignore the first two pictures. Those are of my roommate, and he cooked/ate alone in our room. We ate upstairs with the 5 girls living up there.

You really shouldn't read this post

So far, this trip has been pretty darned fun, but in the spirit of keeping where my thoughts are for posterity's sake, I've decided to write about my worries/neuroses as well.

First off, damn JCU for switching my International Economics class. My schedule was perfect, and now I will be taking a class I don't think I will like at all. And damn that Italian cinema class for filling up. Maybe I can talk the professor into letting me in (fingers crossed). Being who I am, I constantly am stressing about this awful class I am in.

Secondly, I have yet to find my travelling soul mate, and I think he or she does not exist among the ND kids. All a lot of the people want to do is go somewhere that it would be sweet to get completely bombed (Amsterdam, Barcelona, etc). Also, it seems that nobody here but me enjoys strolling around looking at old stuff. I question why people came to Rome, then, but maybe that's just me.

Third: way more schoolwork here than I expected. Not cool, JCU (though I guess technically it is called study abroad). The kids who are full-time say that you never have to do the work and it seems all they do is party, but I am the kind of kid who gets really nervous if I don't do the assigned reading, for whatever irrational reason. And I say irrational, because most of the time, or at least often at ND, required reading isn't as nearly as required as the teacher implies.

So, considering that's all I can complain about, things are going pretty well. I have class in ten minutes (Italian), so I should probably go.


UPDATE: I found a class that works really really well. There was no space yesterday in it, but somebody opened some up. It is immediately after my Italian on Mon/Wed, and I'll be home by 6PM, which is so much better than 8. Of course, not all is totally well: I am not sure it will transfer for my 2nd philosophy requirement. I really hope it works; I very well may die if this emotional rollercoaster that is scheduling at JCU has another drop.

You are looking at the most delicious fried fish on the entire planet. You got that right; it may look like something of a fish stick, but it was truly fantastic. I bought it after my on-site class in the Ghetto, and them Jewish people apparently know how to make some delicious fried fish.

My on-site class was nice, much better than my awful econ class the night before, which I have decided to transfer out of. The bureaucratic lady at ND refuses to get back to me via email as to whether or not all of my classes will count toward the... well, actually, scratch that. I just went to change the class, and the Italian film class I wanted was full. Total disappointment right about now. Anyways, back to the on-site class, it should be good. Lots of touring, learning, etc. It's early though. I will have to wake up very early to get to where the class starts, which will be a bunch of different places. And I have another one just like it early tomorrow.

After that class, I have a 5 hour break between classes. Depending on where I am, I think I will use that time to do some touristy stuff each week. I certainly did this week. First, I figured out where exactly the Ghetto was, and how big (rather, how small) it is. It's pretty much a few streets, and that's it. But there is a restaurant there that sells some excellent stuff cheap. After eating, I read on a bench in the Ghetto, which is a cute little area.

About 2 hours into my break, I headed back to Trastevere, because I could check my mail at JCU. That didn't take as long as I expected so I decided to get out my guidebook and do part of the Trastevere walking tour in the Michelin travel guide. Mainly, I went to two churches. Easily the most beautiful was Santa Maria in Trastevere, which I had yet to go into. I also walked down to a Franciscan church, but it wasn't as great. It had a Bernini statue in there, but it didn't do it for me for whatever reason.

After that, back to JCU for Intro to Economic Development. Way better than the other class. A class I now realize I have to take.

By the way, Aunt Betsy, I know all about the App State win: I'm still getting all the news from the net about all my sports. I even get my podcasts!

JCU

I am currently between classes chilling in the computer lab at JCU. I had my Italian 310 class, the class I am easily the most worried about, earlier today. It was supposed to be let out at 3:30, but we got out closer to 3 because it was a first class. Although I am worried about it, I feel a whole lot better now because the only people in my class (that showed up today, at least) were five Notre Dame kids who are at my level, one ND kid who took one more semester than us (though he may have to transfer out because it is a similar class to what he took last year), and one kid from University of Illinois-Chicago who didn't seem like he was too far past our level, if at all. The classwork is a bit daunting, though: we have two 1200 word essays to write, and the biggest Italian essay I wrote last year was probably about 700 words. Darn that.

So now I have a wait until 6:45 for my History of Economic Doctrines class that runs until 8 PM. I am thinking of switching out of it, because this is quite a wait. If I am allowed to take 3 classes here for my Italian minor, then I may take a class called Italian Cinema Since 1945, which runs from 5:15-8 on Wednesdays only. That way I would only have one class on Monday from 2:15-3:30, and my break on Wednesday would only be from 3:30-5:15 instead of running to 6:45. We'll see if I get approval from ND about that one.

As far as non-school things today, it has been very low key. Woke up early, got some caffe, then read a whole lot of a book about the building of the Vatican. It is a quick read, and it is not too information dense. Other than that, we are planning a trip to Venice for Thursday/Friday/Saturday. I booked the hostel last night. Color me excited, because that is my favorite city.

Today (like every day) I woke up earlier than my roommates. This is at 10:00, mind you, which is later than I've woken up in the past 6 or 7 months.

We went to the 1 PM mass at St. Peter's Basilica, but we mistimed it, and only got to the square at 1. The security line was long, and we got into the church 10 to 15 minutes late. Dan and his roommate Joel went to mass anyways, but I decided instead to do some exploring in the basilica. I wish I had my Michelin tour book, to be honest, because there is so much stuff in there. I had forgotten how absolutely massive the building is. It was beautiful.

After that, I did some exploring on my own, as I love to do. Nobody else seems nearly as comfortable with the element of surprise (in general), so I find myself exploring significantly more than the other students here. Anyways, this time I looked around north and a little east of St. Peter's Square, turning down the via Borgo. I was surprised by how many trattorias were open on a Sunday afternoon. I guess they were there to serve the tourists, but I walked around much more residential areas than the via Borgo later and found places open there as well.

So that's the day so far. I'm already tired.

Hmm

So, long day. Long, fun day though.

I woke up, did a bunch of research of a bunch of random things (soccer matches, plane tickets, etc). My roommates, who came back way later than I did from Campo de Fiori bars last night, were not waking up by the time I got hungry, so at one I set off for this takeout Chinese place about a ten/fifteen minute walk from here. For a frame of reference, by this point ten to fifteen minutes is a casual stroll for me. Anyways, got some Chinese calimari thing that was all right, but only 4.50, so a bargain.

This afternoon we went to do some more touristy stuff. Took the Colosseum tour (my 2nd time), and took a lot of pictures of that and the forum. None are really that cool to look at. The best views of the Colosseum are outside of it anyway.

Then Dan, Andy, and I took off from the girls to go get some pizza, for we were rather hungry. We found some amazingly cheap place in the Ghetto (not as dangerous as it sounds. Check the link. Saying something like that to somebody who has no idea what you're talking about gets the same look as saying you went to D.C. to go to "the Mall". Total confusion) that served pizza. The pizza had no meat on it (if you don't understand why, then, like, seriously, check the link), but it was delicious, and it was dirt cheap. The plain pizza sold at a price of 8 euro per kilo, so 2 euro worth was more than enough.

Andy wasn't feeling so hot after that, so he left, and Dan and I walked around, going around the Piazza Navona area and a little west of that. I'd never really been in the area, and there were plenty of cute little places that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Why we wandered, though, was to kill time before going to Scholar's Lounge, an Irish pub that swore (95% confident!) they were going to get the ND game.

No dice. Assholes. Arg. However, my frustration at them (and NBC/ ND athletic director Kevin White) for not finding a way to broadcast this is probably less than my frustration would be at the ND football team, because they just got beat down 33-3 by georgia tech. Serious distruction. I chose the right fall semester to be abroad.

Oh, and here's a link to a bunch of photos. Let me know if it doesn't work.