I Miss You, Macbook...

As Rome seems to be cursed when it comes to electronics, my Macbook's battery has died as this Wednesday. It doesn't charge, and I'm about 95% sure that it needs a replacement. I took it to one of the Apple service centers in Rome, and it should be getting fixed as we speak. The public Italian holiday, All Saints Day, may be delaying my plans and my reunion with my beloved computer.

Regardless, I am thankful that there is a reliable service center here in Rome. Additional blog posts will be delayed for at least a few days, as will most communication other than through my iPod and the studio lab computers.

Thankfully, some nights Naeemah lets me borrow her computer to do some homework and to catch up. I appreciate it greatly. Hopefully I won't have to mooch off of people for too much longer.

Oh, and happy Halloween to all of those in the United States! Halloween isn't really popular here other than in clubs and bars, and with some of the children. All Saints Day and All Souls Day are a much bigger deal here (yet we still have class?).
Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend. Hopefully I'll be reunited soon.

Into the Movies and Back to the Past

This past weekend we stayed within Italy. On Friday, for our Italian Studies class, we went to Cinécittà, Rome's equivalent to Hollywood. It took us about an hour by metro to get there as its basically on the outskirts of Rome. When we got there, we had a short tour of the current sets they had and are using. The first set we saw were the sets of Gangs of New York, the American movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. We weren't supposed to take pictures of them since they're using them for another film that has yet to be released, but I did anyway (mainly because they told me I couldn't). We also saw the sets that were used for a documentary on Rome and for the movie, Cleopatra. We went inside an exhibition that went through how some of the films were made and displayed props and costumes from famous American and Italian films that were made right in Cinécittà. I didn't realize that quite a few American movies were filmed mostly in Cinécittà, including Gangs of New York and Nine. It was an interesting place to see, though I wish we had been allowed to see more of it. I think all of the most interesting sets are hidden away from tourists and ordinary people.

One of the residential streets in Pompeii

Most of the past weekend and week have been spent doing studio, our own individual projects and our collective site model. We did have a field trip to Pompeii and Paestum this weekend for all Pantheon Institute students. On Saturday morning, at 7:45am all CIS and Penn State Architecture and Landscape Architecture students were on a bus to Pompeii. Of course I didn't end up waking up until 7:30, so I ended up throwing half my stuff into my backpack and running out the door. It's a great way to start the day. It took us about three hours to get there, and there really isn't much between here and Pompeii. Once we got there, it was actually better and a lot cooler than I was expecting. We've already seen Ostia Antica and Hadrian's Villa, which are essentially just ruins, and we've all grown a bit tired of them. Pompeii was partially preserved under volcanic rock, so there was more that was still standing. We walked along the residential areas where most of the impluviums were still there, though there was no longer water in them. There were grape vines growing in several areas, including a still-stnaidng vineyard that had grapes growing to simulate what it would have looked like when Pompeii was a functioning town.

Ancient Vineyard

We saw the amphitheater, which I'm fairly sure couldn't keep lions from attacking the people, nor was I convinced that it could hold 80,000 people. I suppose I wouldn't know, though. Maybe people back then were a lot smaller.
We also saw the House of the Fawn. We basically had to, given how much we've learned about it thanks to Jamie Cooper. We saw the view corridor, and a lot of it was still existing. We also saw a German shepherd there that was just lying there. Apparently Pompeii welcomes dogs, and there were dogs laying around everywhere. It was refreshing, and if I could, I'd consider adopting one. They're all so cute.
The one thing that was probably the coolest, yet also most disturbing, was seeing some of the bodies that are still encased and preserved in volcanic ash from Vesuvius. We saw two in glass cases in one of the rooms in the main Forum area. They were cool, but parts of their bones were still preserved, and most of the positions they were frozen in were mainly positions of pain and suffering. Most were holding their noses or crouching. It was really kinda sad. They apparently used to be everywhere in Pompeii, but they've since removed them to museums to preserve them. I think it would be interesting to see the original positions of all of the bodies, but at the same time, I think it might be depressing.

We stayed in Pompeii for about three hours, and then we had to head to Paestum, which is about an hour south of Pompeii. We were staying overnight and having dinner there before exploring the archeological sites on Sunday. I've honestly never even heard of Paestum until we had this field trip, and it's not a very large town. It's a coastal town, and its main attractions are resorts, amusement parks, and summer activities. Basically, the town was pretty dead as its now the end of October. We stayed in a hotel called Hotel Sogaris, which looked a lot nicer on the website than it did in person. It wasn't a bad place, but the pool was full of leaves and it didn't look nearly as extravagant. It was right on the beach though, so we did get to see the sunset on the beach. It was nice, though it was a bit cold to be swimming.

Paestum beach at sunset

We all had dinner together at the Hotel Calypso restaurant, including the director and his wife. It was a bit far from our hotel, not to mention some of the streets seemed pretty sketchy. We had a reserved section of tables. Cait, Justin, Clarissa, and Kyle were at my table. The food at the hotel was amazing. We had four courses, including dessert. The menu consisted of a small piece of pizza, pepper fritters, a potato pasta, pork with roasted potatoes, and a mint cannoli. The meal was probably pretty expensive, but it was included in our fees for studying abroad. We also had some wine with dinner and exchanged childhood horror stories. We met "Jyle," Kyle's apparent childhood altar ego. Later that night, basically everyone decided to bring wine from Rome because there wasn't much to do at night in Paestum. A group of us all played cards in Simon's room accompanied by several bottles of wine. It was a good night.

Early on Sunday, we headed to the archeological site of Paestum. There were two main temples, the Temple of Neptune and the Temple of Athena, whereas most of the other areas were small ruins. There was a small amphitheater, which was mainly just low stone rings in the ground. The temples were pretty magnificent though. They were mostly intact, especially the Temple of Neptune. The columns were so thick, and the temples were so tall. I can't imagine just going there to pray and having that be part of everyday life. The ruins there were really kind of beautiful. The weather was also perfect and the sky and mountains were quite the backdrop. We also went to the museum in Paestum as well. I don't really like museums much, but it was interesting seeing some of the frescos and pottery. They had some very pretty handcrafted jewelry on display in there as well. We left Paestum by mid afternoon, and were back in Rome by evening.

Despite our increasing studio course load, I'm glad they took us to Pompeii and Paestum. Up until this point, I was disliking most ruins we have seen as I couldn't really get much out of them. The history of Pompeii and Paestum was much easier to see, and I think that's why I enjoyed seeing it. The mountain scapes in southern Italy are also quite something to behold, and you don't see that in a dense city like Rome.

This week should be consumed mostly by studio work, as we have our midterm reviews on Friday... for probably about seven hours. No joke. Our studio project is interesting, but I've never lacked motivation so much in my college career. Rome (and my computer... and now Doctor Who) are really quite distracting. I'll pull through somehow. I am really starting to enjoy our cartography class though. We'll be walking the papal route (or at least most of it) on Thursday, and I think that's a really interesting thing to see. Our professor is one of those people who just seems to know everything, and he's pretty enjoyable to listen to, even at 9 in the morning.
That's all for now. Plans for Dublin and Paris are now official, and a trip to Switzerland and possibly Austria may happen as well. This upcoming weekend will probably be spent here in Rome, though. All should be great experiences. Ciao for now, as I really should be designing a building right now.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

This morning we were woken up by one of the most intense thunderstorms I've ever seen. Its rarely rained for us here in Rome. We've had maybe three days of rain since we've arrived in August. It started around 4am our time, and continued until around 11am. Our entire complex was flooded, and it was absolutely downpouring. There was pretty intense thunder and lightning too, which is what woke us up. Our window decided to open itself (the windows here are probably around thousand years old, so I guess I can't blame them), so I was also getting slightly rained on along with all of my drying laundry. It looked like an old horror movie. When they say that when it rains in Rome, it really rains, they weren't kidding. There were also flocks of black birds flying. They've been around on other days too, but in addition to the rain, thunder and everything else, it looked like the world was about to end.

Our complex is definitely not meant for flooding. The entire courtyard had at least an inch of water, and the entire ground floor pathway was flooded because of the poor drainage and water spilling from above. Apparently our complex used to be a church and convent, so I'd assume it wasn't designed to handle a lot of rain. It was scary though, seeing water just pouring everywhere. We had water leaking in the building too, from the ceilings and windows. Our entire main area and kitchen were soaked because the window was left slightly ajar. I've rarely seen it rain that hard for that long.
Our cartography walk was cancelled, though I'm legitimately surprised that Allan Ceen cancelled anything. The rain did let up around 10:30 in the morning, and the day was decent after that. The Tiber was overflowing for the entire day, and was brown from all of the drainage. We learned about the river walls that were installed in 1870, and I can see why they need them now.
All in all, its refreshing to see different weather, but this storm was actually pretty scary. It was a really intense thunderstorm with a lot of rain and hail. I don't really feel as safe in buildings here as I do at home. We have no screens here, and we aren't sealed from the outside as well either. I guess I'll appreciate American construction when I'm back.

Political Instability

While we were on our flight back from Prague, there was a (supposedly) peaceful demonstration near the Colosseum here in Rome. It was one of the Occupy demonstrations, which have been happening all over the world, including the United States. It turned very violent, ending with police tear gassing some of the protestors and a car catching fire. I've never seen that kind of violence in the United States, and its kinda scary that it was so close to where we've living. I've noticed that the economy and government here are really unstable, and I keep seeing signs for various protests and seminars for various political parties. The violent demonstration on Saturday is probably just the beginning. I've also been hearing rumors about the euro being unstable, and the possibility of it completely collapsing (or of Italy and Greece being kicked out of the EU) because all of the economies of Europe are so inconsistent. Eesh. You don't realize how other countries function until living there. I don't really believe that America is as stable as it seems either, but I'm positive that we're better off there than here. The value of the euro has been dropping steadily since we've been here. Its gone from about a $1.50 to a $1.30. As much as I'm enjoying not losing tons of money in money conversions, I don't think that's really supposed to happen in such a short amount of time.
Find out more information and photos here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/15/501364/main20120893.shtml?tag=cbsContent%3BcbsCarousel
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/16/501364/main20121114.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;2

To anyone concerned, we're all fine. We're at least a twenty minute walk away from the Colosseum and most major landmarks where they would protest. Most of us weren't even in Italy when the protests on Saturday happened.

Also, blog post about Prague is below. I just split into two blog posts because it was getting ridiculously long. Yes, I know I talk too much. Enjoy.

A Trip to the East: Prague

Main City Centre in Prague

Ciao, everyone. I've discovered that its harder to keep up with a blog than I originally thought. Not to worry, I'll try my best to keep everyone (Julie, yes, I know you're reading) updated. This past weekend, I went to Prague with Cait, Justin, Clarissa, Kyle, Naeemah, and Rose. It was a pretty big group of us, but we all decided we wanted to travel when we found out that our field trip was cancelled. We all flew out on Thursday after our cartography class. Our flight was around 4:30pm, and we got into Prague around 6:15pm. I'm not used to flights being so short. It seemed to be over right after it started. I have discovered the reason why some European flights are really cheap, though. They're really strict on baggage sizes, and with what is in your baggage and such. Random hidden fees are really common. Its annoying, but I don't mind the flights under 100 euros to travel all across Europe.

Salvator Dali museum: Divine Comedy room

When we got there, we went to the City Center and walked around and explored the city for the night. We quickly discovered the conversion from Euros to Czech crowns (Czechs? Krone?) was definitely in our favor, about 25 to one euro. Our first destination was food, and we found some cheap street food right in the main square. We all got Halusky, which is basically cabbage, potato, and bacon. We also got Kobasa, which is Czech sausage. Both were delicious. We mainly just walked around the city a bit, and saw the main bridge - the Charles Bridge.

On Saturday, we got started early to see the main aspects of the city. We meandered through the city for a while, finding the opera house and a few pretty sweet modern buildings. We weren't allowed to take pictures of them, though we found that out the hard way by getting yelled at. We finally made it back to the city center, stopping along the way at a chocolate shop so Kyle could get some chocolates (absinth truffles are gross, fyi) and Naeemah could get a chocolate waffle. We went into the Salvator Dali and Alfons Mucha museum. Both were pretty awesome, even though I'm not really a fan of modern art or art museums most of the time. I took pictures in the Dali part of the museum even though we found out later we weren't supposed to. My favorite part of the Dali museum was the Divine Comedy room. He did prints (woodcuts technically) of every canto in the entire Comedy. Some of them were really sweet looking, and it was interesting being able to tell the entire story from his prints.

View of Prague from tower on Charles Bridge

On our way to get lunch, we climbed to the top of one of the towers on the Charles Bridge. They had history of Prague and its kings on the way up, and at the top, there were breathtaking views of Prague. The architecture in Prague is so different than what we see everyday in Rome. I never really thought I'd visit any of Eastern Europe, so seeing what the cities there look like is really refreshing. We could see a lot of Prague, including the cathedral, castle, and river. The top of the tower still looked as it should have been. It wasn't made "safe" as a lot of tourist locations in the United States would be. You could still see all of the parts of the tower when you're standing right next to them. We went to go get lunch after our trip up the tower. We got stopped (again) by the Bridge Band playing on the Charles Bridge. They were actually quite good, and I was fascinated by the one guy who was playing a washboard. Rose bought their CD. We finally did get lunch after that, and most of us got goulash, which is basically beef, onion, and dumplings. It was delicious. I also had some Czech beer, Staropramen, which was pretty tasty.

View of Prague from the top of the castle

Cait, Clarissa, Justin, Kyle and I then decided to explore the St. Vitus Cathedral and the Prague Castle, which were up one of the hills of Prague. We entered the Palace, and were immediately introduced with this enormous Gothic cathedral. I love Gothic architecture, especially after learning so much about them, but the size of this cathedral was indescribable. The interior was even more breath-taking. It had huge stained glass windows on all the walls of the cathedral. How the light shone through the glass was so pretty, and it was amazing seeing how tall the main nave space in that church actually was. I'm jealous of the people who got to go to church in these spaces. The cathedral and castle seem to be connected, so we decided to go up into the castle next. Cait and Clarissa went up with me. We hiked up 287 steps to get to the top. I'm still quite out of shape. I was dying when I got to the top. It was breathtaking. You could see all of Prague, and you could see the Gothic spires close up. It was amazing. The sun was setting while we were up there, so it made it that much more beautiful. This was the first castle I've been to since being in Europe, and it was definitely a beautiful one to start out with. I only hope to see more castles and Gothic architecture in my future travels.

John Lennon wall - Yellow Submarine

After visiting the castle, we walked down toward the city center. We came across a shop that sold beer shampoo that apparently legitimately had beer in it. If it hadn't been so expensive, I would have considered getting some to see what it was all about. We also ended up finding a vineyard, the oldest in the Czech Republic. We were able to see the actual grapevines. Its a shame that we were there after the harvesting season. It would have been cool to see actual grapes.
After getting back to the city center and meeting up with Rose and Naeemah, we found the John Lennon wall. Basically, he wrote on the wall years ago, and people have just been putting graffiti and writing on it ever since. Someone painted a yellow submarine, and I wrote in the corner of it. I wonder if I ever visit Prague again if my name will still be there. Its really a cool looking wall though, I just wish that Lennon's original painting was still visible. It does bring back memories from first year though - good old Yellow Submarine movie.

Astronomical Clock at night

After finding the wall, Cait, Justin, Clarissa, Kyle and I decided to do a ghost tour. We found two people standing on the side of the street, one of which was dressed like the Grim Reaper. They were right next to Prague's astronomical clock, constructed in 1410 and one of the oldest astronomical clocks still in existence that still functions. The clock has the astronomical dial representing the Sun and Moon's positions in the sky, a clockwork hourly show of the figures of the Apostles with a figure of Death striking the time, and a calendar dial that shows the months. It's truly an awesome looking clock, and we watched a projection show projected on the clock while waiting for the ghost tour. It just celebrated its 600th birthday last year.
The ghost tour was absolutely hilarious. It wasn't intended to be scary at all, at least I don't think it was. Our tour guide was dressed in a black cape with all white face paint and red contacts. We walked around several churches and deserted streets while he told ghost stories from all periods of history in Prague. He also told the story of his long deceased lover and how he died. Apparently he threw poor Isabella down a well and poisoned the entire town. He was quite entertaining though. They actually have a facebook page, Cloak and Dagger ghost tours, if anyone is interested to find out more about them. I'm kinda curious to know if they are in other cities other than Prague. I'm definitely interested in doing one in Rome. I'm sure a lot of the ruins look really creepy at night.

To see the 600th anniversary projection show on Prague's astronomical clock, see video above.

The next day, Saturday, I had decided to leave early with Rose and Naeemah to save some money. Saturday morning we visited the interior of the Tyn church, the church right in the city center. It was heavily decorated, but the amount of ornamentation was interesting to see. We also went to Cafe Kafka (at the recommendation of our ghost tour guide, ironically) and I had some honey cake. It was quite good, though I'm not positive what was actually in it. After that, I basically had to head to the airport. I took the Prague metro, which wasn't too bad. It works essentially the same way as Rome's, which was comforting. I guess I might actually be getting used to city life. Our flight was fine, and we got back to Rome in time to unwind. I ended up just getting some pizza with Rachel and relaxing for the night.

So, this week we'll probably actually be doing some work for studio. Most of us haven't done much since our Phase 1 deadline, and we have a site model we need to start. We will be going to Pompeii and Paestrum this weekend, and for Italian Studies I'll be going to Cinecitta, which is basically Italy's Hollywood. It should be interesting to see both. My camera finally arrived from Wales yesterday (took... 10 days?) so I will finally be able to take normal pictures again. I've now witnessed first hand how slow Italian post is, as it took almost a week for the package to get here from Milan. It did come in a nice wrapping from the Royal Mail, which made me feel special. Ah, I want to go to England very very badly.
I also just booked tickets for Thanksgiving break, so we are all officially going to Ireland for Thanksgiving! Yay! I am also going to try to make a short trip to London during that trip as well. I am also planning on going to Paris in December (Christmas in Paris, anyone?) and Switzerland sometime in November. All of the traveling should be really fun. Hopefully I'm able to get my work done. I've realized my motivation here is pretty minimal.

La Belle Vie à la Plage

View of Old Nice and beach from above

Bonjour mes amis! It's been a little while since I've written here. This past weekend Clarissa, Rachel, and I went to Nice in Southern France, which is right along the French Riviera, or in French, Côte d'Azur. We left Thursday night on an overnight train to Genova, in Italy, and ended up on three different trains by the time we actually got there. We got into Nice at least 11am, and walked around until we found our hotel, Hôtel Helvètique. It was on one of the main roads in Nice, Rue de l'Hôtel des Postes. The woman at the desk was very sweet, and we decided to explore until our room was ready. We went directly to Vieux Nice, the older district of town. We saw the flower market where they sell fresh flowers, fruits, vegetables, and spices daily. Everything looked so fresh. We stopped at a cafe for lunch, and I had fresh jus d'orange and a croque madame. It was my first French cafe experience, and I loved it.

Croque Madame
 

Cascade

Being in France for two days made me realize that I really would love to go back. I feel like I belong there more, and its more what I expected Europe to be. It's much cleaner, and as much as I love the history here in Rome, I've always been closely tied with more traditional Western Europe like England, France, or Germany. Oh, the things we learn while abroad. It also doesn't feel like the entire country is in political turmoil like in Italy. Maybe it was just because we were in beach town, but it still felt more stable to me.
After our cafe experience, we decided to walk up to the Château which was originally built in 1517 in the hills of Nice. Most of the original structure was gone, but it yielded amazing views of Nice and of the ocean. The water in the ocean is truly blue, almost aqua. It was absolutely breath-taking. We also saw Cascade, which is a waterfall above the Château. It was also very beautiful, and we could also see a rainbow because the sun was so bright. We meandered around the Château for a few hours. We saw Nice's port as well as some of the only remaining parts of the Château. The Château had mosaics all over the floor and on some of the remaining walls. They were very well preserved, and many told stories of what Nice and France were like back then. Many had to do with water and ships, as Nice is along the water and was once a major port.

Ratatouille with blush wine and fresh bread

We eventually walked back to the hotel and finally checked in in the early afternoon. I realized that speaking and understanding French wasn't as hard as I thought as I thought it would be, even though its been years since I've taken it. I was able to order food and speak with some of the people at the hotel mostly in French. Clarissa was much better at it, but I held my own. Once we got to the room, we accidentally napped for about three hours. I guess all of the traveling by train and a stressful week in studio got the better of us. The room was basic, but very nice. We eventually did go out to dinner, and I made sure to order as many French specialties as possible, if sitting at an outdoor cafe wasn't enough. I ended up getting ratatouille, petits farcis niçois, and mousse chocolat for dinner. The petits farcis niçois is a speciality of Nice, and it was basically beef and veal paté on various vegetables. It was quite good. The ratatouille was essentially a vegetable stew, but I just had to try it. Its one of those French dishes you always hear about (the Disney movie not helping with this) but have most likely never tried.

On Saturday, we had a full agenda. We spent the morning and early afternoon shopping (its France, of course), but not before grabbing a delicious French breakfast. We ended up at Brioche Dorée, which is a popular chain in France. I got a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) and pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant). We shopped at one of the main malls in Nice. We ended up with some nice French clothes, including a beret for me. We also bought some souvenirs from Vieux Nice. I bought a salt grinder that was crafted and painted in Nice, while also buying a mug and some lavendar soap. Nice is known for lightning bugs (I don't know why, but ceramic ones were all over their merchandise) and lavendar.

Beau Rivage

Later in the day, we finally made our way to the beach. It was a pebble beach, and most of them were dark gray in color. There were a lot of random colored ones too, which made me wonder what kind of rock/mineral it was and where the colored pebbles came from. Clarissa and I went in the water first, and it was kinda cold, but it ended up being pretty refreshing. It was still pretty warm during the day, so the water felt nice. The water was so blue and clear too. I'm used to the Jersey shore where the water is brown and murky. We also watched the sunset over the water. It was really pretty, and it was amazing watching how the sun sparkled on all of the pebbles and on the water. I will have such high expectations when visiting beaches now. I guess only being able to see the Jersey shore does have its advantages.

Trilogie de Crème Brûlée

After the beach, we walked down the Promenade des Anglais. It essentially ended up being a tourist street with a lot of overpriced cafes and casinos, but it was still interesting to see. I found it interesting that the casinos basically look exactly like they do in Atlantic City. Europeans always classier than us? I don't think so. We walked around and looked at some of the gardens that were near the road. We walked around Vieux Nice and found a cafe called Côte Sud. Our goal for the night was to find crème brûlée for dessert. We were successful, and I had moules farcies (stuffed mussels) for dinner. I figured since we were on the Mediterranean coast that their seafood had to be pretty good. It was delicious, though I have no idea what the mussels were actually stuffed with. Knowing the French, it might be better that I don't know. The crème brûlée we ordered was actually a set of three different flavors - one regular, one chocolate, and one we weren't sure. All were so good. It was totally worth every euro cent.

Our train left around 9am the next morning, so we didn't really see much of Nice that day. We were on the train for most of the day. I did experience a high speed train for the first time. The shortened travel time was nice, but the fast speed tends to give one a headache, especially when going through tunnels. The scenery on the way home was nice too, we had views of the Mediterranean and the Alps. The next night and day after we got back to Rome were mainly filled with studio, finishing up the last drawings of the Arturbain competition, and phase one of our studio project.

Yesterday, Cait, Clarissa and I celebrated our freedom from homework by going to the zoo in Rome, technically called Fondazione Bioparco di Roma, or a giardino zoologico. Much cooler sounding than just "zoo." It was a really nice zoo, especially for its size. They had a lot of animals you'd expect - giraffes, lions, tigers, bears, elephants. We went to see the seals, and it was their feeding time. I've rarely seen animals with so much character. One seal sat contently while the zookeeper gave him a checkup, and he waited patiently for his fish. However, the other seal strongly reminded me of a poorly trained puppy. He kept trying to sneak fish from the bucket, and would sit with huge puppy dog eyes hoping for fish. He also wouldn't sit still and was flopping everywhere to avoid his checkup. It was hilarious, and so adorable. It made the entire trip to the zoo worth it. We were also able to go through the reptile house and the aviary before the zoo closed. It was a successful outing after cartography. We also stumbled upon a huge dog park that was also within the Villa Borghese gardens. It was refreshing seeing so many people with their dogs... kinda makes me wish I had one here.

The rest of this week has been pretty chill, and today we discovered our Hill Towns field trip (which we knew nothing about to begin with) was cancelled/never existed, so we all scrambled to make travel plans. Clarissa, Cait, Justin, Naeemah, Rose and I all booked tickets to Prague, and all have an apartment to stay in for the weekend. It should be a good time, other than the fact that I can't speak Czech. I hear its beautiful there, but I guess I'll find out. My camera is currently malfunctioning, and it takes weird fuzzy pictures. I've ordered a new one from Wales (its ten times cooler just because its from the U.K., just saying) that is coming to me through the Royal Mail. It's currently in Milan according to the Royal Mail website, so hopefully I'll get it in the mail soon. This has made me realize how the pound to dollar conversion is even worse than the euro (and really, actually a lot worse), and how terrible Italy's postal system is. Shipping here takes so long, when in the U.S. a package from California could arrive in Pennsylvania in two days. Its already been five, and its still in northern Italy. Its a lot better than I expected, but still. I suppose the best things come to those who wait.

That's all for now. A presto!

I'll leave you with a picture of Nice. :)

A Weekend in Rome

Time has been going by pretty quickly. It is already October, and we've already been here in Rome a month and a half. That's pretty crazy, honestly. This past weekend I was just here in Rome, mainly to relax after traveling for two weekends (one of which was Oktoberfest, whew) and because we went to Ostia Antica on Friday morning.

Floor mosaic of Neptune, Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica was interesting, mainly because it is the original port of Rome from ancient times. Its mostly ruins now, but some of the remaining elements are nice to see. A lot of the floor mosaics are still remaining, and they're actually very detailed. Most of them featured Roman gods. One of the more complete mosaics featured Neptune, the Roman god of the sea.
It's really hard to imagine what all of these spaces looked like thousands of years ago. I'm getting a bit tired of looking at ruins to be honest, and am much more impressed by buildings that are still existing in their entirety. The Pantheon was essentially built around the same time, and almost fully intact. This impresses me a little bit more than half foot walls and pieces of frescos. Its still interesting to see, but it would be even better if we could see what it once was. Now that was probably impressive. We walked around for about five hours and saw most of the area. We were concentrated in the Castrum, which is the original area of the port before most of the expansion happened. There is a theater in this area, and its actually mostly intact. It's actually pretty cool because most of the steps ancients would sit on are still existing, as is the stage area.

Theater area, Ostia Antica

Cheeseburger at T-bone Station

Later that night, we went to an American Steakhouse in Rome for Rose's birthday. Our party included myself, Naeemah, Clarissa, Rose, Rachel, Cait, Justin, Kyle, and Simon. We were all really craving cheeseburgers and steak. We found one right in Trastevere called T-Bone Station. The cheeseburger was quite good, as were the onion rings we had and the barbeque sauce. Its refreshing to know that there are places in Italy that serve "American food." Hearing people say that they're going to go eat "American" also sounds really strange. I guess we're known for steak and burgers. I guess there are worse things. It was a good night, and it was great to be able to have a burger again. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I started eating one. There are a few other American places in the area, and it would be interesting to try those out too.

Piazza of St. Peter's in Vatican City

On Saturday, Rose and I went to an international market near the Vatican. We also stopped in the Vatican piazza, as I still haven't seen it yet. It really wasn't as large as we were expecting it to be. Pictures make it look enormous, and when we were there, it just didn't seem as astounding as I was expecting. The international market was called Castroni, and it was on Via Cola di Rienzo a few streets up from the Vatican. It was interesting to see what selection they had. They did have some American food like Chips Ahoy and Mexican food. They also had a pretty extensive section for Asian food and for English teas. I got myself some English tea, Chips Ahoy, and pancake syrup. Pancake syrup was almost ten euros. I don't think most Europeans have even heard of pancakes, even though they're so common in the United States. Later, we meandered over to Via del Corso to do some shopping for Rose's birthday with Cait. By the end of the day, Rose managed to get an entire outfit, including shoes. I'd say it was a successful day.
That night we went to Coyote, a dance club about 25 minutes walk from where we live in Trastevere. Clarissa, Naeemah, Cait, Rose and I all went together. They played mostly American music while we were there, and we met some guys who were also in architecture in Italy. The dance club was set up essentially like an American club would be, except that Italian guys act differently. They're more flattering, and they also have different perceptions of personal space. We didn't end up leaving until 3am. As we were leaving, a group of guys asked us to go in with them to help them get in. Guys had to pay ten euros to get in, while girls are free. Basically, guys still need girls to get in to pay ten euros, whereas girls can just walk in. Kind of sucks for them, if you ask me. There were a lot of guys in there though, so maybe that was why.

What I bought at the flea market

Sunday morning, I went to the huge flea market in Trastevere with Mackenzie. It was a successful day. I got a cloth bag for nine euros, when it was supposed to be ten. Some of the vendors like to haggle, and some don't. We also found a stand owned by a man and a woman who were selling real leather bracelets, keychains, rings, etc. I ended up getting a bracelet and a ring. They were gorgeous, and it was pretty amazing that they were all handmade and not that expensive. After the market, Mackenzie and I decided to make pancakes and have an American breakfast. After a long search for some oil that wasn't olive oil, we successfully made some pancakes with Rachel. It was a nice breakfast, and I have missed pancakes.

Well, that pretty much sums up my weekend. It was great being able to relax a little bit and be able to experience more of Rome. I'm also glad I was finally able to see the Vatican, and hope that I'll be able to see inside St. Peter's and the museum before I leave. This week is basically production week for studio since our first phase (the Arturbain competition) is due next Monday. Our project is coming along pretty well, and it's actually kind of fun to work on. This weekend I am going to Nice, France in the French Riviera and Clarissa and Rachel, so that should be fun.
A presto, ciao.