Home at Last... Goodbye Rome?!

Villa Borghese - Allan's favorite fountain

This will most likely be my last blog post while I'm here in Rome. I'll be on a flight back to Philadelphia as of 11:50am Rome time tomorrow. The semester has truly flown by, which everyone said it would. The past few weeks really have, since we were finishing up the work for all of our classes. Our last cartography walk was in the Villa Borghese, which is essentially the only place in Rome that is actually green. Its actually quite peaceful there, and its one of Allan's favorite places to ride his bike and read. I'm glad he took us there, and he even showed us his favorite fountain, which I found pretty cool. I'm actually going to miss him and Ann; I really enjoyed their class as a whole. We also had a wine tasting for Italian Studies since we've been back. The wine tasted a whole lot better than the olive oil, which was a plus. It was interesting though, and I've always been curious about some of the terminology when it comes to wine. Now I know at least a little more than I did. I also learned that usually at home (USA) I drink really bad overpriced wine...

Piazza Navona Christmas market

 There has been a Christmas market here in Rome, right at Piazza Navona. Though its pretty touristy, some of the stuff is actually pretty cool. I bought a few ornaments there to add some Italian pizazz to the Christmas tree this year. It was also a lot cheaper than the Christmas market in Paris. I love seeing Rome finally decorated for Christmas. All of the streets finally have lights, and some of the piazzas have nativity scenes. Its just such a nice time of year. I'm glad I was able to see some European cities during Christmas - I've always been curious what its like and how different it is from us. Each country has its own traditions, I've realized, but the basic concept of Christmas is still there and is still the same.

Well, this seems to be the end of my semester abroad. I don't regret any of it, despite some of my insecurities at the beginning of the semester. Living in another country has really put a lot in perspective for me. In America, we have so much available to us at so little. We can buy a camera for $80 when in Italy its 130 euros. Everything in our country is so fast-paced, and in Italy, they take it slow. There isn't really a right or wrong way to do things, but its really quite the learning experience when you realize that all cultures do things differently. Personally, there are things about Rome I didn't enjoy, but I will never regret living here. I just wouldn't live here again long term. It doesn't mean I won't come back to visit, though.
It was just so strange today, giving in our (crappy) cellphones, handing in our documentation discs, seeing studio, the Pantheon, all of these things one last time. It doesn't seem like it will be the last time, until all of a sudden I'm in the Fiumicino airport for the last time, and then I'll be back in America, where as much as I'll appreciate being home, it'll take a lot of adjusting. People speaking English - first weird thing that's really gonna weird me out for a while. Also will probably binge on some American food. Its still been fun though, and there will be plenty of things from here that I'll miss.

A presto, perhaps I'll blog again in America? We'll see. Its been fun, Rome. We'll meet again soon.

Ireland, Part 2, Back to Dublin and into the West

Trinity College

 So, we're going to pretend that all of these blog posts weren't within a few days of each other. I'm determined to keep this blog somewhat up to date. After we got back from our whirlwind trip to London, we went back to Dublin and met up with Julie and Ed again. We didn't do much on Wednesday night other than go to a pub for dinner and some drinks. The next day, Thursday, we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. We couldn't take pictures, but the books were cool. They also showed you how they were made and inked, which was awesome. I think it would be fun to bind books that way, but I guess it's not if that's the only method you have of doing it. It was also kinda strange walking on a college campus again. Rome has nothing even closely resembling a college campus like Penn State. I miss it.

Thanksgiving dinner

 Thursday night was Thanksgiving, which was totally weird since it didn't seem like Thanksgiving to me at all. Probably because I haven't been in America for quite some time now. We went to a pub for dinner (Fitzgerald's, our fav) and had shepherd's pie and cider. Not exactly traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but it was still good. Thursday night we went kinda crazy at the bars and were definitely enjoying ourselves at our "usual" bar, Busker's, with our seven deathly sins drinks and the breathalyzer. Yes, they had a breathalyzer at a bar. No, I don't think anyone should know what any of our BACs were that night. It was a good night, even if the club we went to was basically empty and Eric and I may have made fools of ourselves. Its all good. We were doing all of this when we should have been sleeping, honestly. We decided to go on the Cliffs of Moher tour on Friday morning... at 6:40am. It was an... interesting morning. Its a good thing we could sleep on most of the bus ride to Galway.

Fairy fort

 The bus trip started with taking us to Galway, one of the cities in Western Ireland. Our tour started from there, essentially going down the coast, stopping periodically, to the Cliffs and Moher and then back up again. On the way down, we stopped at some Irish ruins, which were essentially out in the middle of nowhere. We stopped at a "Fairy Fort" (essentially leprechauns), and we also stopped at a pub in Doolin for lunch. I had Beef and Guinness stew, which was delicious. I never liked Guinness until I came to Europe, really. I wonder if its just because I've had it on tap or if it just tastes better here...
We also saw tons of sheep just grazing in fields. A lot of Western Ireland doesn't seem to be too built up.  A lot of it was fields and mountains, which honestly is kinda refreshing. Its nice to know at least some parts of the world are green. I do see why most people associate the color green with Ireland, though. It seems that everything is green, even their passport stamp. Its kinda funny. It really is a beautiful country though, even when its cloudy.

 Once we got to our final destination - the Cliffs of Moher - it was absolutely breathtaking. It was so peaceful looking at the water rushing up against the cliffs... until you get pelted with wind or water. Some of the water coming off the cliffs would be going up because of the direction of the rain. It was so strange. Walking past certain parts of the cliffs felt like one of the worst rainstorms. We snuck past a "do not climb" sign to get farther into the cliffs (smart? probably not. was it a really short wall that even I could climb over? yes.). The wind was stronger here, and there was no real railing at all, which really kinda made me a bit nervous. All of us survived, and we watched the light hit the clouds and the water crashing up against the cliffs. We explored the visitor's center a bit too, which was built inside a mountain. Our way back mostly involved sleeping as it gets dark in Ireland around 4:45pm in November, and we were all tired anyway. We got back to Dublin in early evening, but unfortunately spent most of the night packing. Yay for early morning flights. It was nice to relax a bit before getting on a plane (again) and going back to Rome for two weeks of hellish work.

It was Christmas in Dublin when we were there. I loved seeing all of the Christmas decorations. They just started putting up decorations in Rome when we got back from Ireland. 'Bout time. Ireland & London was an amazing way to spend Thanksgiving break. I was very sad when it was over. It was also great to see Julie, Eric and Ed. I plan to go back to the UK + Ireland whenever I get the money to be able to.

Well, its three days until I return to America. I'm glad, but I think it'll be weird too. It'll be weird that people can actually understand me. Studio is officially over as of today. My goal is to blog about everything Europe-related before I leave. Hm.. we'll see about that. Ciao for now!