1-31-06

It's a beautiful morning here in Rome. You can actually see blue sky off to the north, although the south looks pretty gloomy. It's not too cold out today which I'm hoping means that warmer weather is approaching. I'm still sick, but not as bad as I was yesterday, thanks to the wonderful inventors of Nyquil.
I'm done with class for the day, so I have a few errands that I need to run and then I'll head home to work on all of my reading and whatnot for school. I wish I could say I have more exciting plans, but I need to get well before I can resume my adventures. But, for those of you brave enough, I do have an Italian journal entry for you to stare at.


1-30-06

Yay! I'm sick! I'm sick and in Italy! It's awesome! Actually, I'm making it sound better than it really is. I've been very proud of myself thus far, but I may have to give in and go down to the import grocery store and find some chicken noodle soup. I have to get my health back before Thursday when I leave for Napoli.
Yes, that's right, I'm going to go to Napoli this weekend. I'll be spending a day in the city and a day climbing up Vesuvius and wandering around Pompeii. I'm rather nervous about the journey because it will not only be my first time riding the train, but it will also be my first time in a hostel. I did my research though and the hostel I have booked is supposed to be very clean, safe and friendly. So, here's hoping!
This last Friday I wandered around the Via del Corso in search of a sturdy duffel bag to take with me to Napoli. Unfortunately, the only ones I could find were either Louis Vutton, Armani, or Gucci and they were all ridiculously expensive. In fact here's a picture of an actual store near the Spanish Steps in Rome.

That is a completely unaltered photo! So, that gives you an idea of what shopping is like in Rome. Anyway, I'm going to ask around today and see if someone can direct me to a store that's more in my price range. Besides, getting a designer duffel bag just screams out "I'm a rich traveller, come and steal from me!"
Saturday I went up to Tuscany with about 200 other American students. We went to Montepulciano and Pienza. Both cities were absolutely beautiful! We did some wine tasting in Montepulciano, had lunch/dinner (it was a six course meal!) at a Tuscany restaurant that made their own olive oil, and then took a short walk around Pienza. It was pretty much a great trip, except that it was incredibly embarrassing being around all the Americans who were being ridiculously loud and who turned a simple wine tasting into an all out drinking contest. Needless to say, I'm not actually too upset about traveling alone from here on out.
All right, now for the moment you've all been waiting for. There are two new songs up. There are also photos galore. There are pictures from Tuscany, a few pictures from Rome and I've started an online wine journal rather than attempting to save my empty bottles and bring them home. I will also hopefully have some video to put up later this week. We'll see how much time I have after homework.


1-26-06

Man, I'm tired! The last few days I have not been able to get much sleep thanks to the little old Italian lady that lives on the opposite side of my bedroom wall. As I mentioned before, she is hard of hearing, so she has to watch television on the highest volume level possible (11, for all you Spinal Tap fans). The volume that we are hearing in our room is louder than the volume that I would normally watch TV on in our living room! The roommate that shares the bedroom with me has complained several times to the landlord and building watchman about the woman. In Rome, if there is excessive noise after 11pm you can call the police about it. This is something that all American students are warned about when coming here. The Italians won't hesitate to call the police if their American neighbors are being too loud, we didn't think we would be on the opposite end of the equation. We would rather not have to call the police on a little old lady who just wants to watch her shows, but it is excessively loud and we need our sleep! So, we've talked to the people in charge of the building in the hopes that they will gently persuade the woman to turn the volume down and we won't have to call la polizia.
In other news, today is my last day of classes for the week. Tomorrow I will be hitting the shops in an attempt to find a smaller travel bag with massive locks and some maps for Milano, Venezia, e Napoli. I need to start planning my trips outside of Rome. I'm hoping to hit Napoli next weekend and see Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii while I'm there. I'll have to see what the weather is going to look like. I don't want to be climbing up a volcano in freezing rain. If it looks like it's going to be too cold I may head somewhere farther south.
Saturday I will be going on a day trip up to Tuscany with a JCU group. It may actually be snowing while we're up there, according to the weather forecast. Almost everybody I've talked to who is going on this trip has been very upset by that news. I, personally, would not mind one bit. Sure, it's cold, but when are you ever going to see Tuscany with snow?
I've found that most of the students studying abroad here from America cannot stop complaining. "It's too cold. The water pressure sucks. There's no Starbucks. I have to hang my clothes to dry. I have to do dishes by hand. My hair dryer doesn't work here. The pizza is too different. Nobody speaks English." etc. etc. WHY ARE YOU HERE?!?!? Honestly! The only real complaint I've had here, aside from having to deal with annoying American students, has been the little old lady and her TV.
Anyway, to get back to the weekend, this Sunday is the last Sunday of the month, which means that museums and other touristy stuff are supposed to be free. So, Lindsey, New Ian and I are going to go out to the Colosseum and do some other Roman sight seeing for free. We know these little inside tricks to saving money!
Ok, that's all until Monday. Have a good weekend everybody!


1-25-06

I am currently in the process of trying to get one of my classes changed here at JCU. It’s a really unorganized procedure. There is one registrar to handle all of the add/drop and schedule changes for all of the 700 or so JCU students. Classes started this Monday and all schedule changes must be made by this Thursday, after Thursday you are stuck in whatever your schedule says. If you want to add, drop or change a class you have to take a number at the registrar’s office and wait until your number comes up. If your number comes up and you are not there you will be skipped over and forced to take a new number and wait again. If you manage to actually see the registrar and the class you wanted to get into is full, you have to take a new number and wait again to try to get into another class.
Anyway, I am sitting in line for a second time this morning. I am enrolled in European History since 1945 at 6:45pm, the class gets out at 8 and I then have to walk either 20 minutes through all of the dark backstreets or 35 minutes if I go the long way around to all of the major streets. Either way, it’s a situation I am not entirely comfortable with. So, I tried to switch sections and get into the noon class. I stood in line, waiting for my D42 number to get me in to see the registrar. I managed to get in 3 minutes before she closed up only to hear that I couldn’t change sections. So, I went to my 6:45 class to see what is was like and came to discover that I didn’t actually have the prerequisites for the course (which enrollment should have caught way back in November). The class is way over my head and I do not foresee it being a course that I could handle, especially with the work load I already have for my other classes.
That brings us up to now, 8:35am Rome time, I am sitting back outside the registrar’s office which opens at 9, hoping that maybe I can sneak in when someone doesn’t claim their number. There is a class on Dante’s Divine Comedy that I am hoping I can get into. If not, I’ll be back again tomorrow to at least drop the history course all together. I’d prefer to take 15 hours here, since it costs the same amount of tuition as taking 12, but I also need to worry about my GPA, so, if it comes down to it, I’ll just drop it.

Later

Success! I got out of my history class and into the Dante class. Yay! I don't know if KU will let me transfer it as anything other than elective credit, but it's something that I'm interested in, which is all that matters to me at this point.
So, here are the classes that I am officially taking this semester:

• Math- Statistics

• English- Shakespeare

• English- Roman Influences on English Literature

• Italian- Composition and Conversation

• Italian- The Divine Comedy

I'm not too thrilled with my stat class or my Shakespeare class, I'm not a big math person and I really just don't care for Shakespeare. I never understood why Shakespeare is required for all English majors in pretty much every university. I know that he was an important figure in English literature, but why not require Milton, or Dante, or Dickens? Oh well, I'll be done with it after this semester and I have some friends taking the class with me, so it shouldn't be all bad.
My other English class is great. My professor is wonderful and the course material looks very interesting. I always like getting into a class that actually makes you want to get up early to go to it (it's a first period class).
My Italian conversation class is going to be tough, but I'd prefer it that way, especially since I'm in Italy and the language is very important. There will be absolutely no English spoken in class after day one, but that will force me to concentrate on spoken Italian which I'm honestly having the most difficulty with. I can read and write in Italian and I can form very slow sentences (slow compared to how fast they speak over here) but I can barely understand spoken Italian, which is a major problem. So, this class will be a challenge, but that's why I'm here! It's only my second day of Italian and I already have a paper due today on top of workbook excercises.
So, to reiterate a point I made yesterday, you know, that whole thing about not laying around in a Mediterranean paradise. Not only is it cold here but I am also working hard. This is not just a four month vacation, although I will be traveling over the weekends. I actually do have real classes with real homework and real tests. One of the challenges of coming up here is going to be time management. Eventually I will have more of a routine set up, but right now, it's rather difficult because the city is so enticing and I want to go explore (without getting lost out in the cold).


1-24-06

Yesterday was an interesting day. I started classes and, more importantly, I started getting assigned homework... whoopie! So, as soon as I finished my classes for the day I went out with my two new companions, Lindsey and Ian (this is New Ian, not Good Ian and not Bad Ian), in search of the Anglo-American bookstore to buy the books we needed for school. The bookstore is, unfortunately, no where near John Cabot. It is out near the Spanish Steps, which I had found on Sunday while walking up and down the Via del Corso. All of the maps at JCU say that the bookstore is near the Spanish Steps, so, we walked all the way over there (about 30 minutes from the school by foot) and then discovered that the bookstore is, in fact, not near the Spanish Steps. It is actually about four blocks away off on a side street. One finds out very quickly over here that the maps provided by JCU don't actually tell you where anything is, they just sort of point to a vicinity and expect you to magically find the location on your own.
Anyway, we managed to find the bookstore and after being loaded down with textbooks we decided to take a bus back across the river to Trastevere. Well, we somehow got on the wrong bus which took us in the opposite direction all the way out to the east side of town. From there we got on another bus to take us back toward the river near the Popoli where we boarded another bus that took us back down the Via del Corso towards the Colosseum where my friends knew exactly which bus would get us to Trastevere. The whole trip would have been much more fun had it not been freezing at the time.
Yes, it is very cold in Rome right now. Some of you may think that I'm just laying back in a Mediterranean paradise, but this is not the case. So, here is a map for you all.

As you can see, Rome is about the same distance from the Equator as Chicago. It is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit today and it's windy. I have to spend at least an hour a day walking outside just getting to and from school, although, right now, I'm spending probably at least an average of three hours walking around outdoors. Yesterday I was out for about 4 hours, Sunday was 6 and Saturday was 8. Yesterday was my first time riding the bus, everywhere I have gone to so far I have done on foot. So, find yourself a map of Rome, look up all of the monuments and places I have mentioned going to, and do the math. I will have legs of steel by the time I get shipped back off to Kansas!


1-23-06

It was a rather eventful weekend here in Rome (you have no idea how weird it is to type that). Friday night I went out with a roommate and her friend to Campo Dei Fiori to check out Italian nightlife. But, apparently, Campo Dei Fiori is more or less where all of the young Americans go to get drunk. The only Italians I saw there were either employees of the bars or preditors waiting for the idiotic Americans to drink enough so that they could steal from them or even take a few home. We stopped into a very cool bar called Magnolia where we had cappuccinos and I was brought a Mudslide in a lager glass.
On Saturday I went out to meet some new friends for lunch. We met at the Colosseum and then ate at a small cafe nearby. After word we went back to the Colosseum, decided not to go in that day, and walked around the ruins outside. From there we wandered into the Piazza del Campidoglio and then into the Vittorio Emanuelle II monument. Then we were in the Piazza Venezia where we somehow stumbled onto the Via del Corso. The Via del Corso is pretty much a mile of wall to wall stores. The streets are so thick with people that no cars could drive through, the emergency vehicles had to practically knock people out of the way to get by. We walked up and down the streets with our jaws down to our knees. It's really hard to describe the whole scene, you kind of just had to be there.
The next day I returned to the Via del Corso to do some shopping on my own. Right now Rome is in the middle of the saldi or sales. All of the stores here are selling their merchandise for 20-50% less than normal. So, I bought myself a new sweater (which I am wearing as I write this), two new shirts and my first Italian CD. I put up a song from the album for this week.
I also had my first conversation with an Italian... who was all of five years old! Still, she was an excellent talking companion.
Ok, now I'm off to my first day of classes here at JCU!


1-20-06

Alright, I’ve got a little bit of time to fill you all in on what has been happening during my first few days abroad. So, let’s start from the very beginning (it’s a very good place to start, after all).

• Sunday
  I woke up around 5am in Lawrence, KS. It was unintentional, I had actually planned on getting up around 8, but there was no way that I could get back to sleep. So, I paced around the house for a few hours, quadruple checking all of my luggage, cleaning up the last few things in my room and hanging out with my chinchilla. Eventually 9am came around and my good friend Jeremy from Through a Glass showed up to take me out to the airport in Kansas City. We stopped by Menorah to say goodbye to my mother and then went out to lunch with my grandmother and aunt where our waiter at the Chinese restaurant took a real shine to me... don’t ask. Anyway, after lunch, which I surprisingly managed to keep down (because of nerves, not because it was Chinese), it was off to catch my flight to Chicago where I would be changing planes to fly to London.
  
  

• Monday
  I landed at the Heathrow airport in London where I had a three hour layover before taking my final flight to Rome. It took almost an hour to get through the security at Heathrow before I was allowed to enter the actual concourse. The concourse at the airport was huge. It was like a mall that just happened to have planes hanging around. There were a lot of clothing stores, tacky tourist gift shops and way too many duty-free liquor stores. The liquor stores were weird because they actually had samples of their alcohol in the form of shot glasses for customers to try before they buy. There was honestly this very polite British woman dressed in her very formal department store attire asking customers if they were interested in trying a 15 year old Irish Whiskey.
  There was also a food court which would have been great because I was very hungry, but the only thing any of the stores were excepting was the British Pound and all I had on me were some American dollars and a lot of Euros. So, for the most part, I sat in the lounge area watching the arrival gates intensely, waiting to find out what gate I had to go to for my flight. Apparently, if you fly out of Heathrow you don’t actually know what your departure gate is going to be until 30 minutes before it leaves. Unfortunately for me, my gate wasn’t announced until about 20 minutes before take off and it just so happened to be at the farthest end of the terminal. So, I booked it over to the gate with my carryon dragging along behind me and just made it as the last few people were boarding.
  On the flight to Rome I got my first taste of real British cuisine. And when I say “British cuisine” I mean “We’ll-eat-just-about-anything cuisine”. I was handed a sandwich labeled as “pickles and cheese” and I thought to myself, I like both of those items, this should be a good sandwich for me. I then opened the package and my nose crinkled with disgust as I caught my first whiff of the curious meal. I peeled back the bread and studied the odd looking pickle relish that had been slathered far too generously on the sandwich. It did not look, taste or smell like any form of pickle relish I had ever been exposed to before. Take regular, American style, green relish, throw it onto a hot sidewalk where it can bake for a few days while being stomped on by the heels of dirty shoes until the concoction turns into a brown pulp. Then, smear it onto two pieces of white bread and stick some hard, sharp white cheese between that and you’ve got yourself a real British treat! Unfortunately, I was starving, so I scraped off as much of the brown mush from the bread and cheese as I could and tried to stomach it. I got about halfway through it before I couldn’t handle any more and spent the rest of the flight drinking strong coffee in the hopes of deleting the taste from my mouth.
  Finally, I arrived at the Fiumicino airport in Rome. I staggered off of the plane and went to retrieve my luggage. I nervously waited to see if my suitcase had made it to the airport or not and was relieved to see it gliding along the conveyor belt. It wasn’t until I pulled it off the belt that I noticed that both zippers on the very front pocket had been broken off and the pocket now flapped open. Luckily, I had not packed anything into that pocket, but still, that was a brand new suitcase and I was very disappointed.
  I found my way to where the Study Abroad Italy coordinators were waiting to shuttle the arriving students to their apartments. There were about 9 of us who had arrived at the same time. We were escorted to the bus where we loaded up and were then sent off with only the non-English speaking bus driver. He couldn’t read English either, which made it very difficult to figure out who he was dropping off at which stop. I ended up being dropped off on the right street, just not on the right block. I had to drag my suitcases up a few very long blocks (I was dropped off at 21 and I needed to be at 5). I finally arrived at the correct building and was thrilled to find out that it had an elevator and I did not have to carry my 80 pounds of luggage up the five flights of winding stairs.
  I met my first roommate and after unpacking for a little bit we decided to head out and attempt to find Friends Cafè where there was going to be a “meet and greet” event with other John Cabot University students. We got lost almost immediately, mostly because my roommate not only couldn’t read a map but she also didn’t know that there were written directions on the back of the map. Luckily, we came across some very helpful Italians that pointed us in the right direction and some other Italians that didn’t know what we were talking about and pointed us in the wrong direction. But, we eventually made it to the event, met a few people, ate some free food and drank some strange but delicious juice mixes. After word we found a much easier route home and I passed out from exhaustion almost instantly.
  
  

• Tuesday
  I woke up rather unexpectedly at 2am from an extraordinarily loud TV from the apartment on the opposite side of my bedroom wall. Apparently the little, old lady who lives there has trouble hearing and will sometimes fall asleep with her TV turned all the way up. So, I was blasted out of bed by an Italian action movie. I spent the rest of the morning in the TV room watching American TV shows from the 90’s dubbed in Italian. You just haven’t seen The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The Nanny or Matlock until you’ve seen them dubbed in Italian! I also became very attached to the Italian version of MTV called All Music, which, if you think about it, is nothing like MTV. They just play music videos and it’s AWESOME. European music videos are so good! I saw a lot of Italian videos, some were alternative rock, some were folk guitar and there was one rap. I saw a German, female rap group and a French reggae group. I also saw a great video for the Kaiser Chiefs “Modern Way”. It made me wish that I could balance a tennis ball on my head.
  Later in the day, our final two roommates arrived and our landlord came by to turn our hot water on and explain how to work all of the appliances in the apartment. After that, we made our way back to Friends Cafè for another JCU get together. This time we took the easy route and made a pit stop at a gelateria for our first taste of authentic Italian gelato... it will certainly not be my last!
  
  

• Wednesday
  We woke up early to start off our first day of orientations at John Cabot University. We arrived at the school on a very cold and drizzly morning and were welcomed by a wonderful assortment of Italian pastries, coffee, and orange and pineapple juices. I had this great puffy, flaky pastry with dark chocolate chips melted in the center. We then met in the Aula Magna auditorium for the welcome speech from the JCU president. Then it was a full day of various orientations; housing, safety, traveling, etc.
  During our lunch break I found an amazing pizzeria right down the street from the school. They had so many different varieties there. It was like the Baskin Robbins of pizza. I made myself very proud by actually ordering in Italian. I got a slice of the Margherita and then a slice of potato pizza. They were both amazing and they both had cheese, despite the information you may have received from the Through a Glass website.
  That night the SAI coordinators took us out for a Roman dinner at a local trattoria. We ate bruschetta, breaded rise balls, pasta with pancetta, salad and real tiramisu. This was all topped off with some excellent white wine. Unfortunately, there must have been a lot of whole milk or cream or butter in the tiramisu and I spent the night feeling incredibly sick.
  
  

• Thursday
  We once again had to arise for another day of orientations at the school. This time we talked about cell phones, the computer lab, the library and how to get around in Rome. I went back to the nearby pizzeria and tried a slice of their prosciutto which was also incredibly good.
  Later that afternoon, I walked down to the supermercato to buy some groceries. I picked up some of the essentials, like olive oil, various spices, margarine, and then a few items for meals like prosciutto ravioli and gniocchetti. I also bought some blood orange juice and a bottle of red wine for under 3 Euro (it cost only 20 cents more than the juice). I made some gniocchetti with a sage sauce and a glass of wine and sat down to enjoy my first home made meal in Italy.
  

Ok, now you are all caught up with my adventures thus far. I haven’t even finished my first week here yet, so expect much more. I won’t have internet access again until Monday, so, in the meantime, you can check out some pictures of my Italian apartment.

1-18-06

Ciao a tutti!
Yes, Sammy has arrived in Italy! I got in about 2pm Rome time on Monday afternoon, which was about 7am Kansas time. I was an absolute nervous wreck up until I left the Chicago airport bound for London. I spent the incredibly long flight watching Broken Flowers, Spiderman 2, Futurama and a few Wallace and Grommit shorts.
I moved into my Italian apartment and it is far better than anything I would have expected. It's very cold in the apartment right now, but it will be wonderful in the Spring.
I have not yet befriended any Italians, but I have been learning about my roommates and figuring out how to get along with them. So far, it's been smooth sailing, although I'm the only one who spends less than an hour getting ready in the morning.
I'm in the middle of orientations at the moment here at John Cabot University. The campus is small, but beautiful. There is a Swedish palace right across the street!
Rest assured, I will be posting much more in the near future, including photos and small videos, but I am still getting settled in and the rest of this week is pretty packed with paperwork (of course) and more orientations. But, keep on coming back, I promise I'll have something cool to look at next week.


1-15-06

I am only a few hours away from leaving the country. My bags are packed and I think I actually fit in everything that I needed to, just not everything that I wanted to. It pains me to be leaving behind my white fedora and some of my favorite shirts. But, it would pain me even more to try to carry another suitcase up five flights of stairs to my Italian apartment. The two I have are plenty heavy enough, thank you. Besides, now I will have room to bring back cool Italian stuff!
I will be posting again once I have arrived, gotten over jet lag and have found an internet cafe. So, until then, ciao!