Costumes..Roma style.

I saw something very interesting on my run today. As I was waiting to cross the pedestrian crosswalk, there was someone of the opposite side of the street who was dressed like Jesus. He was wearing a white robe with a gold shawl over one shoulder. His hair was long and he had facial hair. He looked exactly like the way they portray Jesus in an image. He was holding a plastic bag in one hand and scripts in the other. As we walked past eachother I realized he was not wearing shoes! On the streets of Rome!! you've gotta be kidding me...the streets are littered with glass, dog poop and sharp objects everywhere! After he walked past me I think I did a triple-take. Oh..how I wish I had my camera with me! So-I was thinking...maybe it's his halloween costume? But then I remembered they don't celebrate halloween here. It was just one person who thought he was Jesus...ohhhh the things you see here!!

T-minus 10 hours until Brad lands in the Roma airport! I am so excited I don't know if i'll be able to sleep tonight.

One more thing...

The weather was BEAUTIFUL today!! We had the windows open in our classroom. We reached around 70 degrees with not a cloud in sight and a fairy-tale-story blue sky!

ah Ti Amo, Roma! thank you Jesus for the wonderful weather :)

Cappuci-sno

One of my favorite things here is the good tasting cappucino for 80 euro cents. To make it more Americanized I get a double cappucino to take away (thats what they say for to-go). The place I go to usually gives it to me in a coca-cola fountain drink cup because people do not normally get to-go coffee like Americans, but hey-whatever works. They drink coffee at "bars" (not cafe's) and stand up when drinking it, because if you sit down at a table you have to pay more. Also, the coffee's are so small it takes about 5 seconds and one gulp to drink it down..then you are on your way. Tomorrow morning is my economics exam (only two the entire semester) and I knew I would be up studying into the wee hours of the night so I decided to get a cappucino for extra energy. The bar I go to, I feel like a "regular". The guys running it love when I come in, probably cause I always tip them. They remember EXACTLY what I get and even once drew a flower in chocolate sauce on top of my cappucino..I was so sad I forgot my camera that day!! I went there and didn't recognize the guy who was working. I ordered what I usually get. It was a young kid and I watched him make the coffee. For some reason he poured the espresso into an old juice bottle before pouring it in the to-go cup and adding milk. It was strange, but I took it and left the bar. I walked to my apartment and started to drink it, only to realize there was alcohol in my cappucino!! It was some kind of Kahlua or Baileys and it did not taste good at all!! I made alyssa try it cause I thought maybe I was just going crazy..but she also said there was alcohol in it. Ah! So back I went...and the guy was extremely irritated. He didn't really speak english at all and he thought at first that I wanted alcohol in it. And then he said, no buono? Which I just agreed with. I started to get frustrated cause I kept pointing to the alcohol bottles telling him that it was in my drink. He finally understood then started slamming things, and eventually made me a new one very sloppily as he was talking to himself in frustration. Talk about RUDE service. I'm hesitant to go back now..

I should really get studying, but there are way too many things that are distracting me. Brad arrives Thursday morning at 7:25 am! Friday is Pisa/Florence and Saturday is Florence, then Sunday its back to Rome for mass at the Vatican!! I am hoping that the Papa (Pope in Italian) is doing the service so we can see him. I will try to update as much as I can as we start our travels around Italy!

ciao,

Sno

Italy+Mexican food= sno good.

One thing I have learned to appreciate from home is the different types of cuisine we are able to have-all located within 10 minutes of eachother. Here in Italy they are well-known for their food...but only Italian food. It's not very often that you find a restaurant which has chinese, mexican or even american cuisine. And if you do, the prices are extremely high and the food is not very good. Needless to say, I've had my share of Italian food and lots of carb-filled meals. I have been having this weird craving for mexican food, especially nachos!! I bought a tiny jar of salsa (which I was hesitant about because it was 5 euro, but I just wanted it THAT bad) and tortilla chips (which tasted like plastic) to have for a snack. While putting my groceries away, I knocked the jar of salsa over and it completely shattered all over the floor. I didn't even have it in my possession for longer than 10 minutes before it was gone! It pretty much ruined my day. I decided to take that as a sign that I am not supposed to eat mexican food.

Well, I finally decided to take a second stab at it. A few nights ago Maggie and I made tacos for dinner, but I didn't think they were very good. The tortillas were hard, the meat was not very good and the salsa tasted weird. It didn't satisfy my mexican craving.

Third times a charm, right??? So...out last night at a bar in Campo we wanted to get an "appetizer" type snack and nachos was on the menu. We all decided that sounded good and we ordered them. This is what we got for 4 euros.....

It was stale tortilla chips (which tasted nothing like tortilla chips) with 3 kraft single processed cheese slices melted on top (hard to tell in the picture)

it's official, I give up.

Looks like I will be sticking to Italian food from now on and waiting 2 more months to satisfy this craving with the one and only....chipotle burrito!!!

Freezing...with a chance of Sno?

Last week the weather was beautiful!! it was in the mid 70's...on the weekend I could have layed out in the sun somewhere. In a matter of about 2 days I was wearing my uggs, northface sweatshirt and scarf!! One night, I wore my mittens out and an italian guy on the tram was giving me a weird look. He then pointed at my gloves and said "It's not so cold for gloves" haha! yes, it really is!!!! Unbelievable how fast the weather changed. Not to mention..the heat in the building is city regulated so we have no heat until November 1st. During the day, the weather is comfortable outside (mid 60's) but at night it gets so cold! Our apartment is ALWAYS cold-day or night. My roommates and I bundle up while were here..last night I slept with the covers over my head curled up in a ball. Sometimes when we are REALLY cold, we sit in the kitchen, close the door, turn on the oven and leave the oven door open for heat. Quite ridiculous...but it works well!! I have been drinking lots of hot apple cider to warm me up as well. If it was possible, our apartment would be snowing right now.

Funny Story: I walk by our living room to see Alyssa bundled up while skyping on her computer....

I start laughing hysterically and say "I need a picture!!" so I go grab my camera, take a picture, then Gaby comes out of her room and says "what's going on?!?!?" looking like this.....

haha!! I love my roommates.

Bus ride home from Vatican City

After I helped Maggie move to her Vatican City apartment on Wednesday it was about 10:30 pm and I had to catch a bus back to Trastevere. I had to get on one bus, take it a few stops, get off, then wait for another bus to take home. The first bus I was the only one on so the bus driver made sure I got off at the right stop. The second one was a little more lively, with about 10 people on it. Needless to say, I felt safer on the second bus. This bus weaved through side roads. If you've ever been to Rome the side roads are pretty narrow and this bus is just barely getting through them. We get to an intersection where two roads cross and we are attempting to take a right with cars parked on both sides of the street. We would have got by fine except for one small car was parked illegally with its tail end sticking out (note: Italians park wherever they want, that includes on side walks and sometimes even half on the curb and half off). Because of this, the bus driver could not complete the turn and we are blocking the entire intersection. The bus can not reverse because there is a huge line of cars behind us so he just starts honking his horn trying to get the attention of the car owner. No luck, so the bus driver gets off the bus with his cell phone and calls authority to try to get the car out of the way. This whole process takes about 20 minutes. There are impatient Italians endlessly honking their horns in the cars behind us and elderly Italians pissed off on the bus. About 5 people got off the bus to walk up to the next stop to wait for another bus. An authority finally comes and starts writing a ticket when all of a sudden the guy who owns the car comes sprinting down the street yelling "scusi, scusi, scusi, no, no, no!!!" gets in his car and moves it so fast I didn't even have time to blink. We finally get through, and go to the next stop only to find the pissed off Italians sitting there waiting for another bus to come. ha! What they didn't realize was that the bus was blocking the entire road way and there was no possible way for any other bus to get through.....haha it was a good laugh!!!! Long night though.

Homeless day on the tram

Much like New York City, Rome has many beggars. They tend to be overdramatic here, on their knees in front of the Trevi Fountain or begging in front of churches. Generally, I see the same homeless people in Trastevere...to the point I could recognize them anywhere I go. One lady has an imaginary friend who she yells at all the time...one time I saw her sitting at a coffee shop outside with a coffee for herself and one for someone else, I assumed it was for her imaginary friend-they must have been getting along that day. Anyway, It's times like these I really wish I knew what they were saying when they speak in Italian.

So one day after school, I get on the tram to go home. The part of the tram that I walked in

had two homeless guys on the inside sitting on the floor with their huge dogs who were also on the floor laying down taking a nap. Because there was little room of where to stand, I stood right by the door. Trying to figure out what was going on, I was watching the dogs and looking at them. Out of the corner of my eye I see one of the homeless guys staring at me. I looked up and sure enough it seemed I was getting the death stare. I was scared out of my mind because he never looked away the entire tram ride. While this was going on, another homeless guy who I see often gets on the same tram, but up one door since there was no room by us. He was filthy looking with long greasy hair and dirty clothes. He was carrying a large bottle of god knows what, but it was orange and he was stumbling around. I imagine it was some kind of alcoholic drink (oh ya-the time was 1 pm). So he gets on, and if you know me at all you know I love

to people watch. So, I kept my mind busy by observing the other homeless guy. Next stop, a homeless girl gets on and it looks to me like it's his girlfriend. She is filthy as well and she grabs his drink and starts chugging while she's stumbling around the tram as well. It was quite entertaining to watch these two because for some reason they wouldn't hold on to the bars and when the tram would stop and go the girl almost fell about 3 times as she got whipped around the tram. They were talking extremely loud and everyone was looking at them. All of a sudden, the homeless girl takes out a cigarette and starts smoking!! on the tram!! I know Italians don't follow rules and all but I have never seen that one before. Thankfully, it was my stop next. I got off that tram trying to grasp what I just witnessed in about 10 minutes and wondering what the chances were, out of the 15 trams running that day, they all happened to ride the same tram as I did! hmm..interesting.

The overdramatic lady in front of hundreds of tourists by the Trevi Fountain.

Good Luck Justin!

jeesh it's been a while...I guess midterms will throw off your days. I always know when I haven't updated this because my mom continues to remind me..."SNO-UPDATE YOUR BLOG!!!" then I feel pressure to update. I think I'll do a few because there are some much needed stories I would love to share with you all. This one is for Justin...a good luck wish all the way from Rome. He leaves tomorrow for the marines 14 week boot camp in San Diego and I wish him well....tough journey ahead but what a great person he will be when he comes out! we will all miss him, especially around the holidays, but having katelynn there will fill the void of not having Justin. See you in 14 weeks Juice.....love you lots!!

half way point!

Today is the first day of midterm week. My first actual midterm is tomorrow morning at 9 am! wow..im half way done with my semester. Where has the time gone? So..before I started my studies I decided I needed to stock up on lots of coffee as my studies may not allow me to sleep much. I went to the grocery store for coffee and milk. One of my favorite things about Rome is all the different languages you hear! its unbelievable..some I don't even recognize. Waiting in line, the lady in front of me started speaking french with the cashier. I've had this cashier before and he spoke english to me as well. how awesome! I wish one day that I can do that with more than one language! how cool is that..anyway he starts ringing me up and he starts speaking to me in french.."parlez vous francais?" Having taken four years of french I'm able to respond to him and speak a little french. He then switches to italian, where he asks me if I want a bag and anything else I might need. again..I understand him and am able to respond to him in Italian. Honestly, I loved that! I kind of felt like I could speak 3 languages (even though I am no where near that). I am determined to be bi-lingual at LEAST and I've decided my second language is going to be Italian since I'll always be able to practice that when I'm speaking to my mom. And how perfect would it be that me and my mom are speaking to each other in Italian and none of my brothers or sisters will understand us-which means I can tell on them all I want (right in front of them) and they would have no idea!! ha!

time to study..lots to do!

baci,

sno

Trastevere: our home.

hello to all!!

I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while..its been a hectic week. So here we are...Thursday October 8th and we are just about to move out of the Vatican City apartment! After days of protesting through emails and meetings with directors, they have finally fixed our apartment in

Trastevere. When they realized how upset we were, they finally decided to do anything and everything they could to get those Italian plumbers to fix our sink..and we do not have to pay for it! It is finally fixed, although Gaby and Alyssa went to the apartment yesterday and there was still orange residue on the floor from the acid. So were hoping the move goes smooth, and that JCU pays for our cab again to get back there. 3 girls, 6 suitcases and 8 grocery bags will not be riding the bus/tram to get home.

My weekend with Tay was great fun. More expensive than I thought it was going to be because of all the dinners and shopping we chose to do but it was all worth it. I love having visitors! I enjoyed Bridget's comments throughout the trip...hilarious! Bridget accidentally stepped on a ladies foot in the tram and the lady gave her a mean look and said "scusi" very angrily. That was the first time Bridget was aware of the word "scusi" and she thought it was a swear word. When she figured out what it was..she used it everywhere we went! Secretly..I think she just liked saying the word..it was fun for Ana-I mean Bridget :) ha! You could tell by the last day that they were ready to go home though....their vacation wasn't much of a "vacation" but more of an adventure. Tay brought me skittles and starbursts....jeesh the American things that I miss! THANKS TAY! This weekend will consist of lots of jogs and shopping. Most of my friends will be traveling this weekend with a majority of them visiting Florence. Since Brad and I have Florence planned...im staying here this weekend. 20 more days until Brad is here then were off to Pisa/Florence and Venice! I can not wait!!

xoxo

buon compleanno per mia madre!!

Update from Vatican City

It is officially 2:30 am and we have just packed up all of our stuff from our trastevere apartment to permanently move into the vatican city apartment. Here's the unfortunate series of events that has happened....

11:25 pm- Alyssa comes back to Rome from her Venice trip and goes to our apartment in Trastevere to get her computer and clothes for the weekend. Alyssa discovers that the apartment is under water....with water coming up to her ankles.

11:30 pm- Alyssa calls me to inform me of this...and Gaby was made the messenger to inform us we all need to move out because they have to knock down the walls. Not to mention we had to call THEM first (11:30 pm at night) and they said..oh um by the way..........

(on top of this- We saw the housing DIRECTOR on the tram on our way to our apartment and she just laughed at Alyssa when she told her that her clothes were ruined from the acid and she said "I didn't do it")

Midnight- We all meet at our apartment, throwing everything and anything in our suitcases and plastic bags. We are standing in ankle deep water...filled with acid that was poured down the sinks to unclog the drains. We all have our own food, plus recently went grocery shopping so there is a lot of food to be transferred as well!!

1:30am- Get everything out of our apartment onto the street. Now we need to figure out a way to get it to Vatican City (6 suitcases, 3 backpacks, 10 plastic grocery bags of food, 4 girls) Call the JCU emergency hotline because they were the ones who told us to move out at 11:30 pm. Instructed us to call a cab. I call the cab...they do not speak english but I think what I told them is going to get us 2 cabs. In the mean time, Gaby's friend calls the emergency hotline again asking for them to help find us a ride...he says "It's 1:30 in the morning, please wait until Monday then I can help you" ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????

1:45am- 4 super pissed girls. No help from JCU, our RA or housing director who lives across the street from us. No cabs in sight. Legs itching from the acid. Call the JCU hotline back but this time Gaby is super pissed and yelling!! He says he will call us 2 cabs right away.

1:50am-Receive a call back..2 cabs are on the way in 5 min to pick us up and bring us there.

2:30 am- 3 elevator trips and 40 euros later.................our suitcases have arrived to our Vatican City apartment. A few cracked eggs and minor glitches but we are safe!!!!!

We have decided to be like the Italians and protest living in Vatican City (only were hoping it works better for us than it does for the italians). We are 45 min away from school. All our friends live in Trastevere...we need to get back there somehow.

kitchen sink update!

We have officially been relocated. No one can seem to fix the plumbing problem in our apartment and since they put acid down our kitchen sink to unclog it, they insisted we pack up for the weekend and move to a new apartment. We are now in Vatican City. The Vatican is our backyard!!! Don't know the area much so it's frustrating to get around but the apartment is cute. It's harder to sleep here because it's loud with so much traffic coming by all the time. I will post pictures as soon as I get back to the old apartment and can get my device to upload pictures!

Had an eventful day with Tay today!! Met them at their hotel...then we went to breakfast. One thing about the Italian culture is when they drink coffee they do not drink it with food..it comes after or before the meal. Patti was unaware of this so she ordered her coffee and also a sandwich. She was drinking coffee while eating and the workers were staring at her like she was crazy!! They were talking to each other in Italian and making fun of her. We couldn't figure out exactly what they were saying but they were being rude. After that, we split up and Bridget and Patti went to the Vatican and Sistine Chapel while me and Tay went to my apartment in Trastevere (which was completely flooded and moving in to our rooms!! Hope it doesn't ruin anything..) then went to Piazza Navona, did some shopping and saw Ancient Rome. We then met up with Bridget and Patti and got on a bus which was going to take 40 minutes to get to the colosseum (from the Vatican) Since the bus stopped right out in front of my new apartment, I decided to get off so that I can come and shower and get ready for dinner tonight. They will be making their way over after the colosseum and freshening up at their hotel. We are hoping to meet up with Andrea and Camilla tonight for dinner but we haven't heard back from them at all so we'll see.....

I'm not used to all this sight seeing! I'm exhausted!!!

time to get ready..

ciao ciao!

Che Problema?

Yesterday, I was taking a nap after school when Alyssa bursts in our room yelling..."Sonja! get up!! our kitchen is flooding!" what a wake up call...so I jump out of bed and sure enough there is water pouring out from underneath the sink, a pipe had burst and water is flowing. It's all over our kitchen floor and the rug is soaked. Being girls, we really have no idea what to do about this. I called the housing emergency number after hesitating for 10 minutes because we weren't sure if this constitutes as an "emergency". Now that I think about it.....of course it's an emergency! The guy with a strong italian accent says..."ok will send someone in half hour ok?" In the mean time we have to figure out a way to collect the water before it starts flooding other rooms. We find the ONLY bucket we have, and it is way too big to fit under the sink. now what?? We look around and find a plastic box (which was already under the sink) and used that to collect the water. It eventually slowed down to a drip which was good, but there is water EVERYWHERE. The guy shows up and speaks no english! he says "che problema? che problema?" and were like uhhhh......water and pointed at the problem. He then looks at it and says "I can not fix it". He leaves and says he will be back later. hah....WHAT!!! so he comes back a little later..mops up our kitchen floor and says he will be back in the morning at 9 am to fix it. He somehow managed to get the water to stop but other than that we can't use the sink. great!

The original bucket we tried to use

So today, Gaby and I wake up around 9:30 am and discover that a huge puddle of water is over the entire kitchen floor, into the hallway and coming towards our rooms. At about 9:45 the guy shows up with someone else. They mop up our apartment and put about 4 bottles of some chemical in the sink. They couldn't fix it and told Gaby "Big problem! Big problem in the garage we can not fix it, we will be back later tonight or tomorrow". Not sure what he means by that, but we were thinking there is a problem with the plumbing in the entire building. Our apartment smells terrible, and there is water all over the kitchen floor but today it's black since it's mixed with chemicals.

Now, I just received an email from our school saying "the siphon is backed up (the thing which functions as a vacuum under the sink). Due to the circumstance and extensiveness of the problem it will most likely result in a charge from the provider". just awesome....we didn't do anything and now we are getting charged for this service!!

Tay, Bridget and Patti..........welcome to my apartment!!

ha! I am still waiting for their call/email as they should be here soon! well let's hope seeing as the public transportation system decided to go on strike today so there is very very few trains, buses, metros and trams running today and they are planning to use the train and metro system to get here!! hope they make it okay.

Will continue to update on this unfortunate event.

Hopefully next time I can tell you it's fixed!

A few things you should Sno about Roma

I got an email from Marie yesterday. She's been here a few times and wanted to inform me of it, she titled the email "a few things you should sno about Roma". Having no idea what to expect from this, here is what she said.....

sounds like you are having a blast but there are a few things I would like you to sno.

1st thing..... The italian people do not shower or brush their teeth for about a week cause the water supply is very limited. Their quick fix to refresh their breath is to stop at the local gelato shop and grab a scoop or two (depending how bad the breath is) of mint flavored gelato!!! and pray it will work, most will find a shop right by the vaticano hoping there prayers will be answered!

2nd If you ever get into a fight with a biatcho ( bitch in italian) or guido just always know that the karate kid has your back and is just around the corner to back you up.

3rd If worse comes to worse and for some reason cant find the karate kid cause they all went on "holiday" you can always find Mr miagi giving tours around romas museaums to his family of 18 that just came from some place in asia. (they all look the same, I would also check the vaticano first)

4th Never RUN in ITALY!!!! The italian people will think you stole gold from the vatican!!! and you just might end up in the slammer!

5th Feel free to sing hit me baby one more time the italian men will think you really are brittany spears!

i love exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk to ya later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh yeah one more thing Rossana might tell you she ate her cat but just remember her english is not so good and if she takes you on a tour she just might have you finish the tour by yourself and you will need to find your way back cause she is tired and has to go home.

-Marie

hahahah!!! so funny!!! I hope you enjoy this email as much as I do. I was reading it in the computer lab at school laughing SO hard that the guy sitting across from me peered around his computer and looked at me like he was annoyed.
im off to my last class of the day before its the weekenddddd!!

ciao!