Italian buses are confusing, the Roman Forum is beautiful, and the Colosseum takes your breath away!

This last week has been crazy.

Rome is so cool I can’t even begin to describe it. The other day I went for a run, which I figured I should do cause it seems like all I do is eat and drink (water, and nothing else), got lost and ended up at the Coliseum. That’s been one of the highlights of my trip so far.

Another highlight was getting lost (this is a recurring theme) on the bus and rapping (that’s right, rapping) our way back home. We were in the Roman Projects. More on that later.

What’s been going on since the last post? Well, the guys cooked dinner for a couple of the girls last Wednesday, followed by a Pub Crawl at the Coliseum Thursday. We went to about three bars before we split up and ventured off into the night. It was pretty expensive (20 Euro) but was a pretty interesting experience, and I got a cool shirt so it wasn’t all bad.

At the Pub Crawl. Yeah, that's the Colosseum in the background!


The next night we went to Club Micca with our Italian T.A. While it seemed more like she was babysitting us at first, eventually we got past that and had a good time. Then she left (right before the Cabaret that was both cool and a little disturbing) and told us to get on bus N12 to get home. So we did. Unfortunately, it was the N12 that went in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. 20 minutes later we figured this out, jumped off the bus, crossed the street and tried again, this time with much better results.

In the VIP at Club Micca



After that it was a night out at the Scholar’s Lounge, where I watched the Saints run all over the Cardinals and won a free drink because of it. After another late night, we took life easy on Sunday, taking the 116 that we always see drive by our house all the way to Borghese Park, where we got to see a beautiful view of Rome. We go back as a class in a couple weeks, and I can’t wait. It was the first time all trip I had seen grass!

Last night was taken up by a screening of “Gladiator” with one person from the program and 10 kids from the honors program. Then we went out and walked around for awhile before heading home.

Finally, getting up to today. Our first Roman Civilization excursion involved walking through the Roman Forum. It was incredible. And beautiful. And old. Much like Angelina Jolie. It was almost haunting walking past monuments that have been up for thousands, (THOUSANDS!) of years. Sometimes it’s hard to fathom it all.

On top a hill looking over the Roman Forum


We even had beautiful weather!

Then, since we had a ticket to explore for the day and an extra half an hour before Italian class, Semir, Whitney and myself ran into the Colosseum and looked around. Holy cow! It was an amazing sight, and a little surreal, especially, after just seeing “Gladiator” the night before. When you think of how long it’s been around, how huge it is and the fact that it only took 5 years to build way back in the day!
It takes 2.5 years for them to repave a two-mile section of I-5!

At the Colosseum


It was my favorite place that I’ve been so far in Rome. The only thing that could've made it cooler was if my camera's battery hadn't died.

The last picture I got before the battery went out.


It was a heck of an experience and is going to be hard to top. Fortunately, I have a little over 7 weeks to try to do it. And with my three page paper that’s due tomorrow pretty much done (I say “pretty much” very liberally) and a trip to Florence coming up this weekend, anything’s possible!

Ciao!

Dear Dad

Once a week I’m going to write a note to someone specific . If you still want to read it, be my guest, I have no secrets! And look out, you may be next!

Dear Dad
What’s up? As I’m writing this I see that the Grandpa of the NFL is leading the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game. Congrats!

How’s life back in the states? Glad to hear Emily hasn’t crashed Tara yet. Just the thought of her driving at all makes me a little nervous, but I’m slowly coming to terms with it. Maybe every once in awhile you could check her oil because I know there’s no way Emily will ever do that. Ever.

School’s going well. I have a giant presentation tomorrow that I’m trying very hard to care about, but really, there are about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (you get the idea) other things I’d rather be doing than homework.

But regardless, grades should be ok this quarter. And if they dip a little bit, hey, you don’t have to get me a car after graduation. So it wouldn’t be all bad.

I’ll try to get a few pictures up of the past week soon (I saw the Coliseum twice! Once sober, once a little bit less so-It was a Pub Crawl which was kind of a waste but still not too bad).

All in all, life is pretty good. Don’t have too many complaints and if you ever want to complain about a certain short, blonde, chatty family member or just discuss football, my phone’s always on. And has a bad tendency to ring in class (Italy texts me daily, I just wish I knew what it said!).

Take it easy and I’ll talk to you soon. Love you!

David
:D

Learning Italian: It's a Work in Process (Italian Language Post #1)

(Disclaimer: This is post for my Italian class, so it's not quite as exciting as my other posts, but I tried to liven it up a little bit!)

So we've had six days of Italian class (totalling roughly 300 hours) and already I feel like I'm finally starting to get a grasp on the language...maybe...just a little bit. Three years of Spanish helps (some words are very similar, “diche” (Spanish) and “dice” (Italian) both mean “say”) but also hinders (I can't tell you the amount of times I've started counting “uno, dos, tres...”).

As I get more and more comfortable traveling around Rome, I've also started to enjoy speaking Italian to locals and shops and restaurants (see video below). Unfortunately, I estimate that I have the linguistic knowledge comparable to that of an average Italian six year-old. But I'm trying, and that's the important thing.

There have been two instances this past week in which I really wish I had a larger Italian vocabulary. The first was at the grocery store around the corner from our apartment. Being the graceful, coordinated person that I am, I walked around a corner and ran into a parked shopping cart. I wanted desperately to say “I'm sorry” and “let me help you.” Instead, I said “scusi” (“excuse me”) and went to help pick the groceries up. The man whose cart I ran into did not appear to want my help, or accept my terrible apology. He grabbed the last few things and headed away toward the checkout stand.

It was the first time that I felt my inability to speak the language really hurt me in Rome, and prevented me from being myself and doing what I wanted. It wasn't my favorite situation of the trip, but it did encourage me to look up a few phrases that I could use should this situation happen again. Next time this happens (I'd like to say it won't happen again, but really, who am I kidding) I can immediately throw out a “mi dispiace” (“I'm sorry”) followed quickly by a “io vi aiuterò” (“I'll help you”). While I may get the exact same reaction, at least I can say I tried, instead of just standing there like a goofy, helpless American.

The other situation I really wish I had had a more extensive vocabulary during was when I went for a 20 minute run and two and a half hours later realized I was lost. While it was cool to get out and explore my new surroundings, by the end of the run it was getting dark and raining. I asked a couple locals how to get back to the Campo De Fiori, where I could easily find my way home from. I didn't know how to ask “Where is” the Campo, but figured if I just said my final location and looked scared and confused they'd know I was trying to get there.

That was all well and good until I talked to somebody who knew exactly how to get back to the Campo, only problem is he explained it in Italian, and realized halfway through his explanation that I had no idea what he was talking about. He tried to gesture in the general direction and say things like “Piazza Navona” (which I had heard of) and “Piazza Popolo” (which I had not heard of). Fortunately, I was able to head off in the right direction, find the main street that took me toward the Campo De Fiori, and make it back to the monument in the middle, and ultimately my apartment. And, even though I was absolutely exhausted, was never happier to run up the four flights of stairs and lay down on the couch. Mission Accomplished!

Yesterday in class, we had our first introduction to directions, which is awesome and helpful, just a few days late. One of the first phrases we read would have been enormously helpful the other day:
“Scusi, mi sono perso. Sa dirmi dov'è il Campo de Fiori,” which translated means, “excuse me, I'm lost. Can you tell me where the Campo de Fiori is?”

We also learned basic directions like left and right (“sinistra” and “destra”) which I immediately remembered the nicest and most patient man in Italy telling me. “Continuare” (“continue”) also came up in our awkward conversation. A few more helpful words and phrases I've learned are: “E vicino?” (“Is it far?”), “attraversare il ponte” (“cross the bridge”-we live by about four), “lungo” (“alongside”) and finally, just the basic “strada,” or “street.”

I want to stress again, that for the most part, I've been able to get around pretty easily. But situations happen. I'm doing my best to soak up as much Italian as I can, so that I can be the most successful here, and brag about being tri-lingual when I get home. Now if you'll excuse me, now that this class-mandated blog is done its time to “vado alla festa” (“go out to a party”). That was one of the first, and most important phrases I've learned here so far.

David Orders Gelato

Wow...I thought I was an intense sports fan

Holy cow. I think it's safe to say that it's a miracle that those of us who went to the Roma/Triestina soccer game last night are still alive. Things got a little crazy.

Stadio Olympico


European soccer is insane! I feel like insane is a serious understatement, but I don’t know what else to call it. Crazy. Loco. Mesmerizing. Incredible. Wild. None of these words do it justice. I considered myself a super sports fan, some may even say an enthusiast. But I was humbled last night. I have nothing on any of these guys! The people chant the whole time. Scream their lungs out. Wave giant flags for 90-plus minutes. Make their own homemade confetti to throw up. And when Roma scores…my gosh!

Yeah that's a flare going off, in the stands. Totally safe!


Final Score: Roma 3, Triestina 1


The final score was Roma 3, Triestina 1, but that’s not what I’ll remember from the night (although I am glad that the game didn't end in a tie). I’ll remember the stunned look on everyone in our program’s faces when people started falling onto us from the rows above. The mosh pits that began at the end of certain songs, and the clapping and laughing that accompanied others. The flares people ignited IN THE STANDS and the cannon shot that came out of pretty much nowhere. The experience was so incredible and surreal, I spent the majority of the night pinching myself to make sure it wasn’t all a dream.

One final side note: I also got to order my first beer at a sporting event, which made the whole night even better!

Representing for Seattle at the Stadium


The match made such an impression on many of us, that we’re heading back Sunday afternoon to catch another game, Roma vs. Genoa, an official Italian Serie A match! Last night was the five best Euro’s I’ve spent in Rome, and I can’t wait to go back and check out another game. This time I hope I’m a little more prepared for what happens, but after last night I’m fairly confident that I have no idea what's in store for me when I head back to Stadio Olympico.

Which makes it all the better.

A few pictures from Week 1

So I finally figured out how to upload pictures too, so the posts will be a lot more interesting and exciting from here on out. I know everybody loves pictures instead of reading! Or at least I do. So here are a few of the highlights from the first few days, and I will get more up with subsequent posts soon!



Our amazing apartment



The whole group



Our table at the First Meal in Rome



Eating dinner on the Tiber River



The Spanish Steps



This city is beautiful!



Epic picture at the top of the Spanish Steps.



Had to try some Viagra gelato



At the Trevi Fountain



The view from my classroom


Chilling on the monument in the Campo De Fiori (main Piazza where our school is)



Hitting up the bars (responsibly of course!)



Keeping the girls safe



See I study too!

Dear Mom

Once a week I’m going to write a note to someone specific . If you still want to read it, be my guest, I have no secrets! And look out, you may be next!

Dear Mom,
Ciao. That’s the extent of my Italian knowledge. I can also count to roughly 160-something. Then I get angry over how stupid I am and quit.

Hope Marysville’s ok and Emily hasn’t driven everybody completely crazy. Odds are she has, but you never know. She could surprise me.

I’ll still try to call you at least once a week to let you know what’s going on, but you really don’t need to worry about me. I got this! Italy is amazing, and I love everybody back home, but I really don’t want this to end. It’s only the end of week 1, and I’m already in utter disbelief at everything I’ve gotten to see and do.

Today we hit up an epic flea market. I feel like this would be the part of Rome where you shine. There’s bartering down from the already cheap prices. I think I still have to work on my skills a little bit, but I did alright.

School’s started and its given Rome’s coolness a little bit of a hit. But it’s not too bad, and grades should be fine this quarter.

Money hasn’t been much of a problem yet. All I buy is food and cell phone minutes. I keep tearing through those, because we all call each other a lot. But it’s all good. I’m even doing some work for an Italian law firm tomorrow, to earn a little extra cash. And by work I mean moving boxes around their warehouse on the outskirts of town.

As for all the pictures you may have heard about or will see when I can get home, don’t worry! Responsible is my middle name, and we’re all having a good time, but we’re absolutely safe. We all do a fantastic job of looking out for each other at the bars, and there have been no incidents. The girls get us through the night, and then we get them back home at the end. It’s a good system.

Well I better get going. There’s some reading that I have to do for tomorrow, and I want to be a good student up through at least week 4. Take care, I love you and I’ll be in touch!

Arreviderci!

The Top 10 Things About Rome (so far)

The Best things About Rome --- Week 1

After a few days here, I'm starting to begin to take in some of the Italian culture. These are my top 10 favorite things from the first couple days in Rome.

10.)The apartment. With all due respect to everyone else in the program, we by far have the best apartment to live in. Trust me I’ve seen them all. I love the Cottage, but that might not cut it after this place. We have an awesome living room, a sweet balcony and keys that are from the olden times and just add so much to the whole experience. That’s right, keys!

9.)The rest of the shops. There’s small ones, big ones, and millions in between. But they’re all cool and I want to buy stuff from all of them.

8.)The Campo De Fiori. Picture the world’s best farmer’s market, then throw in a few high scale restaurants, some specialty stores including a fantastic liquor store and a monument in the middle that you can sit on and people watch all day and you still can’t imagine the awesomeness of the campo.

7.)The professor. P. Moy gets more and more legit every day. I really hope she goes out to the bars with us this weekend.

6.)The students. Our group is amazing. Everyone is awesome, we get along phenomenally and we’re going to have one hell of a trip!

5.)The driving. People are freaking crazy. I feel like I’m a careful person but I still almost get run about 15 times on my way to class. I'm 94.3% sure that someone will get hit by a car before the trip is over, and I think the odds on favorites are me or Matt.

4.)The bars. Granted, this is my first go around with the whole bar thing, but I can’t imagine it’s this fun in the U.S. Having 20 people that came with you to a foreign country to get you drinks and play beer pong with definitely helps.

3.)The views. Buildings that have been around since before the United States (and my parents :D) are all over the place. They just blend in with everything else.

2.)The people. They seem just as fascinated with me as I am with them.

1.)The food. Hands down. This stuff is incredible. Papa Murphy’s will never taste as good again.