La Fine d'Agosto

Buongiorno a tutti!

I’m sorry for not updating sooner –this first week has been pazzo!! I never knew there was this much work involved in planning, coordinating, and facilitating a study abroad program that’s only a month long… Silly me, right?

Anywho, Roma is as gorgeous as ever. The weather has actually been pretty pleasant here –not too hot. And when it is hot, there are always fountains like this one throughout the city to take a quick dip in. Well, not really. But they are certainly nice to look at!

As for living quarters, my apartment is simply fabulous. I really couldn’t have asked for a better situation. It’s right behind the Trajan Forum (which is across the street from the Roman Forum. Actually, it used to be all one before Mussolini decided to build a huge street right through the middle of it so he could march triumphantly through the city…). The apartment is quite spacious, and has been recently redone, and the furniture seems to be mainly comprised of IKEA (I’m not kidding). I live with two of the students on the program, who are lovely roommates and very fun to be around. We did have another who was supposed to live with us, but she left the program right before it began. So… we have three of us living in a five person apartment, which translates to… SPACE! (a rare commodity in Italy) We have two bedrooms -1 with 3 beds, 1 with 2-, two bathrooms (WOOHOO!), a pretty kitchen, and a very spacious living room (you can see part of the kitchen in the background).

We also have air-conditioning in most rooms, and beautiful hardwood floors… I really don’t know how we got this lucky! Frankly, I don’t think I could afford this apartment if it was in Seattle!

Here’s a pic of the street we live on (Via Baccina):


That’s pretty enough –BUT if you look the opposite direction, you get a real “behind the scenes” look at the Trajan Forum. (look closely at the end of the road -this was taken from our front door!!)


And if you look through the arch in the middle of this pic, you’ll see the end of our street!

If you’ve forgotten who Trajan is, here’s a pic of the famous “Trajan Column” he had built to commemorate the story of his great battle victory (you can see the pictoral story wrapping around the column, all the way to the top.) It’s quite impressive in person.


Well, I’d better get back to work –just wanted to update y’all!

Tomorrow, we take a short trip to Ostia Antica, then several of the students and myself will head down to Sorrento for the weekend! (limoncello… mmmmm….) If you want to see pics of where we are staying, I’ve added the link for the hotel’s website. We got a GREAT deal on this place, otherwise we’d have never been able to afford it…

Well, to tide you over till next time, here’s an image of the two basic Italian foodgroups (eaten consecutively, not concurrently... unless you're very brave or very strange):


Really, what else do you need? (besides gelato of course. But I can never stop eating that for long enough to take a picture of it… Speaking of which... Well, the gelato is calling!)

Tanti Baci,
Kiera

Nel Cuore della Citta` Eterna...

Ahh Roma, the eternal city...

I am sitting in the faculty room in the Palazzo Pio (which houses the UW Rome Center), trying to stop sweating like a farm animal (it's the evening so it's not terribly hot -just HUMID), and growing hungrier as I smell wonderful things wafting in through the large open windows.... Soon I will head down to Sabrina's apartment for dinner with her, an LSJ student and the little girl that Sabrina is babysitting for another professor. Mmmm, I can just taste the pasta con burro, parmigiano e spinaci right now...

Well, it's been quite the adventure to get here, though things went more than well, travel-wise this go 'round.

Yesterday morning, I was wisked away from home at O Dark O'Clock (i.e., 3:30am. Yes. AM.) by the friendly Shuttle Express driver. I got to the airport at 4:20am for my 7:10am flight, thinking things would be dead and I'd breeze through everything.... hahaha. ha.

At this lively hour of the morning, the line from the American Airlines International Check-In counter stretched through their cordons, around the corner, and down all the way to the beginning of the security line, which, granted, was considerably shorter.

Anyway, once I was checked in, things went swimmingly. The flight left on time, and on the leg to Chicago, I chatted to the girl next to me. It turns out she was flying to Rome as well, but then on to home: Israel.

She was very nice, and we had a very interesting conversation. Actually, she reminded me quite a bit of one of my best friends in middle school, who was from Ukraine. We had a lot of fun being geeky together. Then, while we were both waiting in Chicago, she asked me if I wanted to play a game while we waiting, as our conversation about the differences between the American and Israeli school systems was kind of dying down. I guess her father loves games (sound like anyone I know?), so she had bought one as a gift for him, and figured he wouldn't mind if we broke it in for him.

So we sit down on the floor of the gate lobby, and guess what she pulls out of her bag? Settlers of Catan! What's more, she already knew the game well, and so continued to whip me quite soundly... (Dad, please don't disown me...)

Unfortunately, we were not seated anywhere near each other on the flight to Rome, so I only saw her again briefly a couple of times. But isn't it neat when you meet such fun travel partners?

Anyway, our flight to Rome was uneventful, and we actually arrived nearly 30 mins early! I couldn't believe it! A flight from CHICAGO, to ROME (neither of which are exactly known for the promptness of their flights...) was EARLY... *insert twilight zone music*

I splurged on a car and driver from the airport into Rome, and chatted with him in Italian. He was quite nice and recommended some good Italian music for me. Boy did it feel good to be back in Rome, flying down cobblestone streets by the Vittorio Emmanuele monument and the Palatine hill...

I arrived at the Rome Center bright and early at 8:30 this morning and got my keys. I had a meeting with Sabrina and we went over all sorts of logistical things for the program. We sorted through the calendar, figured out that, despite what the office said, I had not been "rented out" (without my knowledge) by the Design program for three days to translate for them in Pisa and Parma, and discussed general logistics.

Well, I thought I would be able to make it the whole day before I crashed, but alas, twas not to be. By 11 o'clock, all I remember is hearing Sabrina ask me if I wanted to take a nap in her apartment (in the same building as the UWRC, unlike my apartment). As I was feeling rather woozy, I agreed and thanked her profusely. I drank a couple glasses of water and drifted off to the sounds of the market outside the window.

I woke up a couple hours later, about 1:00, and talked to Sabrina, who had tried to get the cellphone I'll be using for the program. Well, to make a long story short, there were complications, and so we decided to put that off till the evening. I gathered my luggage, called a taxi, and headed over to my apartment to meet the landlord.

It ended up being a very quick ride, and I beat him there by about 15min. So I hung out and watched the Italians making their afternoon passagiata. When he showed up, he was very nice and actually carried my heavy suitcase up several flights of stairs for me, despite my protestations.

The apartment is gorgeous! It's right near the Roman Forum and very close to the Colosseum... I will post pictures tomorrow, most likely, so more on that later. But just so you know. It's fabulous. :)

I was still feeling a bit woozy, so I decided to take another nap. Boy did that feel good. After about an hour and a half, I woke up to get ready to come back to the UWRC to meet Sabrina. While I was getting ready, I turned on the telly to see what Rai Tre, an Italian station, was playing.

It took me a second, but then I realized it was "Quantum Leap" dubbed into Italian!! It was truly fabulous, and I wish I could've stayed to watch all of it.

But Roma beckoned... Before I left the apartment, I took out my map to figure out how to walk back to the UWRC. I stared blankly at it for a few minutes, stuffed it back into my purse (just in case), and decided to just wing it, as I knew the general direction I was headed in... And 25 mins later, I arrived at the UWRC.

I met Sabrina, and we went and rented a program cellphone for me (although it did take us a while -across the Tiber and back- to find the place...)

Now I'm back here, listening to a clarinet player in the piazza below play Mack the Knife, and about to go down and have dinner... La vita e` proprio bella, no?

Well, I will update more later, definitely with some pictures, but for now:

Arrivederci!!

T-10 days, 252 hours, 15,142 minutes

Less than two weeks before I leave for bell'Italia once more!

To say I'm excited would be quite the understatement...

Ahhhh... in less than two weeks I'll be sitting in a piazza somewhere, eating nutella gelato, listening to an accordian-man playing "My Way" for the 32nd time that day, and looking at the lights around the Colosseum, remembering when I saw Elton John playing Crocodile Rock right there on the Via Fori Imperiali...sigh...

Soon enough!

Until then, let's just hope that airline security measures ease up before I leave! I would really like to be able to bring my contact lense solution on the flight... Ah well, we'll see!

A dopo!