The Masks and the Gasps

Marzo 2011

So it's been a while and I've been requested to put another blog up... ok Mom. ;)

So at the end of February I went to Venezia with 4 friends and we celebrated Carnevale right! (like mardi gras, but for the rest of the world) Venice is the place where Carnevale happens... THE place. Venezia is known for it's amazing canals, gondolas and Carnevale! I didn't feel like spending 20 euro to ride a boat... so I saw the other sites in Venice instead. We all bought fancy Carnevale masks for the occasion, but we were WAY underdressed in comparison with some of the people who went ALL THE WAY! The costumes were AMAZING!!! Not everyone was dressed up, but you could tell everyone wanted to be dressed up... this is like a BIG Halloween party (for all the American readers) where if you don't come in a costume, YOU'RE the one who feels strange. I decided next time I go for Carnevale, I will go FULL ON!!!!! :)

However, aside from the throngs upon throngs of people in Piazza San Marco (which is it's own beauty), Venezia truly is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I think partly because you can walk from one end of the island to the other (our journey to our hostel with our luggage at midnight when we arrived) in one hour. There are no cars or motor vehicles of any kind on the island, just boats, gondolas and bikes. It's a very tranquill city. (At least I'm sure it is when it's not full of people flocking there from around the world for 2 weeks for Carnevale) All in all, I had an amazing time...

One of my friends and I went to Burano (known for making lace on the island and having very colourful island houses) and Murano, (known for it's glass making) each about a 30 minute boat ride from Venezia. (6 euro, not 20)

I was also able to go see Pompei and the Amalfi coast over the past month... I've been busy. Pompei was amazing! It was HUGE, I spent 3 hours walking around in the sun taking pictures, playing with dogs (there's a lot of stray dogs there that are vaccinated by the city and you can adopt one and visit Pompei for free for one day! They're so lazy, just sleeping in the sun all day... ;) The city was really interesting, after Vesuvio erupted during the night, all the ash that fell covered everything so quickly there were still people sleeping or huddled together in fear. After the ash hardened, when scientists were escavating the city, they filled some of the cavities where bodies had decayed with a plaster mix thus forming a hard form in the shape that had solidified around a former occupant during death's claim. It was a beautiful city filled with history and really cool.

I recently went to the Amalfi Coast (I know Buddy and Lizzy, I was supposed to buy you guys some things there, but Buddy, I don't have your list yet and Lizzy, my friend said we could get the same stuff near Napoli for cheaper than there at Amalfi and Sorrento so... promise) The towns along this long, crazy, winding road were beautiful and the Mediterranea was the bluest water I've ever seen and crystal clear... I wanted to swim, but I was told it was still cold, so, meh, next time. :) There was also a BEAUTIFUL Villa just past Amalfi called Villa Rufolo that was like a fairy tale castle (a small one). Ivy on the walls, beautiful gardens and flowers, on the seaside cliffs over looking the sea and the village/town... so amazing...

The pictures don't do this amazing place justice, but the way there's a perfect harmony of mountains and the sea together is beautiful and makes you want to drop everything and stay there forever... lucky for me I've got a life line to pull me back to reality in August.

There are more pictures soon to be on facebook with all the good ones... these are just some of the pictures that I felt painted the portrait of my adventures the best.

I haven't heard anything from the Navy yet, for those of you keeping track of that, should be sometime in the end of March or beginning of April, I promise to keep you updated.

I miss you guys and hope you're all doing super-fantastic!!

<3 from Italia

Give or take a Month or Two...

February 14, 2011

So yeah, I know, I haven't written in a long time... it's ok, I'm still alive, however, I felt that forcing myself to write all this was taking a bit away from me experiencing it and no one wants that... well maybe my mom (just kidding).

So I have made some new friends (thanks to the awesome new facebook group that I never used and now only use when someone tells me to...) and some of my friends have departed Roma deciding that one year was a long time and the work was not what they expected or the families were not who they expected them to be. I'm lucky, I've got it easy, and I love it all... I'll be sticking it out... (sorry Dad ;).

I've been having lots of fun visiting other cities... saw Napoli when I went there for an interview for a Naval Scholarship, actually the city was Aversa, but I saw Napoli first... I made some friends in Napoli who showed me around and introduced me to their city (very friendly). We talked, ate, danced and watched movies and stuff... cool people. I went to the Royal Palace in Caserta which has a huge/beautiful park, a-freakin'-mazing!

Next week I have the week off and I'm planning on see other cities in the south... Bari and Lecche, just to name a couple, then I'm heading up to Venezia for Carnevale... I'm not sure what to bring... but I'm excited. I'm going with a bunch of girls I haven't talked to in a while because my class schedule changed but I'm sure we'll all have fun... I just don't want to be stuck playing protective male friend the whole time... that would be lame. You know how it goes...

Well I did do some videos in my "absence" and was going to meld them all together into one cool videoblog with music in the background and fancy-schmanzy stuff, but my computer's memory is running low and I couldn't use the right file types... all in all, too much effort, so you get the lame, raw product. Deal with it.

Thanks to you guys who have been sticking with me and checking my blog for updates... don't expect too many... but I will be here once in a while. :) Peace, love, rock & roll!

Trevi fountain with friends.

Walk-Running to the nearest bathroom.

S. Pietro Cuppola.

Best view in Roma.

S. Pietro altar.

Nativity in S. Pietro.

Hanging out at the Spanish Steps.

Reggia di Caserta.

Fontana di Eolo at Caserta.

Also for those of you who haven't noticed... I have new pictures up on FaceBook. :)

A Very Texas Christmas

Dicembre 15-27

So, I got a new camera for making video-blogs (vlogs) and the newest post covers most of these days... I ended up missing some things so I'll cover them here... but this should make the blogs MUCH easier to do and to follow... hopefully.

Dicembre 17, 2010

So on the Friday before I left, there was SNOW!!!!!! WHOOP!!! About a half inch maybe... it was beautiful. Nic and Lavi had their Winterfair which was just booths and fun things that they were selling and food and games... all the money was to go to charity... very cool and a lot of fun. I thought Nic's winter play was today, turns out, it was the following Tuesday, when I was not there. Dang.

Dicembre 27, 2010

Today we watched "The Expendables". It was pretty good, nothing spectacular but worth the watch. Then we went to the ranch to get ready to work cattle tomorrow. (Yes, I'm from Texas and have cattle... does everyone from Texas have cattle, no. I just happen to.) So Mom, Dad, Sis, and I all moved fence and chutes old school Egytian slave style, moving the heavy objects on rolling pipes... I felt like an engineering student trying to figure out the most effective way to move the chute, it sucked. I will take my anatomy classes or bio classes any day. ;) Tomorrow we spend a lot of time at the ranch, working cattle, then going hunting. There may be some rain... we'll see.

Well...Here's the link, let's hope it works.

Bombs and Baby Jesus

Dicembre 14/15, 2010

Dicembre 14, 2010

Today I "cleaned" my room a bit. I didn't do a full on 'Lela Haus' clean, because I'll have to do that later before I leave, but a good clean. Then I went to Piazza di Spagna to meet everyone for coffee. I was on time, barely after having to get off the bus because they said they were told they couldn't drive into the center. I waited 10 minutes, then found Jelco, then slowly, after an hour, everyone else showed up. Apparently, everyone else had the same trouble with their buses.

We went to au pair central for coffee, aka McD's, and I tried a "special" cafe'... it turned out to be like a caffe flavoured hot pudding with cream on top. Not a fan. I met a friend of Femke's that is also from Finland and she actually works about 3 blocks away from me! We then walked to "Little Big Town", a toy store near Piazza Venezia to find out the whole Piazza was surrounded by police in riot suits. Someone mentioned it was voting day, when Parliament decides if the current Prime Minister would remain in office, Berlusconi. As we were walking to the store we heard some strange bangs from a distance... it turns out there were riots earlier in the day and explosions in Piazza del Popolo. Raffa later told me this. The explosions were 'paper bombs'. I don't know what they are but there apparently were 90 through out the day, so that's what I think we were hearing... I haven't heard of anyone being hurt but it is a frightening concept. Berlusconi narrowly won the vote and will remain the prime minister.

A happier note... in the toy store, we found some fun things... I wanted to buy two teddy bears... both bigger than a VW Beetle, 2900 euro each. I took pictures with them. :)

Dicembre 15, 2010

Today I woke up and was planning on meeting Jelco at Piazza Navonna... I wanted to buy pieces for a presepe of my own. They were all so interesting, there were probably about 10 vendors selling the pieces and I found a set that I liked and bought some... I did my best to limit myself and not buy too much. I knew I wanted baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the 3 Magi, and an angel. This way when I come back I can have something to buy... an on going collection. ;) But I also want to make some of the pieces... all hand made, but not all Italian hand made. Then I went and had a great lunch where the pasta, secondo, tiramisu', and water all cost less than 25 euro, AND it was really good. I met the owners of the restaurant and they were really nice, I decided to buy a bottle of their wine. (I should stop buying things... I still have to get it all in a bag)

When I got home, I watch Nonna Jo help Lavi and Nic with their Italian homework, I learned about superlativo definitivi aggettivi... it is when an adjective describes something to it's maximum. If some thing is the slimiest, crunchiest, tallest, nicest, most elegant...etc. I used this knowledge when Nonna Jo made sausage cannelloni and fritatta tripa (super yummy omlet more or less)... I love eating here... freakin' awesome!!!!!

I then started getting some of my stuff together for my trip on Sunday. I was right, I have a lot of stuff... Dang. I am squishing everything down without trying to break anything... there are some fragile things... but I'm doing my best to protect everything. :)

Ok... caught up. Whoop!

OH!!!!!!! AND ONE OF MY BESTEST FRIENDS BECAME A UNITED STATES CITIZEN TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Jesús Alejandro Pérez Rementería!!!

I'm Too Sexy... (future tense)

Dicembre 13, 2010

I found a gym about 5 buildings away. For 6 months (Jan-July) it will cost 51.20 euro per month. I will begin in January. I am excited. I will be turning heads like never before. (or at least not running in the rain anymore :)

I spent all of today catching up on blogs and watching TV online... and for lunch I had the salad with tuna at the little bar down the street. Very good. :)

On occasion I suffer from orthostatic hypotenion... and I'm not alone. It plagues everyone from time to time. :)

Hard Rock

Dicembre 10-12

Dicembre 10, 2010

The big thing today was that I went to go see Rock the Ballet. Was I all alone surrounded by couples and families? Yes. Did that the experience in general any less enjoyable? NO!!! IT WAS AMAZING! 6 guys and a girl and a lot of good music. The first half was a kind of love story, but the second half was just all Queen and Michael Jackson music. Very entertaining. Afterwards I went to get pizza Napolitana in Trastevere. A filet of bacala' and sausage and cheese pizza. Very, VERY good!

Dicembre 11, 2010

I went to the center and shopped around a bit. I bought a new jacket for the weather... it's colder than I thought it would be, but no snow, dang. I bought Mom's Christmas present finally. Then went to dinner at Di Fronte a... with Jelco, Femka, and Gemma. Pizza Diavola= delicious/spicey! We drove to the center in Femka's car and had fun trying to find a parking spot (think the opposite of fun). Finally, we found a spot but we were not sure if we could park there or not, so we (Jelco and I) asked an officer writing tickets if we could park were we left the car. He said that we could, one cross bar sign (where we parked) is ok, but two (where he was writing tickets) was not. He also said it didn't matter because this was going to be his last street to check. ;) SCORE! Eventually we met everyone for drinks at the Drunken Ship, we had a fun night. I kept getting paid cash to buy drinks with my discounts! :) We watched some fashioned challenged Russian guys dance out of control (OOC) and we were pretty sure two were brothers. They were crazy and fun. Then we wandered around a bit (one of us, not me had too much to drink) and she kept us from going to the club afterwards. So we drove her home, 12 km outside Roma. The car ride was not much fun... Motion sickness in Roman traffic/streets is inevitable in a hot car with stop/go motions. Got back and went to bed, glad to be on firm ground ;)

Good news is there was not vomit of ANY kind on my new jacket.

Dicembre 12, 2010

Stayed at the house most of the morning and some in the afternoon watching online tv... then went and watched "Tangled/Rapunzel" in Italian. I figured I could handle it since it was probably written for 7 year olds. I understood all of it, not every single word, but all the ideas. Then I went and ate at a fancy restaurant called "I Carnivori" The antipasta, prosciutto e mozzerella buffala was AMAZING! Appartently, the owners make their own wine... maybe I'll have some another time.

La Festa Dell'Immacolata Concezione

Dicembre 7-9, 2010

Dicembre 7, 2010

I went to class this morning, it was just Barbara and I... we did verbs and words in the kitchen to help prepare us for the party at school where we had to bring a dish from out home country. After class Erica, Gemma, Axelle, and I went grocery shopping for our foods. They were making Rice Krispies(US), scones(ENG), and crepes(FRA) respectively. I then returned home to start cake #2 it turned out a little over done, and not enough sugar, but next time I GOT it. Good news is the applesauce works. My pasta carbonara tonight was wicked awesome ;)

Dicembre 8, 2010

La festa dell'immacolata concezione is to celebrate the (phonetic clues) immaculate conception of the Holy Mother.

I took the bus to get some applesauce (I didn't buy them all at the same time yesterday, dumb) I finally finished the cake (and watched the Christmas GLEE while it baked) then attempted the arduous journey to school with a cake that was not quite finished cooling. I got on the bus and had never seen it this croweded! One guy accidently dropped the people's elbow on it and one lady refused to give me ANY room for the cake and kept bumping it, so I held it above her tiny head and taunted her with the possibility of me dropping a 7lb/3.5kg cake on her head. Finally I made it to the party... 45 minutes late.

There was SO much food there! I tasted food from: ENGLAND, THAILAND, AUSTRIA, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, BRAZIL, AUSTRAILIA, BELGIUM, and USA. There were probably more, I just don't remember all of them. The final cake turned out great! It was one of the MANY things I ate. After consuming WAY too much food, I went back to the flat and slept for about 2 hours. Afterwards, I did some Christmas decorating, hung out with some friends, and had a good holiday in general. I've decided the presepe is my favorite Italian Christmas decoration. It's like a nativity, but on a completely different scale. They're HUGE! Most people set aside a small table for the whole city of Bethlehem. Mountains. Streams. Everything.

Dicembre 9, 2010

At school today we got to eat some of Camilla's cake she had left from the party, and we talked about how we could stay caught up with our Italian over the break. We then covered some more cooking terms and did about 10 minutes of reflexive verbs...

Barbara, Gemma, Erica, and I went for coffee after class then a couple of us did some Christmas shopping afterwards.

[i've decided that the primary difference between men and women shopping is that women like to look at things and buy them. Men, on the other hand, generally already have something in mind that they want to buy and just do more 'purchasing' not so much shopping. However, I enjoy 'shopping' more because it's just time to hang out with friends walking around and talking; it does however, get tedious when the conversation never changes from the clothes or the same thing that is being perused... I just like the socialization tied with the 'shopping' while it is my belief that more women actually like to find new places to spend their money. ;) I did my best to express my thoughts without sounding stereotypical/sexist ;]

Then when I got home we did MORE about Ben Franklin...