My Big Italian Adventure, T-Minus 13 Days

Hi hi hi!

Sorry for the long delay in the blog posts (I know, I know, five days without a blog update. I’m seriously lacking some motivation). Can you believe I’ll be home in under two weeks? 14 short days from now, I’ll be laying in my air conditioned bedroom, snacking on fabulous diet coke, peanut m and ms, and mom’s fabulous home cooked meals. Okay, I have to change the subject fast, or else I’ll be having unsatisfied cravings for days!

Since we last bonded, there hasn’t been much action on the ROMA front. Midterms came and went, and were a little tricky, but I have high hopes that they were successful. In fact, I’ve discovered that thanks to my class on the ancient monuments of Rome, I’ve become a little tour guide, much to the annoyance of my peers. Every time we go to a bar, shopping, or just to walk around Rome, we nearly always end up spotting a monument, which means that I start in on a tangent such as, “Agrippa first began the Pantheon in the time of Augustus…” I’m sure you’re glad to see that my cool factor is getting even higher whilst abroad.

So, midterms occupied my time until Friday morning, where I then took the rest of the afternoon to sleep. At night, some friends and I signed up to go on the Colosseum Bar Crawl. Much like my mother, I have both a sensitive stomach and am a notorious lightweight. It’s a lethal combination. Three drinks in (and it’s legal over here, calm down), and I wasn’t worse for the wear, just had a bad stomach ache. I suppose this triggered my memory as to why I typically avoid such situations. So, I grabbed the complimentary tshirt and took my poor tummy home, where I ingested pizza and special K in an attempt to calm down the acid. 

Saturday morning was shopping time! My friend Mandy’s 21st birthday is on Thursday and as a gift from her parents, she was allowed to buy a Louis Vuitton purse (the classic Speedy 25, if you want specific details). We trekked through several shops (I spent money on a dress! It was cheap, but I still spent money on something I can take home–a huge accomplishment for a thrifty gal like myself), before we headed over to Louis. I took pictures, capturing her big moment, and it was really fun to be a part of. Fun fact and shopping tip: Italy includes taxes and the like within their prices, so if you buy an item over a certain amount, you’ll be given tax forms to fill out and hand over to customs on your way home. This will allow you to receive a 12-18% tax refund, which can significantly lower the price of a purchase. In fact, this makes a lot of goods cheaper to buy in Europe than back in the U.S.

After shopping, we laid around before heading out to Campo de Fiori, the American bar scene here in Rome. I had a lovely time with my friends and my Sprite Zero. This morning (Sunday), we went to the flea market again, where I picked up a shirt for a high price of 3 euro, and now I’m simply in my apartment, watching movies online, eating way too much cereal, and waiting for the sun to go down a little so at least I can stop sweating for just a few minutes (I haven’t stopped sweating in what feels like days!).

Because I don’t have much exciting travel news to report (this is the first weekend I’ve spent completely in Rome since I got here nearly a month ago), I thought I would give you some of my deep thoughts on Roman Culture:

1. Rome is dirty and smelly. Litter is everywhere, dog poop is everywhere, and trash is everywhere. While the government does have trucks that come and clean the streets and sweep up debris, it kind of seems like they’re just pushing dirt around. I have several goals for my return back to the US, and for the first time in my life, I need a pedicure and a manicure. My nails feel like they’re permanently damaged from all the dust and crud always getting in them, and my feet are so gross from wearing flip flops everywhere, I have to scrub them every night

……that said, the Italians don’t believe in washing their hair more than once a week and don’t bathe regularly. So while this whole dirty thing might bother me, they aren’t losing sleep over it. 

 

2. Rome is so inconvenient. There’s not a simple way to do anything. You can’t buy groceries for more than maybe two days at a time (and everything is smaller, so you have to spend more just to get full), you can’t work out in a gym with a physical from an Italian doctor. You can’t buy your office supplies anywhere near where you’d buy your groceries. You can’t be by yourself outside after dark–which goes for anywhere not suburban, I suppose, but is increasingly frustrating after a month. Finally, Roman restaurants don’t really open until eight at night and most places tend to close whenever they feel like it or if they are consistent, between 2 and 7. 

 ……that said, I still manage to eat dinner when I want, as long as I cook for myself. And it’s nice to go to the store so often because it lets you eat what you want, when you want, as opposed to just eating up all the leftover food you can find.

3. Rome is HOT HOT HOT. Really, this place is hotter than what you’d expect. I mean, Michigan has had some hot summers, and I’ve been to Hawaii in the summer when it’s been hot. But, this takes the cake. It’s probably about ten fold worse because most of Rome hasn’t embraced the technology of air conditioning yet.

……that said, I think my excitement level to come home peaks upward whenever I daydream about being so cold in the air-conditioning that I have to ask for another blanket :)

4. I love the walking. I LOVE to walk places. I’m the weirdo in the winter that walks from her apartment to campus in a blizzard. I just enjoy the serenity of twenty or so minutes to yourself as you gear up for a day. And walking is brought to the extreme (almost unlikable) here. 

….that said, my feet are tired of walking. They’ve had it. They want a break. They’re in pain and every time I decide to take the stairs seven stories to my apartment instead of the elevator (it’s small and hot, I hate it!), I’m pretty sure my feet curse my name.

5. I love the healthiness of the food. One of the more consistent and well-liked “lifestyle” plans doctors recommend is eating “clean.” This means essentially limiting the preservatives you put into your body. You might have also heard it as “eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” It’s the same general idea. It’s actually just common sense–something you cook for yourself using fresh food is going to be better for you than the Hungryman’s Frozen Fried Chicken Dinner. But, the food in Italy, unlike America, kind of sticks to this plan without even trying. The frozen food section of a supermarket is pretty much nonexistent and even the snack food they do have available is in smaller portions and made from better ingredients. That said, they do lack in providing many healthy alternatives within their food. For example, they offer pasta, but not whole wheat pasta. Or they have wheat bread, but not Whole Grain Wheat bread. But, their fruits and vegetables are incredibly fresh. And so yummy!

…that said, I never really gave anything besides apples and bananas the time of day back in the States. Hopefully they’re just as good back there!

 

Now, what’s on the gameplan for this week? Well folks, I’ve got a trip to the Vatican very, very tentatively planned for sometime this week,  an Italian test on Thursday, and also on Thursday, I’m going to Barcelona! Cheers for Spain!

Catch up with you sooner rather than later.

Loves!