Saturday Mornings, only thing missing is the coffee

One thing I notice I miss frequently (besides friends, family, and my mom's cooking/domelets) is coffee. Real, American, full bodied mugfuls of coffee in the mornings. The cappuccinos and espressos are just fine between classes or in the afternoon when I need a boost but it's just not the same.

Anyways, I apologize because in my excitement to finish up my weekend stories I neglected to mention one of my field studies. On Thursday my Forma Urbis class went into the Roman forum for two hours! Gianni gave us a guided tour and pointed out all of the monuments and buildings we're discussing in class. It was so easy to follow his story like descriptions and I hope it all stuck with me. It's a little annoying to try and take notes out and about in churches and such, so my fnield study notes aren't quite as good as in class. I like to spend time looking around where I am rather than furiously scribbling. We saw the Arch of Titus (which I remember from Stud's class!), Arch of Septimus Severus, Basilica Amelia and Guila, the Curia, Temple of Castor and Pollox [bollox it wasn't 500! haha], some columns from the Temple of Saturn and Temple Julius, the Temple of Vesta and the compound where the Vestal Virgins lived which is very much intact, the giagantic Temple of Antonious and Faustina, the Basilica Maxientius and Constantine which is just unbelievably large (also the original home to the colossol statue of Constantine),  the Rostra where Cicero's head was nailed when Marcus Anthony and Octavian took over, the "belly button of the city" umbilicus urbis romae, all connected together by the Via Sacra the first road in Roma! Whew! There was lots and lots and lots to see so to anyone considering a visit to Rome find a good tour guide and go into the Forum. It wouldn't have been nearly interesting enough without Gianni's guidance and I learned so much! Pictures to follow, I'm still stealing from my roommates because my camera is out of commission for the moment.

Roman Forum

Atrium of the Vestal Virgins, aka their house!!

Pretending I'm a statue

My new favorite arch

Looking towards the Via Sacra

Arch of Septimus Severus!

After such an eventful afternoon and a long Italian class Julia and I stopped for groceries on the way home because we hosted another potluck! Such busy socialites over here right? As my IC friends know though, I love hosting. Hosting a mature get together with friends from different walks of life, and of course food, is one of my favorite things even though it sometimes stresses me out. Thankfully with all 5 of us pulling our weight there's no stress! This dinner party snowballed because Tom decided it. He just informed us on Wednesday that we (the centro girls) were hosting a potluck on Thursday. No complaints because he cooks really well :) So I made a big fruit salad but there was also pasta with spinach and chicken, steak, sangria, tiramisu (tiramisoup!), guac because Mattly is the man, bruchetta, Amanda brough little cherry tomatoes sliced up with basil and moz in between like tiny sandwiches, yummy yummy spinach artichoke dip, brie, and of course wine and lemoncello. Needless to say it was one of my best meals I've had here, thank you guys! Afterwards, at like 1:30, they all headed out to our favorite St. Calisto for a single beer and then home. It's nice having this super long weekend.

Spencer and Tom

Potluck nonesense- Aven and Julie

Headed out with full bellies

Friday morning we woke up to clean up the remains of the party.Ginny and I met up with Mattly to visit the Prati market! It's inside and has tons and tons of fruit, veggie, meat, fish, cheese, clothing stands everywhere. Once I got there I realized that because of the potluck we didn't really need much food in our house. I was bummed because I wanted to shop! I bought two little zucchinis which I plan to slice up with some tomato and moz and put in couscous, yum! Mattly was on fire with his Italian skills and Ginny bought some pants she needs for her archaeological internship. My roommate is going to be uncovering priceless etruscan treasures over the course of this semester... yeah Rome is that cool. It was a nice morning to be outside walking to and from market and they are good company even when we get lost. What nice people there are in this program! After the market I came home for lunch and Sophia, Kat, and I tried Julia's yoga instructional video. I don't really bend that way... but we tried! Then a shower and quick nap because I knew Friday night would involve big plans!

I woke up and did lots of homework, updated the blog, we all had dinner together (except Julia who ran away to Tuscany for the weekend). After that we got prettied up and met Pasty, Amanda, Emily, and their roommate for drinks at a wine bar. I don't know what kind of white we were drinking but it was very deep gold in color and tasted so good. Classy wine once in a while is a nice change of pace from our table wine at dinner. After that Mattia, one of Claudio's friends, and his friend Marco met up with us and we went to a dance club on the other side of Rome. We were the only Americans there and it was fun to practice our Italian, thankfully the guys English is really really good also. I was struggling with switching between English and Italian and just gave up at some point in the night. They also showed us a sandwich truck that is open late sort of close to our apartment and ordered the Italian version of Pirmanti's. Mattia got EVERYTHING on his sandwich: tomato, fries, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, lettuce, sausage, peppers, cheese, pickles, i don't even know what all was on that monster of a sandwich but I tried a bite and it actually was pretty good. I'm afraid I might have to go back and get one for myself sometime. It was a traditional Italian night, meaning we got home after 4:30 in the morning! Glad I napped. They don't go out until late and thus they stay out later. Strange and I am happier going to sleep most nights but it was a fun experience.

Us girls at the discoteca

When we got home last night Nico was fast asleep. When I woke up this morning SYRIA WAS HERE!!!! Syria is Nico's new puppy, she is 3 months old and has big paws she trips over and is loving and cute and adorable. I am so happy we get to play with her all day today!! So now that you're all caught up on life I'm going to play tug-a-war with the cutest creature on this earth (sorry Fanny).

We took Syria on a walk