Preparing for the Feast

Wednesday was not a very busy day. I caught up with Julie on HIMYM and bummed around though I did manage to squeeze in a run before Italian class in the afternoon. Italian was delightful because it's Anna and she's always a treat in the lull of the afternoon. After Italian and a tiny hint of homework Pepperoni, Tom and I went to Le Fate for dinner, even though our beloved Kat is in Siena. It's wonderful and slightly embarrassing but Gabrielle knows our orders without asking us now. After dinner the boys stopped over for a quick minute to watch some SNL with Sophia and Sam and I then trooped back to Prati.

Thursday was Thanksgiving!!!! In the US. yeah, nothing changed in Italy. It was really nice to go grocery shopping without all the lines and hustle and bustle! IES cancelled our Italian classes so we could enjoy Thanksgiving dinners but most people took that as a sign to skip class on Thursday and travel for the long weekend. Since my Conversation class had already met on Tuesday we didn't have class in the morning and I only had two hours with my man Gianni on my academic schedule. We all nerded out on virtual reality simulations of ruins and how they originally looked, then discussed our class pizza dinner. After class I brought Hope home for some lunch and chatting. I wanted to go up to St. Sabine again, which is very close to Hope's homestay, but I couldn't rally any troops. So I walked Hope part of the way home for her, learning new back streets and stopping in the confectionery by Circus Maximus for a mimosa cake with her (Nico's was much better). There we split and I walked off towards Trastevere.

In Trastevere I met up with Julie to look for the international store to buy canned pumpkin. We found it with a little help from a friend and then saw many more IES students finishing up their shopping and dressed to the nines for their holiday dinner! We found brown sugar and pancake mix (for colazione per cena with Izzy) and pumpkin. We stopped at Despar on the way home for the rest of our ingredients and hurried home to start cooking. Sophia made something similar to scalloped potatoes but it included apple slices also, plus her mulled wine. Julie made delicious stuffing and a pumpkin pie (thank goodness! It's not Thanksgiving without one). I made an apple pie again. The boys brought mashed potatoes and salads and buff.chick.dip and green beans. We had bread from Fillippo and wine! It was a feast. Aven's family and Sophia's family both joined us along with Anna (from IES) and Chris who both go to Santa Clara with Mattly and Aven. There were candles all around with laughter and fun. It was exactly what I think of when I think Thanksgiving.

Mattly and I

Julie and Sophia: the Duo

Tom and Mattly

SO CLASSY!!!

Turkey hands of what we are thankful for

This is what friendship in Rome looks like

Supermodel Julie

These kids make me smile
every single day

After a few failed tries I finally made connect with my family back home in time to say hello to Gran. I even got to chat with the -Er's and Reeds briefly. I miss you all and am sad I couldn't be home for dinner but I'll see you in less than a month!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving friends and family back home! tell you all about my T-day abroad in the future!

Busy Tuesday Lazy Thursday

Monday morning started off bright and early with my one hour lectures for Baroque, Conservation, and Renaissance. After class I did some grocery shopping and puttered around. Nico invited us to go to Any Given Monday and said she'd be home to cook dinner with us!

Any Given Monday is a club that is only open on Monday nights that we've wanted to go to for a while now. All of the roommates agreed to go out (which is a rarity because normally someone is too tired) and Nico was going and Isotta too! Nico came home and prepared some tuna red sauce spaghetti dish which, despite my distaste for seafood, was rather good. We had Sophia's brother Sam and Isotta and one of her IES students Moira over for dinner also and enjoyed a good meal with half Italian and English conversations floating across the table and confusing everyone. Afterwards the girls primped and we piled into teeny tiny Italian cars. We had to wait and meet up with Sofia (also known as "Sofia with an f" to differentiate between our Sophia and her) for a few minutes then headed off to the club. Isotta knew how to get to the street and Nico knew where the club was on the street so we were a hot mess trying to keep the leader in front and finding the club. Thankfully it was all worth it. We met up with Mattia, and Claudio briefly though he left to get some sleep, and all went inside the club. It's extremely inexpensive and they played lots of 90s music and it was just a really relaxed club atmosphere. There was even a small little vintage store in the club! Our little group had a lot of fun dancing the night away and watching various musical artist impersonators. We called it an early night (no Johnnie Food even though we drove right by it!) and curled up to rest up before my uber busy Tuesday.

Can you see us in the left corner?? 

Tuesday morning I woke up to grey rain, a cup of tea before I left was necessary! I caught the 116 on Via Guilia and met my Baroque class at Palazzo Barberini (ok there was a pit stop for un cafe also). While we went to study the baroque architecture and frescoes they also had a wide collection of Renaissance paintings on display that Federica gave us a little time to explore. I even got to see Hans Holbein's Henry VIII! Love me that Tudor family. We stopped to study Caravaggio's Judith and Holofernes, one of my favorite subjects, especially Artemisia Gentileschi's. Hope gave a wonderful presentation on the Allegory of Divine Providence, sadly we were limited on time because the museum was being rented out for a convention (Federica is a little bitter about the lack of funding for the arts and the methods used to try and fix it). I loved the palazzo and it was worth the soggy travels. Getting back to IES for my Forma Urbis class I had to sit through Pepperoni's presentation of Italian marble. Gianni did his research on this topic and Pepperoni studies geology, thus they had a great time while the rest of us tried to figure out what metamorphic rock was. Honestly it was very good, I got to look at pretty pictures of Cipolino and Rosso Antico for ten minutes! Gianni is the reason I like looking at church floors (stolen ancient marble) as much as the incredible ceilings.

Click and enlarge this picture!

                     

After Forma Urbis Madison and I bolted to the panino place (I finally got a sandwich Maia!!!) and wolfed them down before our Conservation field study. Federica took us to a conservation laboratory and we got to see works in process and look at the techniques they use which was so incredible. I could never do these things back in Ithaca or Pittsburgh! We even got to see a terracotta statue from Veii! After that I was wiped out. I missed Italian because we were discussing reverse culture shock and eating lasagna but I needed a nap!

That night we all planned on going to Le Fate with Gatta's mom and aunt so to kill time before dinner I watched Kick Ass (or the first half). Then we all trooped off for Ginny's first time to Le Fate and to bring Gatta's relatives. Mattly and Pepperoni joined us and thankfully they were the rescue team when we temporarily lost track of Sam on the tram. Finally all safe and sound we enjoyed a delightful evening of friends and conversation. I think they are starting to know Pepperoni and I too well.... we didn't even have to ask for our lemoncello at the end of dinner hahaha  For an after dinner treat we all stopped by the chocolate bar for a dessert shot with Gatta's family. I tried the Bottarella this time which is just Bailey's, it was ok but I might go back to the Sveltina in the future. After that Gatto walked her mom and aunt home, Julie and Sophia and Same went off in another direction while Mattly, Pepperoni and I went to find Dr. Tahm at Scholar's. I've decided that Scholar's on a Tuesday night for Kareoke is much much more crowded and less fun. That might have been my last time on a Tuesday. We sang a few good middle school Simple Plan songs and "Out" from RENT came on so Mattly and I sang our hearts out. Quickly we grew tired of the shoving and overserved international students. We walked back and finished Kick Ass before saying good night.

Everyone at Le Fate

Ostia Antica Part II

Friday morning at a very reasonable (but chilly) hour Ginny and I headed to IES to catch the bus with our Forma Urbis class. Just like our two hour field studies some Fridays are reserved for classes to take day trips. Ours was to Ostia Antica! If you recall Ginny took me to Ostia (Reread from my second weekend in Rome) when it was hot and I was sweating in a tank, now all bundled up in a coat with a scarf Gianni was leading the tour. Thankfully the day actually warmed up nicely so we were shedding layers even before lunch. Ostia Antica was the original port town associated with Rome and is a sprawling city of well preserved ruins. It's outstanding to wander the streets that are now overgrown with mint and daisies and try to imagine the life before us. Gianni did a good job (obviously) of painting that picture for us and gave a detailed intriguing guided tour. Here are a bunch of snapshots from the day

While in Rome I fell in love with umbrella pine trees

theater

note awesome new scarf!

remember this pose?

Our class cat, followed us around all day

Pharos! Lighthouse

the cutest friends, go Woo!

love this

Hope and I 

This is Pepperoni without a shirt on
and with his Bears vs. Bucs in London hat

Gianni behind the bar

Hope and Insule

Madison and Ginny on top of an insula

beautiful fields where the temple used to be

Amanda

This guy!

Amanda and Kacie

Baths

"What happened in 1988?" "My brother was born?" "no."

Some other Americans helpin' us out!

Hope standing on top of a column

We made it back to the city around 4 that afternoon and lounged around until dinner. For dinner time I invited Tom and Pepperoni over to help me get rid of some extra veggies before they spoiled plus we had a bunch of leftovers from the potluck. It turned into really nice dinner with friends all around the table, lots of pasta, a good amount of beer, and one excellent name game. Saturday morning I woke up early and finally finished blogging about all the time I missed for academic and festive reasons, but you've already read that right?  Ginny is an awesome roommate who knows all the museum/events going on in the city, probably because she has so many Italian friends. She invited Julie and I to join her at the Museo Nazionale Romano-Palazzo Massimo alle Terme to see mosaics, frescoes, coins, jewlery, and sculptures from ancient Rome. She really hooked me when she promised Livia's Garden was there and I was not disappointed. An entire room to ourselves to soak in the brilliant blues and greens surrounding us. Mmm I love that fresco room. The entire floor was displaying frescoes and mosaics alone which was awesome and never ending in the best way! Ginny and I even got to bust out some of our Conservation skills. After two floors of sculptures and a floor with jewelry and coins (largest coin collection in Italy) I was tired but so so sooo happy I went! The best part? Ginny talked the ticket sales lady into giving us free tickets since we're students studying archaeology and art history in Rome. Hooray!

Livia's Garden :)

trees

Mosaics aka floors to Romans

Awesome marble

Fantastic

frescoes

Ms. Julia just standing in a cubiculum

Me in the triclinium

I love this drill work!!!

Ginny sneaked a picture

The Boxer

After the museum, since we were all the way out by Termini any way, we stopped by the baths of Diocletian which are enormous!! Sadly there wasn't much to see because they had a special exhibit on display, thankfully our tickets from the museum worked so we didn't have to pay again. A quick hello to the baths was followed by another quick stop right next door! Michelangelo's last project, a church created using the original structure of the baths (aka the huuuge vaulted ceiling). Santa Maria degli Angeli is a wonderful church, a bit atypical so I'd love to pop in again sometime when I'm not so tired and it is more light out.  It was bird time by now, that perfect pre-dusk time when all the birds in Rome take flight and swirl in flocks in the sky. Our last stop before home was to say ciao to St. Teresa in Ecstasy, another amazing Bernini sculpture just so astounding, and it's tucked away in a tiny little church on the main drag (St. Maria in Vittorio). It is an extremely Baroque church and was kinda overwhelming and claustrophobic in such a small church. It created a reaction in me that I haven't felt before here. Definitely an experience, but I was exhausted and there isn't much to the church. Thus we hopped a bus home, I went grocery shopping and then come home for a late day nap.

Cloister

me and Julie

Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli gardens

St. Teresa in Ecstasy

Julie and Ginny and a funky looking Moses

Saturday night I had a wonderful dilemma: I had two awesome parties to choose between! Nico's radio station had a vintage party planned for that night, but it was very very far away. I heard all about it and it sounded so cool and I'm bummed I didn't go, but honestly I wasn't up for an Italian night out, I was very tired. I chose to go to the Ice Club near the Colosseum with Kristen (Cornell IES girl), Kylie, and Pepperoni. We were going to meet up with more Wooster kids who were in town for the weekend but they never made it (not even Hope). Couldn't find that Madonna dei Monti! The club was really fun though. It's made out of ice and you get a parka when you enter, all vodka drinks in glasses made from ice. A fun experience with a nice small group of people. At the end of the night all I wanted was a classico burger but I ended up staying in my apartment after Pepperoni kindly walked me back. He got a classico :(   But it was a great night and I'm eager to return to that bar!

Yep, that's ice

fuzzy blankets to sit on, or keep your hands warm

Got a drink without using my drink card?

The group (minus Kylie)

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Sunday has been an extremely lazy day. I went out to Prati and did a little bit of work and caught up with friends, but then ended up just watching Despicable Me and Inception. Wasted day. Grabbed a slice from Filippo for dinner before coming home and catching up with my roomies and skyping my parents and uncle (and Fanny!!). Ready for another week here in Rome, another week of paradise.