Le ultime due settimane

Hey everyone! Ok first, for those of you who don’t know how to run Google language tools yet, the title of this blog is “The last two weeks” J I thought this was a good title considering I do a blog now about every two weeks to let all of you know how I’ve been and what I have been up to. So let’s get started!

So if you haven’t been checking out my Facebook page, I have been hitting the town a little harder the last two weeks! And boy have they been GLORIOUS! So TWO weeks ago…ok this is a little bit harder because they were going out nights. Lol So TWO weeks ago I went to class as usual during the days and starting that Wednesday night my nights got pretty awesome! I know you’re thinking, “Wow a Wednesday Matt?” but I don’t have school until 2:45pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays so it’s not too bad. It’s the karaoke nights on Tuesdays that kill, but that’s next week. Anyways, on Wednesday night we went to a part of the town called Trestevere where we went to a little Italian bar and just chilled which was really nice. After hanging there for a bit we ended up going to where EVERYONE ends up some point at night, which is an Irish pub called Scholars. It’s not a bad place: they take our meal tickets (which are tickets with either 2 Euro or 5 Euro on them that we can use at restaurants or grocery stores, or in this case a pub, that the school gives us), everyone speaks English with Irish accents (LOVE IT), and it’s pretty much the center point for all of us students. We met up with some friends, hung out there for a bit, then walked in the rain to La Fontana di Trevi, or for you English speakers, the Trevi Fountain. That’s the night I got all my cool night pictures of us at the Trevi. If you have not seen them yet, DO IT! Thursday we went over to our friend Tessa’s apartment because at midnight it was her 21 birthday. We really enjoyed this night because Luca, our brother, Silvia, our sister, and Allessandro, Silvia’s boyfriend, all came out with us and brought some friends. So we actually had a mixed group of people for once and not just Americans! We even had a girl from FRANCE! I have some pictures of that night that if you have not checked out yet, DO IT! Friday night we just had a dinner party at our friend Dan’s house where we had some pork chops, zucchini rolls, and pasta.

Saturday was an event in itself so I would put this is a separate paragraph. So the three days before Saturday we were pretty busy and had some late nights and almost didn’t go out…almost. 11:30pm rolls around and we are about to call it a night until Luca comes in to our room and says he wants to go out with us tonight. So we called some friends and found out everyone was heading to Testacchio. Testacchio is a place where they took a small hill and encircled it with club after club after club. It’s a pretty crazy site to see because it is very popular by both foreign students and locals and they pretty much have something for everyone. Anyways, we went to the salsa dancing one; now I can’t really salsa dance but I did good enough to have a blast! We also went to a smaller club where they were playing some American music which is always good fun. Luca had a blast with Jojo and I and our girls from the North East. After we got done dancing…that’s when the “adventure began.” We “started” to try to get home at about 3:30. Now Luca had his car, but we couldn’t fit everyone in it so being raised properly, the three of guys stayed with the six girls for 2 HOURS trying to find a taxi. We either found ones that were full, ones that were “off duty” or none at all. We walked to where there was supposed to be a taxi station and at this place we saw less taxies then sitting on a street corner. While sitting on the corner waiting for a taxi for the girls we saw something pretty nasty, it was….PSYCHE! There are little kids who read this, so if you want to know what it is you’ll have to message me. Anyways, we finally got the girls on a night bus that took them close to their apartments and we walked a half an hour back to our car. Finally got to bed at about….5:30 or 6am I think. 4 hours later I went to the coliseum and the forum with the same girls and had a blast.

Now onto this past week, sorry this is kind of a long blog. Not a whole lot happened except for two pretty awesome nights. One, we went to scholars, go figure, and I sang Karaoke! It was AWESOME!!! I sang “Sweet Home Alabama” with my good friend Lara and then I sang, and some of you won’t be surprised by this at all…specially if you have seen me at a wedding, “Play that Funky Music” which was pretty legendary if I do say so myself. I will probably end up singing again tonight but don’t know what song yet to sing. The rest of the week was pretty chill until Friday when we went with our family to go watch an Italian Beatles cover band called, I Beatles a Roma. The exact translation if you couldn’t figure it out is “The Beatles of Rome.” They were pretty damn good too; they would talk in Italian but then sing in English and they sounded great!

This rest of the weekend I just kind of hung out and studied for my first mid-term that was yesterday. It was on my Italian Mafia class so I think I did pretty well on it. And just to make sure you are 100% caught up, Jojo and I went to a cooking class last night where we learned to make pasta with sausage and mushrooms, friend veal cutlets, and, well you don’t really learn how to make fruit salad when all you do is cut pieces of fruit and throw them in a bowl but none the less, fruit salad.

Well that’s all from my end. You know some of you that I haven’t talked to in a while could also email or message me to let me know what you have been up to! This is not just a one way stream! Lol ok it kind of is but seriously, if you’re getting married, having a kid, or just as simple as you ate a peanut butter, nutella, and banana sandwich (which is actually SUPER DELICIOUS by the way) the other day, let me know. Ciao ciao!

It's been awhile

So I know it's been awhile I know, but I have just been trying to settle into my home away from home. It has been a pretty amazing experience so far and my family has been wonderful. I am learning so much from them outside of school and couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. So I guess this time I will tell you all about what my days have been consisting of the pass few weeks.

Well first of all I go to school Mon - Thurs. I have class from 9am-1pm on Mondays and Wednesdays and from 2:45pm-5:15pm on Tues and Thursdays. My three classes, ya I know only three classes but I did have an intense class in Florence, consist of International Economics, History of the Italian Mafia and my Elementary Italian II class. I have been enjoying the classes a lot and I think I made the best choices. Side note about history of the Italian Mafia, we will be learning about where it started, why it started, how they communicate, watching some actual assinations, and some field trips to the department of state dedicated to fighting Mafia. Italy is one of the very few if not the only country that has a department dedicated only to Mafia. Anyways, the first Friday we were here we walked to the Coloseum, which just by saying I WALKED there is pretty cool. Didn't get the chance to go in yet, but it's an amazing site. Saturday and Sunday we just went out a couple times....I think. Ok I will start to update this more so I can remember what we did! O! I that week I did learn how to make pasta carbenera and chocolate mousse which is pretty sweet. Jojo and I also had our first "dinner party" with Andrea on that Thursday. Our dinner parties are starting to become kinda popular and we had another the next Thursday and we have one lined up for this Thursday. The first time Jojo made spaghetti with some of his own touches which was really good and I made my mousse. I will tell you about the second time when I get to that week. Jojo and I kind of joke around about being "the gay couple" that holds dinner parties which people tend to laugh about because of a picture I posted on Facebook of our first dinner. That was about it for that weekend.

This past week I had classes again...go figure, and I also had a wine tasting class where I learned what to look, smell and taste for with wine to see how good it is. Really interesting stuff. Thursday we had another dinner party with Andrea, Rebekah, and Caroline where I made pasta carbenera for the first time by myself, I also made mousse and Andrea, Rebekah and Caroline made strawberries with homemade cream. Now when I say I made or we made, we all cook a little, clean a little, and we all eat A LOT! Lol. We had a few bottles of vino and really got to know the girls which was awesome! Friday Jojo and I met some friends at St. Peters Square where we walked around for a bit, then we went to Castle of St. Angelo which has an amazing panoramic view of Rome. That night we (and when I say we its always me and Jojo for the most part 'cause he's my roomie) went to our sister's boyfriend's art exhibiton where he showed us his contemporary art piece which was really cool. I think the coolest part about it though was where it was located. It was located in an abandoned dog track that had been empty for a few years and then, it wasn't dangerous or nothing, illegally occupied by some people who made a social center for guys who don't have a lot of money. Allessandro, the boyfriend, used to live there for a couple months but now just helps the place out. Saturday we went to my first Rugby game which was...interesting. Lol I loved being at a game but rugby just aint my sport. It was still cool though. Sunday we went to a Soccer game, and let me tell you, American fans don't hold a candle to passion or dedication like a lot of these fans do. It was NUTS!! But totally fun. Again loved being there but soccer is not my cup of tea. After that we went to our parents church concert where they sang after Charlie Cannon's chior sang. If you don't know, Charlie Cannon is a big, black guy from Montgomery who sings a lot of Gospel songs and who has AN AMAZING voice. Unfortunately we did not get to here his set, but our parents did great and he did end the show with "O' Happy Day" in which we stood up and joined in at some point. We did get to meet him to and he is a really cool guy. After that whole weekend we came home, had dinner and went to bed.

So now you all are finally caught up on my life in Rome. I will try a lot harder to keep this updated more when I have time. Ciao ciao!

Home away from Home

So Jojo and I finally moved into our homestay in Rome or Roma is how the Italians say it. First of all, just want to thank God on here becasue we were both a little nervous, espically with the graffit signs on the outside, but we couldn't have asked for better accomodations. First of all, the family is terrific; there are the two parents and then they have two daughters and one son. The oldest daughter lives on her own, she is 26, and the other two live here with there parents. Luca is 19, Sylvia is 22 and julia is 26. Luigi is the dad and Sabina is the mom and they are very kind people. Luigi is an information technology consultant and Sabina teaches physical education to high school students. Everyone except for Sabina speaks relatively good English, and even she speaks a little, but they understand that we want them to try to speak Italian as much as possible, until we look at them with stupid faces and say "no copisco" which means I don't understand.

Our "homestay" which I said is more like an apartment of our own, has a small kitchen, our own bathroom with a shower, a living room connected to our kitchen, and enough closet space to please most girls these days. Our shower is a bit interesting, it is in the corner of our bathroom and only a curtain that is usually strapped against the wall when not in use, is used to keep the water in. There is a drain in the middle of the area, but doesn't seem to slope that far down so water tends to...migrate to other parts of the bathroom. O well, it is still a pretty neat set up. Our living room is pretty big and everything is designed to fold down when we want more room but there is enough room already. The kitchen has everything we need to make our own food; everything from a small fridge to a stove, a microwave, and an Italian coffee maker which I've actually started to prefer over American coffee. Then we have a seperate room for our beds which is still pretty big. Sad enough, our room now is bigger than the room we had in our hotel in London; kinda crazy if you ask me. We have plenty of shelves for our books, they are brining in a fold away table for a desk to compliment the one that is already in our living room, shoe racks, and I know it's only been one night, but it feels AMAZING to not have to live out of a suitcase anymore.

Around our home we have a huge, well huge for Europe, supermarket, a pharmacy, a tabacchi place and our bus stop is pretty close. A tabacchi stop is where people go to buy first of all, tobacco, but also to buy bus tickets, put euros on your phone, and it is just kind of a utility shop for a city. We also realized that we are not as far from the center of Rome as we thought we were going to be which makes us very happy. The biggest park in Rome is only 5 min walk from our apartment and Jojo plans to run me to death as soon as I buy me some running shoes. Well that's all for now folks. Ciao!

Italian culture part uno

So SOMEONE (Candice) wanted me to update my blog even though not a whole lot has happened. I was going to update it just on Sunday but I guess I will add a few things now! First of all, Italians do not care where there dogs poop! So watch your step when you're walking down the street becuse sometimes there can be doggy doo everywhere! Also, organized parking? What's that? They park on both sides of the street here either which way no matter what. NO TICKETS! Sometimes they even park on the sidewalk entrances...kinda funny actually. Also, a lot more italians speak english then I thought so it has actually been more difficult to actually practice italian in person then having to do it.

Hmmm, it's my friend Jojo's 21 today so we are going out tonight in Florence for the first time...should be an interesting night. Classes have been going good, we had our first quiz today and I think I did pretty good on it. I am really liking the Italian language so I hope my host parents will be cool and help me with it. We are going to be living in Monteverde in Rome which is supposed to be a very Rich, coveted place to live there, but its way out of central Rome where our school is at, but that's ok. Anyways going to Venice tomorrow and won't be back until Sunday. Ciao!

Florence first few days

Buenoserre!

So it has almost been one week since I have left all of you back in the BORING U.S.A. Ok its not so boring sometimes but its not like living in another country. :-) So we got here on Friday and the first night we were here we walked along looking for gellato which is really famous in Italy, but couldn't find any so bought a couple bottles of wine and drank by the river. The next day we had orientation and I ate like....spinach lasagna? Which sounds nasty but I have never had a better lasagna in my entire life! It was just....awesome! (Look I'm using U.S. words again, pretty soon it will be Italian) That night we went to a ristorante and had a couple bottles of wine and good conversation with friends. And when I mean we I jsut mean my group. Sunday we had an art tour and I found a hobby of mine now that is kinda dangerous at times...like literally time, the wrong time could be dangerous. I literally get lost in Florence and try to find my way back. Which has its pros and cons because I always seem to find the same path home (pro and con) and I haven't found paths to my favorite places yet, well don't really have anything yet. But the getting lost has been quite fun. Gellato is amazing and people here are...I'm not gonna say unfriendly but don't respond to my head nod like I do in America. Smiling also doesn't work as much. Don't know if they don't like us Americans, us American kids, or just people in general. Hmmm

Went to class today for the first time and its INTENSE to say the least. We have a grammar teacher and a pronunciation teacher and the second one does not speak any Italian to us at all. She knows engish, just doesn't speak it to us...grrrr. lol It is kind of funny seeing some of the kids try to figure out what she is trying to say when the rest of us got the hint. And MAN do they talk fast! If I ever learn the Language I will fit right in. Anyways I have a meet and greet thing to go to now and its like a 15-20 min walk...well not that much but I got to go. By the way, if I don't lose at least some weight while I'm here I will be SHOCKED because I eat a good breakfast, walk all day long, eat like an apple or two for lunch and then have a good dinner. It is crazy! But the food has been delicious, I wish they would serve a more variety of Italian food at the hotel, but it is Hotel de Americano so most of the food is like American food with some Italian food. But feeding 133 kids three course meals takes FOREVER so when dinner is done its I'm tired. Anyways I really do have to go.

CIAO

sittin in the airport in London

good evening ladies and gents,

first of all, if you noticed there are nocapitals, that is because of i am on myphone at the airport and for some reason it likes to be a pain.

any whose, i guess i will start with my flight. british airways rocks. and wow i just noticed i cant use an exclamation point so u cant see my excitement lol. but on the flight my three glasses of wine were free, the new release movies were free and the stewardesses were as they were supposed to be....hott.exclamation point. and i do love me some english accents which made them even better.

next ill tell u about my first day. i was pretty tired but figured stayin up until the proper time to go to sleep would be best. my friend jojo, i call him bilbo, met up with my friend robby, i call him rj, who was visiting london. we went to find food and took the wrong turn and ended up in a mall with only american food, but we were hungry enough so ate halu or hulu or hala subway. kosher subway. it sucks.exclamation point times two. never again but it was worth the experience. we then went to the british museum where, dont freak out, there was a suspect package. but it was all good and we got to see a lot of free history. we then went to our meet and greet and i noticed that, unlike wyominh, the ratio of girls to men is three to one. bloddy brilliant.exclamation point. we then went out to dinner with a group of people, two girls of which we became good friends with. one girl is named becca and the other is named andrea. i call becca bex and andrea sherboski because she looks a lot like robin from how i met your mother and she is also from minnesota which gives her a funny accent which reminds me of robin. anyways we wanted fish and chips and it took us one hr to walk around and eat at the first place we had stopped to check out but decide against. fish and chips was pretty good, but expensive. we then went to a couple pubs to have some drinks. weird thing, i am the oldest person here because there is only one other senior in the group. so when everyone else is goin hog wild over being able to drink....i feel old. lol especially when i started fallin asleep at the bar. lame i know but being awake for thirty nine hours and a few beers got to me so i called it a night.

yesterday we had our planned tour which was quick but effecient enough. took a lot of pics and as soon as i can charge my labtop and get free internet u will see them. fyi, this is killing my thumbs lol. we then went to our regular tea spot that we had went to a couple times the day before to grab some lunch. it was called the teapod and i found my new favorite drink, a vanilla tea latte with honey. mmmm yummy. sherboski, bex, rj, bilbo and i then went back to the british museum to see the rosetta stone since the suspect package had shut that part of the musem down the day before. afterwards took my my first siesta in europe and then us five went out to dinner at what we thought was just a normal restaurant but turns out to be an italian one. the food was amazing and i love how presentation is a big part of the experience here. and then...it might have taken me to go to another country to see it but me bilbo and rj went and saw the lion king. exclamation point. it was...in two words, emotionally brilliant. i cant count the times i got chills and teared up. i know that sounds lame but i dont care, it was just brilliantly put on and i couldnt imagine a better performance. we then went home and packed and went to bed because we had to be on the bus at five forty five in the morning. that leads me up to where i am now, sittin in the airport...waiting...again lol.

few fun details. it might say wifi free....but it probably doesnt work, unless ur eatin crappy subway lol.centered doors knobs make a random and funny convo stared, they are also brilliant. posh equals a rich cool thing, mint means cools, dodgy is like sketchy, and one day i will live in london i decided. its a wonderful place. o another fun fact, london is actually only a square mile big and only has a population of seven. the rest of the seven million people live in places like westminster. that was quite interesting to learn. they call london the city and its pretty much made up of only businesses which is why so little people live there. anyways hopefully more wondeful things to come but i am having a wonderfully brilliant, posh time.

and of course this was all rushed through so if u have questions just ask.

sorry bout the spelling

bye

Itinerary

CIAO everybody!

This is my first blog...ever and also the first post about my travels in Europe. So technically I have not even left America yet but some people I know requested that I put up my Itinerary for my time over in Europe so I thought I would go over that and then get back to you either before I take off on Tuesday or after I arrive in London on Wednesday. So here....we.....go!!!!

On Tuesday, Jan 25, me and 4 others from this Region will be flying out of Denver and headin straight for London. We arrive at about 9am on Wednesday, jan 26th. Because there is 133 total students going, we have a free day on Wed. so that everyone can arrive and get settled in their hotel rooms in London. Don't know if I have to share a room or not, I'm guessing I do, but I don't know who it is going to be with. My friend RJ is studying in France this semester, but he left a few weeks before his program starts and he is actually talking on facebook with me right now from London, so we are going to hit up a couple places on my free day. The next day we have like a 3-4 hour tour of London and then we have the rest of the day free again. On Friday we fly to Pisa.

After arriving in Pisa we take a bus to Florence where we will be staying for two weeks to get a crash course in Italian and the Italian culture. On Saturday we have to register with the police and let them know that yes we are in the country and we're here to stay....for about 4 months :-). The next weekend we get a 3 day excurtion to Venice and then when we come back I will find some people to watch the Super Bowl with at Midnight there in Florence somewhere.

February 12 we transfer to Rome and move into our Apartments with either other students or a host family. I picked a host family so I am hoping they will be cool. We have school orientation on that sunday and then Monday we start our classes.

March 18th we go to Naples and the surrounding areas for 3 days and then on the 28th of March my spring break starts. I have 9 maybe 10 days of spring break to go somewhere or just to hang out. I haven't decided yet but I'm thinkin that is when I am going to go visit RJ in Clairemont, France, but we'll talk about that later.

After all of that the program ends May 13th and Mallori and Dad show up om May 14th if everything goes right. We will then proceed to tour Rome for a few days and then some days in Germany, Amsterdam, Paris, and then London and we'll fly back home from there.

So that was my first blog, I know a little windy and probably has horrible grammar in it, but it's a blog so....anyways enjoy my blog and future blogs to come. :-)