I love being a local

So there is this bar by my house that I just absolutely love. (It is an Italian bar which means it is a cafe, you go there to get coffee not to get shitfaced.) Part of the reason I love it so much is because it is amazing, seriously one of the top 2 cappuccinos I have gotten in Rome. (The other one being from Tazza D’Oro the super amazing place next to the Pantheon - widely considered having the best coffee in Rome.) But the other reason I love is because they remember me. Every time I walk in the lady behind the bar laughs, says hello, and recites my order. She then proceeds to give me my order straight away, even when it is crowded I never have to wait, and she ALWAYS gives me a piece of chocolate on the saucer of my cup. She always offers me water too, which is normally only given to people who order  a cafe (espresso). Once when they didn’t have my order, I normally get un cappuccino e una bomba con cioccolato, she looked very upset. But I just happily ordered something else.
        As I am getting closer and closer to the end, I am getting more and more excited to go home. (11 days!) I can’t wait to see my family and my friends and my city, but I keep realizing how much I am going to miss this place. And not the big things either, but the lady behind the counter at the bar, and the guy who checks our IDs at school.

A much needed update

Well since my last post a lot, and at the same time not a lot, has happened.

I went to Brussels which you can see here. It was amazing. Such a beautiful little city. We weren't there that long, just two days which with travel times really was more like a day and a half. We had a shaky start involving loosing people in the metro system when we first got there...yeah not so much fun. But the rest of the trip was amazing. The chocolate was great. My favorite was the hot chocolate spoons, which were these wooden spoons that have a chunk of chocolate on the end. You then stick them in hot milk and stir to melt the chocolate. It was beautiful. The food was good, the city was beautiful. Felt like something out of a fairytale, all of the architecture was gothic and just amazing. Also we went to the comic book museum there, which was very very cool. I had a ton of fun, despite all of the rain.

(On that note it has been raining here for a month straight. I am so tired of it.)

Then my family came for Thanksgiving, which was a blast. You can see pictures here. Tons of food, tons of fun. I had so much fun, saying good bye was hard. But I will be home soon enough. Just need to get through finals.

In terms of work I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had two tests today, one in Latin and one in Italian, an 8 page paper due tomorrow, which I finished already. Then Monday I have a 10 page paper on slavery, then the week after I have 5 finals and one 5 page paper on Ovid. Then home! Insanity. Where has the time gone?

All of my roommates are going to Paris this weekend. So I will be home alone. But I am going to try to use the time to get my paper done and to do some last minute sight-seeing before finals. I would like to get some pictures of things that since I see everyday I haven't yet. Like the Tiber/Ponte Sisto, and the area I live etc.

Back to food. Tonight I tried another traditional Italian dish. From Sicily I made "Pasta alla Norma" which is basically pasta (I made penne) with tomato sauce and sauteed eggplant and grated cheese on top. It was delish. I am very happy, I now have about 5 traditional dishes in my belt. Mission accomplished. :)

Ciao tutti!

2 Jews in Rome

Liat, one of my roommates and a fellow New York Jew, and I decided to go for a walk today. (Actually I needed to stop by campus to print out my boarding pass for Brussels tomorrow, but the servers were down so I couldn't. Fuck. But not the point of the story.) It was a really nice day, first in a while. And we walked down to campus, then around the Jewish ghetto for a while. We had the most amazing lunch. We went to this amazing kosher restaurant and got falafel, humus, tahini, baba ganoush, Israeli salad and sigariot. It was so amazing! Anyone who has spoken to me lately know how much I have been craving non-Italian food. This was perfect. It was so lovely. We both felt like we were back in Israel.

Tonight we're going to make lasagna (back to Italy), and tomorrow I leave for two days in Brussels with Kate and Catherine! So excited!

New Love for the Vatican City

So today Kate Catherine and I had a fun day around town. But I must admit my favorite part was going to the Vatican City. Catherine and Kate went to the museums there, but I had done that already so I just hung out in the St. Peter's Square and such. I went to the Vatican post office and sent a few postcards. So much fun! I got Vatican City stamps too. I love sending things via pope-mail*. So if anyone wants a postcard just give me your address, I will *gladly* do that more.
<--- There you can see one of the many Vatican mailboxes. Once I finished that errand I just hung out in the square while I waited for them. I drew a little, but mostly took pictures. By the time that the girls were done, the sun had set. And I must say there is little that is more beautiful than the St. Peters at night. See:

If you want to see more pictures from the day (and from past adventures, such as our trip to the Gianicolo Hill which I forgot to blog about - we got to see a canon get shot!) you can see them here.

*The Italian mail system is notoriously bad, so not only will you guys get things faster via pope-mail but it is ten times cooler. Also, thank god, now I know for sure you'll get it. (Pun intended.)

It all makes sense now

I understand how it is that Rome gets more inches of rain per year then London. It may not rain as often but boy does it rain hard.

How do I know this you might ask? Well I just essentially swam to the ATM and I now understand how my dog feels when she gets out of a bathtub. I just toweled off a bit, and now it is time to get back in bed and finish my reading of "De Rerum Natura" by Lucretius. The man wrote science and philosophy in Latin in verse. 'Tis an odd reading, but I like it. Thank god I only have to read it in English though. I did by a bomba for motivation. Once I finish my reading I can indulge in the chocolaty, sugary goodness that is an Italian doughnut. That is assuming it survived its journey 20,000 leagues under the sea. I didn't open the back to check. Once the bag is open there is nothing to stop me from devouring it.

Cooking Classes

Kate, Catherine and I have started taking cooking classes together. So far we have had three and we're learning authentic Roman/Italian dishes. We've made, Rigatoni All'Amatriciana, lentil soup, and Lasagna Bolognese. They are all so good. Next time we're going to do a meat dish and make Saltimbocca. I am having so much fun with them. I can't wait to show off my new skills when I get home.

Something Funny Happened in the Circus Maximus

So, my history professor told us about this huge thing happening in the Circus Maximus last Sunday. I decided to check it out, being the geek that I am. It was a historical reenactment of the military and other cultural things from Ancient Rome. It. Was. Awesome.

I went with Savannah and took SO many pictures. You should really look at them all here, but I will walk you through the day a bit here and post a few with descriptions.

So first half of the Circus Maximus is set up like a military camp. There are tents everywhere and people dressed up just hanging out that you could talk to. There were tables set up that showed you the different types of weapons, armor, etc. it was really cool. There were shields lined up everywhere, and a bunch of soldiers just milling around eating. There was also a few stalls set up that told you about Roman coins, jewelery, medical tools, and mosaics that was set up like a mini-market.

(A brief photo break, then there will be more about the day)

 

Then there were a bunch of dances, which were strange and mostly consisted of belly dancing. Felt very eastern, and not very Roman but whatever. Then there were a bunch of military drills. They showed us some of the military formations and then there were a few man-on-man fights. This part was a lot of fun. (Apparently earlier in the day they did Roman vs Celtic fights, which were fun. I heard this from my history professor when we were talking about it after the midterm.) I have a lot of photos of this, a ton of action sequences so check out my facebook album that I linked to earlier for more. 

    Then there was a reenacmeant of a Roman wedding, which was really interesting to watch. From the actual souvenir market all around the festival, I got a t-shirt with all the money I had on me at the time. But I really like. They were also selling armor (for the reasonable price of 300 euro), helmets, swords ad shields, but try explaining that in customs. 

I really like her helmet.