a roma at last

Hello Blog. It’s been a while. Like a four year old, I got bored of you as soon as you weren’t new. Now that I’m in Europe, I’ll play with you again.

AUR is kind of giving me a dick with courses. After cancelling both the conservation course (my museum studies course equivalent) and art gallery management, I’ve had to sign up for courses that really don’t transfer for more than credits back to Chatham. It’s depressing. As of right now, this is my schedule:
Monday:
Art of Renaissance & Baroque – Daria Borghese – 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Tuesday:
Archaeology of Roman Identity – Valerie Higgins – 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Introduction to International Business – Susi Silvano – 2:05 pm – 5:05 pm
Wednesday:
Art of Rome – TBA – 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Traffickers, Thieves, and Forgers: Art Crime – Noah Charney <3 – 6:15 pm – 9:15 pm

I’m considering swapping International Business for the Intro to Opera course that’s on Mondays or maybe even the intro Latin course that’s on Monday/Wednesday, but honestly, I’m even more considering just taking four courses and having my Monday and Tuesday afternoons free to dick around and explore.

Regardless, I’ll continue.

Right now I’m on the second balcony (the one that accesses the kitchen, 2nd, and 3rd bedrooms; the first balcony is the private one from my room) of my flat in Roma. It’s located in a great neighbourhood with lots of Italians and fun places, apparently. I’m glad it’s big and not the crappy one that one of the girls from my Girl Scout troop lived in last Fall. That would be shitty :/

I procrastinated packing until literally the last minute. I was still shoving shit in my suitcase when mom went to put air in the tires before driving to Chicago, where my flight left from. We ended up repacking in the parking lot of O’Hare because I couldn’t lift my big red suitcase and that’s a pretty good indication that it’s going to fail at the weighing station. I had grabbed my cousin Diane’s suitcase (she let me take it home with me when I was in Europe in 2005 because I had sent mine ahead with my GS troop), and we ended up having to repack inside the airport to make the weight restrictions. I had intended on packing lightly, but managed to take two big suitcases, my red laptop bag, and my huge weekend bag backpack. Good job, Lizz.

Some guys from the airport picked me up in a little cart and hauled my ass through O’Hare and walked me to my seat on the airplane. That was great until I saw my seat. I was the middle seat in the first row of the cheap seat section. The huge screen was an arm’s length away from me, which was not ideal, as we had to fully recline our seats and then lo ride in them to be even remotely comfortable. The in-flight entertainment was fucked up. As it was a Polish airline, everything was in Polish first and then real language second. How backwards, I thought to myself. First it showed these ridiculous cartoons about doing exercises on the plane, but the women had such huge tits it was practically an infomercial about the breast enhancers and getting attention. Then they showed old school Disney cartoons, for the kids, apparently. After that went on for more than an hour, they showed Star Trek and followed it with 17 Again. I had really wanted to see Star Trek with Forrest, when he visited the weekend before, but we never made it, so I was really pleased that they were going to show it on the plane when I was practically dry humping the screen. Unfortunately, I woke up half way through it and forced myself to dick around until it ended so I wouldn’t ruin the movie. Luckily that only lasted for an hour and a half. I had already downloaded 17 Again in a moment of weakness months earlier, so I’m super pleased that I was subjected to it again.

I was one of the only non-native poles on that plane. I tried to eavesdrop, but at no point did I hear anyone speak English unless they were talking to me. The woman on my left and I chatted for a good portion of the trip. She lives in Chicago and was going to Poland to visit her family and teach German. She gave me her email address and I plan on contacting her about my travels and get some tips from her if I have time to go back to Poland. The woman on my right was older and adorable. In order to close the overhead compartment, she would stand on her seat and punch the shit out of the door until it closed. She ruled. She also gave me this badass Euro version of the Kit Kat that ruled. I’m completely down for getting candy from strangers. On my connector flight from Warsaw to Rome, the woman that sat in my row also gave me candy (gum) so that was neat. We both snuck our baby bottles of red wine off the plane in our purses. The connector was also bilingual in Polish and Italian, so I had no idea what was going on. I was watching the second season of Flight of the Conchords on my laptop until the two flight attendants pantomimed emphatically at me to close it. The attendants on the first flight were great and funny. This dickbag kept trying to have his luggage at his feet during landing so he could get off the plane as fast as possible (and be a general dickbag). She was mean with him and it was cool because I would’ve been as well. She rolled her eyes at him and then I took pictures of him with my iphone.

The food on the first flight was fun. I was hoping for a pierogi, but no dice. The hot meal had a chicken with peas and carrots and rice, which I liked, and then two-thirds of a piece of wheat bread with some salami and baby vegetables cut up underneath it that you put dressing on and it’s a cute salad. There was also a Kit Kat. The next meal they gave us was another two-thirds serving of bread with cottage cheese and cucumber, tomato, and lettuce to make a heartier sandwich. They came around with rolls and strawberry jam, too. I enjoyed it. On the connector flight, they gave us a heavy roll with salami and lettuce in sealed bags. I felt like I was eating in the future, which I suppose I was.

The Warsaw airport was very long and obnoxious, and we had to go down four flights of stairs to get on a cattle car bus that took us to our tiny plane where it sat minding its own business on the runway twenty years from the airport. I tried to find cool porn in the news stand and was not successful. I did find a new Bvlgari perfume (Blv II for women) so I was pleased with that. Another one of those damn buses picked me up from our tiny plane and drove us to the Rome airport. There were four families with strollers and kids that made a shit load of noise and took up all of the space in the cattle car—because I obviously needed a reason to dislike children more.

The taxi driver from Rome to my hotel definitely overcharged me and was really mean. He yelled at me when I balked at the price and it was scary.  The Hotel Cristoforo Colombo was nice, despite reading mostly bad reviews online. The bathtub was amazing and I literally spent almost four hours indulging myself in it.

As I’m writing this, the flat across the street has had some interesting developments. From my position, I can look into two of their windows. I’ve been watching a man in various stages of clothing. Currently, he is in a black muscle tee and black tight underwear. He just lifted up his shirt and looked in the mirror to admire his abs. Now he grabbed a book and is in the second room. A woman came into the first room after he left, and took off her shirt and her bra. She’s just walked into the second room and is only wearing her white granny panties. Now they’re both in the second room at a table eating. How romantic.

Yesterday, I woke up early (thanks time zones) and went to my free continental breakfast and then walked along the high way to the mall next door to my hotel to try to find a converter. It was very difficult and I was ultimately unsuccessful because they are a very popular tourist item, apparently. I was getting frustrated and people were rude, so I found a pet store and I played with a :< face kitten for half an hour ^3^ It was very sad to leave him, and I hope someone adopts him. A lot of people were there looking at him, so I hope he finds a great home, potentially with awesome naked Italians. I bought a loaf of pre-sliced white bread and a big bottle of orange drink for less than 2 euro and I’m still eating these today.It was a better call instead of paying big money for dinner.

I woke up early and had my breakfast again. Then I was in the bath <3 for more time and packed and left for the American University of Rome. It was a much better taxi ride, and I could pay with my credit card, so that was great. The taxi driver was rude and didn’t speak Italian and had trouble finding AUR. Before we even pulled away from the curb, the timer ran for 3 euro before he even made an attempt to leave. I had called AUR and asked for someone to give him directions in Italian but he refused to talk on the phone. It was frustrating.

AUR was really nice. It’s small and cozy and pretty and the computers in the lab are really fast and new. I was very unsocial but I don’t care today. I’ll make good impressions later when I’m not lugging around half of America in the five pieces of luggage I have.

I was driven to my flat in a van. The guy driving is a Res Grad, and he offered to give me cooking lessons during the semester. I’m very excited! Again, my flat is wonderful, and I can’t wait to entertain some Italian men ;*~~. It’s outfitted by Ikea and has white marble floors. The kitchen is a little small (it has a baby gas oven that I get to light myself! and a tiny half size fridge!), but the actual spaciousness of the flat makes up for it. The beds are low to the ground, which I love, and the balconies are wonderful.

My flatmates are either at a Rome walking tour, which I would’ve gone on, but my foot is bothering me, or out exploring. Either way, I unpacked (me!) and am enjoying this bit of time by myself.


Here are my upcoming events:
September 10-13: Venice Biennale
September 17-20: London with Andy and Sara to see Coldplay (with Robin too)
November 19-22: London to see RICKY fucking GERVAIS with Robin