April and some of May

This post has been written for a good while, but I was waiting to get pictures that I was unable to get from a friends computer. It'll be nice to get back to my own computer. At the beginning of April some of Asher and Missy's friends (both of them) came to Rome for 4 days. Nate and Joy definitely made a milestone memory for me here in Rome. In a good way. The daily words included 'epic', _____ (too amazing to mention...actually I can't remember it. do you Yettons or Dani?), and 'stellar' (which quickly turned into 'awkward') and the experience was definitely all of them. They stayed with my friend Dani, who I'd met here in Roma, which I was very happy about since that meant more hangout at her place (ie. crepes, wine, tea, guitar, hula hoops, movies, etc).

My favorite day in Rome is the first day I was here. Waking up in a non-English speaking bed and breakfast, exploring the streets and sights, soaking up the views of domes, churches, piazzas, Italian women, and jackets, the Italian language...and everything else that made it great. The Thursday Nate and Joy were here made for my favorite evening in Rome, and that day is the closest viable contender with my 1st day here. I met them that morning in Campo de Fiori and showed them around. I enjoyed a brie and speck panino (my fave) while enjoying the thrift stores as we strolled down the street by my apartment to Castel Sant Angelo. St. Peter's Piazza enjoyed our company for a bit as we soaked up the sun and pictures before heading to the Gianicolo park that overlooks the city to play with Red, the Irish setter, and chat with his retired Italian owner. Trastevere offered us a music store to browse through, cappuccini to drink standing at the bar, and kebabs to eat in a quiet piazza as we rested a bit before climbing Aventine Hill. We entered the church at the top of the hill to find a boys and men's choir practicing for an event. With the sun beaming through the window and the reverberations of an epic choir, I felt like I could stay there all day. We enjoyed some Italian white-chocolate (thanks Nate!) as we waited in line to look through a keyhole. What's through the keyhole? St. Peter's of course. The plan was to finish with a sunset at Pincio Hill that also overlooks the city, but we were ready to rest so back to Dani's we went.

That night we (Nate and Joy, Dani, Cass, Virginia, Hilary, and I) went to eat near Campo de Fiori where Nate told me and Cass the girls they were going to set us up with in Nashville. I made sure to make a mental note of that since our waitress probably burned the rose I gave her to heat up my pizza. Love hurts. We returned to Dani's to find the wine and cheeses out and Charlie (the dad of Clara (the roommate of Dani)) playing his guitar, Harmony, like a champ. We stayed up into the wee hours, and yet not long enough, playing music and singing songs. Charlie played requests and some solid ones he'd written, Nate played a Griffin House song that one of Charlie's songs reminded him of (does the computer count as a musical instrument?), Joy showed off her guitar and singin 5ki11z with 'Genesis', and I dabbled with requests and randoms from Radiohead to Feist. It made me really miss my guitar. I loved it. I noticed it also helps that Joy has a stellar voice so no matter what I played sounded good. Smiles and laughs abounded the whole time they were here, and we all felt like we had been friends for a lot longer. Definitely some great days.

The main highlights of the week after involved Il Clan. No, that's not a gang or dodge ball team but a restaurant. My roomie, Keith, and I have become friends with Dika and Maysa, the two women who run this Brazilian eatery directly below our apartment. Keith and I were happy to discover, upon taking them homemade Mexican salsa, that it's a Brazilian custom to return a dish full of food when someone brings you food. It's worked out well. :)

The 2 weeks after that were really busy. Upon realizing that I'm not going to be in Roma forever I made a list of everything still left to do that I wanted to do. It was long. I realized I'd leave Europe feeling like I didn't get to do everything, but I didn't think that'd be the case with Roma. Seems tragic, but I guess it gives me more reasons to return (not that aren't enough). This was on top of: working on our Final presentation for studio (which was more battling the computers than working on the project), working with customs to get a box from my mom that was supposed to arrive before Easter, searching for a job this Summer, and planning a 3 1/2 week traveling bout after school and before home.

While I was disappointed how the overall group design ended up in studio, our final presentation went well. After lots of fees and frustrations I received the box from customs 2 days before leaving Roma. I was happy to get the medicine (4 months worth), a travel book on Rome, a travel book on Germany, and a postcard of Texas. The three cities I considered working in this Summer were Chicago, Nashville, and Rome. Sadly I had to pick one and felt strongly led to go to Chicago. I got an job working for an architecture firm there, living 3 El stops (that's train stops, not Spanish for 'the stops') away with none other than the Callinanator, and enjoying the weather, boats, concerts, pubs, pizza, etc that is Chicago. The travels after school haven't gone as planned so far, but they've still been great.

After finals I went back to Pisa and Lucca (see previous post) with Hilary, a friend from studio. After walking all day on Saturday my foot hurt to the point of almost not being able to walk due to a high school rodeo injury. It didn't really matter too much the rest of our time in Lucca, however, since we rented bikes for 2 days. We enjoyed biking around the town, on the ancient city walls that Napoleon's wife turned into a park back in the day, and through the country side of Tuscany along a river and wine fields with speckled towns on mountains as backdrops. Instead of going from there to Venice, Prague, Germany, and Paris I returned to Rome to let my foot rest. While a little frustrated I couldn't travel I did really enjoy the next 2 weeks I spent there. I was able to see Keith again and we celebrated his last day in Rome. Another great day was with my landlord that involved helping him move me to the apartment at the top of the building (that has a large terrace overlooking the street), talking about Christianity, him trying to get me to stay there all Summer to get paid to teach him guitar, drink cappuccini, and work on apartments, talks about Christianity, he loaned me his guitar (yay!), going to Villa Borghese with his wife and 3 daughters to celebrate Feste, and he showed me 2 chapels I'd never been in.

The time between then and now I didn't plan, although I tried as I continually looked at flight prices and the health of my foot. I spent every day at some point in il clan and have become good friends with Dika, Maysa, and Sergio. Sergio has been in Rome his whole life and is a regular at il clan. He's hilarious and would take me to hangout with him and his friends when not at il clan. Another unplanned friend last week was Marcella. She's Dika and Maysa's niece who has studied in the states for a while (so spoke English) and was in Rome for a week. When all 5 of us would hangout and I wanted to tell Sergio something that he wasn't understanding I would tell Marcella in English, she would tell one of her aunts in Portuguese, and they would tell Sergio in Italian. The joys of living oversees.

Last Saturday I went to Venice and enjoyed the water taxi's, churches, and small streets for a day before flying to Frankfurt, Germany. I've been staying near Kaiserslautern the past couple of days with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. They've been great hosts taking me to a few castles and enjoying the local cuisine (ie. schnitzel, bratwurst, and other edible things with 10 consonants and 2 vowels). It's been a blessing to see them, enjoy their house and company, and having them show me around the area. I will be sad to depart. ...but not too sad since I'll be heading to Prague (probably with my cousin, Gwynne).

Current reading: Just finished Ernest Hemingway's 'A Farewell to Arms' and loved it (I'll tell you all about it, Cass). Now enjoying 'Father Elijah'.
Current listenings: Thad Cockrell - pride wontgetus where we're goin, The Frames, Cabin's latest, Butterfly Boucher - A Bitter Song, The Grand Opening, R. Adams as usual, Axe Riverboy - carry on, Trent Dabbs - A Decade Fades cd, Tyler James - come off cold, don't leave, etc....