camay and i have now become regulars at Standa, which is their supermarket. i have officially become a die hard fan of baguette's (which btw is only .79euros). i think i'm going to buy a fresh one everyday (or every other day). i love to just walk into the deli and bread section and inhale it's beautiful, fresh breadi-ness. lol. supermarket quirks i've come to notice: pasta > rice (they only have small boxes of rice. they have a whole aisle on just pasta alone) cheese and meat come in slices of only 4, no grated cheese, everything is pork, plastic forks cost more than spoons (if it's the same thing in NY, it's something i never noticed), and wine is superrr cheap (too bad i can't bring any onto campus OR any home!). food quantities are smaller in rome. our standard size fridge in american is actually considered 'large'. we're living on milk for breakfast because camay bought oatmeal and cereal and we're filling up our water bottles from the sidewalk fountains. yes! sidewalk fountains. it looks like an open hydrant, but it's actually fresh water from the mountains running through the system to come out through these fountains in the middle of the sidewalks!
my diet has consisted of pasta, pizza, and cheeeeese. i am in either food heaven or on my way to hell. i always thought NY pizza was the best pizza 'cause, well, you can't fold a chicago deep dish pizza. but i don't think it can even compare now that i've had authentic italian pizza. you order by weight, so you can order as much as you want, depending on how much you wish to spend. they are cut into sicilian slices and you can, as they've all asked us, to 'take away' or to 'stay'. when you 'take away' your slices, they fold it like a sandwhich and hand it to you in wax paper and you can walk out and eat it. it's actually much more convenient than the NY slice! my favorite is the eggplant parmeasean (but i really enjoyed the sausage and mushroom one, too). i also had my first taste of this italian speciality called 'arancine'. it's amazing. it's a fried rice ball with anything you want on the inside, like mozzarella, spinach, ham, etc. i had mozzarella and ham. mm, good. from the groceries we bought at Standa, Camay was able to make us this chicken/cheese/tomato sandwhich. one of the semester students kept coming in saying that it smelled good. well, let's just say it smelled just as good as it tasted.
i had my first authentic gelato and it was to die for. 'uno conno, per favore!' (one cone, please!) and 'canoli e cioccolato, grazi!' (canoli and chocolate, thank you!). so yes, i had canoli and chocolate gelato scoops in this tiny cone and then strolled the streets of rome enjoying every lick. i also ordered a panini! the panini's here look nothing like panini's in NY! who came up with the idea of putting stuff into flatbread! not the italians! i haven't even seen any flatbread. panini is really just a whitebread sandwhich with whatever you want in it. but it's pretty cheap,so that's good.
i'm going for canoli's tomorrow with a group of students and probably will never look at canoli's back in the states the same way. i'm sorry america, but the original always wins.
speaking of america, what an amazing day it must of have been there! INAUGURAL DAY! while i was on break from my 3 (supposed to be 4) hour class, i ran to the TV lounge and caught the beginning of Bush And Obama leaving the White house and watched as long as i could before returning to class. the seats were already quite filled when i came and left. by the time class ended, it was PACKED. i can't even imagine the pride in America right now. but as the St. John's Rome Campus gathered to watched on two big flat screens in a lounge, you could definitely be sure that there were cheers from Rome about our 44th president and our FIRST black and biracial president!
i'm currently watching the live stream right now on CNN/Facebook. I think, especially for a lot of people abroad and unable to watch it on TV, CNN has made it possible for everyone to be apart of history. i am praying for the Obama's,Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd who needed medical attention (Kennedy because of seizures) during the presidential luncheon, America, and the world. i pray for everyone.
on other notes, i got to stroll rome at night and it's quite beautiful. but VERY quiet. 4 hour classes might possibly be the death of me. i loved how guys down the hall were blasting taylor swift and singing along. the bathrooms are disgusting.
here are some more photo's from my adventure. ALL photos will be available on my flickr. link on the side.
ciao for now!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
gelato, panini's, & cheers from Rome!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
CIAO, Roma!
Wow, I cannot believe I am in Rome! (Or as the Italians say, Roma!) Some few things to note so far is that do not take roses from strangers on the streets when there are guys with you because they expect the guys to pay for it, keep bags as close to the body as much as possible, and practice italian as much as you can!
The plane ride over was exhausting. I boarded the plane at JFK, January 15th, after crying a little after leaving my family and Harold. After a little more tears in the plane, I listened to Kings of Leon, Jason Mraz , watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and some of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and had my first glass of wine without being carded! I landed at Heathrow in London. Heathrow is crazy! It's just a big airport made of glass. After running to my transfer flight which was only about 40 minutes after I landed, I boarded my plane to Rome (I slept through it).
When I touched down in Rome on January 16th, I met up with Camay after being lonely for many hours, who was on another flight, and we boarded the St. John's shuttle bus and headed to downtown Rome. There's so much graffitti here, more than NY (if that's possible). We ended up in this little street, which I later found out is named Via Marcantonia. We, as in the entire DTW group, began to roll our luggages round the corner and found ourselves in front of the SJU Rome Campus. We thankfully did not have to drag any of our luggage up because our RA brought them up in the elevator.
Camay and I walked into our rooms and yelled for joy. Not only do we have double beds, but a room with a KILLER view! We overlook the street below and see the rooftops in sunrise and sunset. We are also the corner room and the closest to the bathroom and laundry room. The only flaw right now is that the bathroom is co-ed. But either way, Kudos Rome Campus! Our room began on one side but we moved everything to our liking.
Then today, we woke up to the Roman sun coming through our window, got to the shower (before anyone else could), and then had orientation. We went on a short neighbordhood tour to check out where we could buy groceries and where to use our meal plan tickets. I bought milk (latter) and it was difficult because I got some attitude from the cashier but that's expected. Then bought some eggplant parmesean pizza. Then had an 'italian lecture with Gianna' who told us that when italian boys invite you for 'coffee' they really mean for sex.And there's no turning back once you do. That's sorta scary. Also, that italians don't wanna hear that you're from Jersey but from NEW YORK, CALIFORNIA, MIAMI! Lol, Gianna's hilarious. We finally then went on a historical center tour of the nearby areas. We went to this villa (which I don't remember the name of right now), the Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain! I didn't get to throw any coins into the fountain, so I'm going back some time this week. One coin means you'll return to Rome, two coins means you'll marry in Rome, three coins means you'll marry a Roman! We passed by Armani, Prada, Valentino, and I drooled a little.
I am sitting in the dorms listening to Joe Jonas (hah), facing the window with this black sky and a faint glow from street lights. I planned to go to the Trinita dei Monti for church tomorrow morning. Hopefully the Vatican this week. That's it for now folks, here's a few photos. More on my facebook. I plan to make a flickr at some point for my photos.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Posthumous.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
don't forget the little people. literally.
big people making even bigger moves.
top $ raz
www.myspace.com/farrockchamp
get his album off itunes!
& check him out live @ the bowery poetry club for Bondfire!
fall of the albatross
www.myspace.com/fallofthealbatross (new mixed song, new layout!)
come check 'em out live this wednesday @ Plush in Flushing.
if you can't make it then, make SURE to come out to the event on this flyer. if they win this battle, they move on as national finalists and could win a chance at a 25k record deal. even if they place 2nd nationally, they still win! they'll be able to go on a 25-city tour! let's make it happen. =]
Friday, January 2, 2009
Salve, Bonjour, Hello 2009!
as i stand here at one of the computers at work, scanning film negatives to the computer and simultaneously observing my boss as he toys around with an ancient and large flash, which he has affectionately named the "real big monster", for his nikon to use at a party he's shooting tomorrow, i figured i'd write a blog entry.
i wish i had remembered on the 20th of november that my blog turned a year old so i could throw it a birthday post. but i forgot. i'm a bad mama.
looking back at the entries i've posted over last year, i can't believe i'm currently where i am now. i mean, last year, i blogged when my bed was on the other side of the room!
...all sarcasm aside. i can't deny what an exciting year '08 was. and, through it all, i've been able to share my life through this blog with my future self and others that have stumbled upon it. but, the thing i've noticed about myself, as a blogger, is that i don't reflect often about myself. or really, at all. and i believe that's the biggest flaw in this blog. i don't want to look back at the entries years from now and not know what i'm feeling. i'll know what happened. i'll know who i interviewed, whose concert i went to, what i did that day, but will i ever remember the emotions attached to them? no, i don't think so. so i'm beginning now.
today is the second day of the year 2009. last night i pulled out my big red suitcase and one of it's matching carry-on's and dusted off any debris that had accumulated on it since its last voyage back early last year. it might possibly be the luckiest piece of luggage on earth because it shall be my bag as i travel through europe. hemwattie was kind enough to follow through by coming over after i explained that i "opened the suitcase and didn't know what to do".
as i waited for hemwattie to finish dinner, i called up camay, who is the other lucky piece of luggagge (no, just kidding, camay, lol) that will be traveling with me. after having not seeing/talking to eachother, when we used to see eachother at least twice a week during the semester, it was good to hear her voice and finally discuss some issues about europe. we're planning to get together in person to finalize. i think my eyes opened wide and jaw dropped a little, after i hung up with her. our conversation made me realize that there's so much to be done in such little time.
when hemwattie finally arrived (and manny had finished assaulting her), we went to my dungeon/oasis and sat on the floor looking at my two big stacks of laundry and an empty red suitcase. i do remember actually scratching my head in confusion. but after an awkward 10 seconds of befuddlement, i pulled the laundry towards me and we disected each piece of clothing one by one. the conversation went something like this,
"do you need that?"
"no, but i want it."
-toss clothing to 'NO' pile-
after about two hours of clearing through clothes, we hopped onto the bed and looked online for other things that i'm supposed to stuff into my bag. apparantly i need sink stopper. then we weighed my massive suitcase and it came out to be already 25 pounds! i scratched my head again.
you see, for international flights, 50lbs is allowed. but since i'm travelling between four-five countries, the limit allowed is only 40lbs. and since i DO plan on buying a few trinkets to bring back home, i need to save some space in my luggage. meaning, i need to re-think my plan of 25lbs of just clothes.
after hemwattie left (and after manny had finished assaulting her), i sat in my room and thought, "wow, am i really leaving in less than two weeks?" for someone who opted to stay home for college, it's a wild idea. i'm not exactly sure why the idea is so frightening to me now. i've spent my whole life being the eager beaver to jump on a plane or get into a car and just travel, just get away. but this is europe. i'll be an ocean away from family, from my boyfriend, from my friends (except for one who is awesome enough to share the same interest in travel as i do). english is the second, if not third, language for 1/2 of these countries. but then i look at my suitcase and smile.
i have nothing to be afraid of. 2009, i know you will take care of me. i know you have big plans for me and so i will follow through dutifully. i'm sorry, in advance, if i stray away from the path once in awhile, but trust me, i'll get back on it. 2008blessed me with opportunities very few have. i am more than gracious for them. so i know you have many things in store for me in this coming year, good and bad, and i will take them head on.
to quote taylor swift from her performance in times square this year,
“‘Cause this is a new year, a new beginning and things will change.”
