"Choose to Be Happy"

Ugh, I miss Grey Gardens. Like a lot. Have been listening to it here and there in the past week and have realized that even thought "Peas in a Pod" could be considered a "throwaway" little duet, its just so good. And so catchy.

Had a bit of a freakout last night. I stayed up until 4am waiting for the boy to get out of his second show. He got on and told me he was going to run to the bathroom. I was already in bed with my laptop unplugged. I went to plug it in as the battery was almost dead and it started to go to "standby" but then flashed some weird screen saying "performing hardrive dump" but then shut down. I've seen the screen before, but anytime I see something say "hardrive dump" I have a bit of a freakout. Well I tried starting it up again and some weird ass screen came up everytime and wouldn't let me get to Windows.

Of course, when I get up today my dad is no where to be found on SKYPE on his cell or house phone. My brother actually helped me figure it out just by googling. Go Greg.

Anyway, last night was fun. Carrie had me over for dinner. I fucking love her red sauce. Because shes Calabrese, its spicy and I love it. She made gnocchi which were delish. I'm going to miss the quality of the food here. I'll explain.

My first time in Roma in 2004 I was being grilled by everyone because I honestly just hated the food. While here I had to eat spaghetti with cooked tuna and corn in it (????) among other horrid things. This time around, as I'm cooking for myself, I'm realizing that you can be a shitty cook but still have your food come out well because the food is just of such good quality here.

I've become a master of making my own sauce. People seem to really like it, I've always wanted to have something I could cook thats like signature to me, especially red sauce which is so hard to perfect.

I cooked eggplant rollatini last week. It came out really well (surprisingly as throughout the process it was not looking so hot). I'm heading to Punto today and hoping to pick up some stuff to make Chicken Francese. Nothing like a nice, big kitchen to learn how to make new dishes.

Cutting back to last night, after dinner I was in my apt. for a bit talking to the boy as we had a SKYPE date. That was fun :) Then I headed down to see the girls downstairs and chilled with Niki and Dana. We ended up smoking which was fun. I left to come up and see if Chad was online but ended up just raiding my cabinet. I ate:

PBJ crackers
Potato Chips
Cookies
Cookies in Nutella
More Chips

Yea, needless to say I'm going to the gym today.

Almost Forgot

To blog :]

Today was marathon day for classes (12-6:30pm).

Since I'm such a grand-master of time-management I left all homework to do this morning before class. I got up around 8:15 (8:55) and got to school for around 10:40. My big ass mouth was blabbin near the Aula with Jane and out came Carrie saying she could hear me from her class LOL.

Did my homework then she and I grabbed a cappucino at the bar across from school. I later found out that it was like crack-coccaine Cappucino because in my third class I found myself talking a mile-a-minute to the girl next to me that I've maybe exchanged 15 words with over the entire semester. It was frightening. Needless to say a panino was in my near future, which proved to be an odd experience (as most of my experiences are here).

I approached AristaCampo to get my Mortadella/Mozarella panino and was called from across the street by the two girl working the counter there who were having a ciggarette on the steps of the building across the street. She motioned to me as if they were waiting for the floor to dry, even though it was bone dry when I looked. It was odd, but whatever.

We owned in acting today (Andrea and I) as usual. Everyone else got reprimanded for low energy which we evaded :)

After class I walked home with Toni/Lindsey and (messily) ate gelato from my favorite place. Its so amazing. With gelato in general, they like expect you to have 3+ flavors in a small cup (€1.50) which is overflowing + panna (whipped cream) and a wafer cookie. Love. it. Came home to my boy waiting for me on AIM which is always nice after class all day.

Tomorrow is gonna be a gym/tanning? day. I have to plan something entertaining to do with Mom when she gets in next week for her free day Thursday...

Lazy Sunday

Ugh, that title/video even make me miss NYC :(

Appropo title though. I meant to set my alarm to wake up at some godly hour, but ended up sleeping until 3p. It was worth it for who I was talking to online last night :D

I literally hung around here most of the day. I decided to get some inspiration and shower in the hopes that I'd go to school and get some homework done rather than having to get up early and do it before my marathon of classes, but that didn't happen.

I went downstairs as I heard the girls were back from Barcelona and got all the dish from Niki and Jacquie about the trip. That segued into getting Chinese with Niki and Dana which was fun. We talked about hostels, travelling, Spring Break (ugh) and missing home.

I'm rather torn about "home." I want to go back to New York City for the sheer convenience of everything. Being able to walk down the street and have Mexican, Chinese, Thai or see a movie right around the corner. Everything just takes so much longer here. To see a movie, I have to first find an "original language" movie theater and then pray they have a website. The whole ordeal leaves me much like my research for Spring Break does: worn out and not wanting to do it.

At the same time, the "torn" feeling is from wanting to avoid going back into the same "rut" I was in. I wasn't happy with my living situation nor was I happy about where some of my friendships were going (or had gone). I'm hoping that making it through this experience will not only make me more worldly but also more willing to cut ties with the things that drag me down in life. While home I felt, for lack of a better word, selfless. I don't want to sound like I need to be taken down off my cross here, but I feel like I was so much at the mercy of others, reputations, my apartment and time that I didn't enjoy life like I am here. It almost makes me want to be back in the dorms with at least the housing responsibility off my shoulders, almost.

I know my reasons for wanting to be home are silly, I just don't want my time here to be mundane like today. In fact, I feel guilty when it does. Really guilty. I mean, I'm in Rome, there shouldn't be days where I'm indoors for the entirety of the day. I can't even use drunkeness as an excuse because I didn't go out last night. Oh well, things should hopefully balance out.

It seems the temperature is going to start climbing which I think is going to excite me for travelling more. I find myself turned off by the idea of going to certain countries/cities when its so cold because I feel like I won't be able to enjoy it, but after hearing Barcelona was high-60s - 70s this past weekend for the girls, I'm a bit enlightened.

Alas, early to bed for I have to rise early and do all my homework I've had 5 days off to do in the morning. I'm a time-management champ.

Mission - Productive Day: Accomplished

I set my alarm to be up for 1:15p-ish today, but snoozed a bit til 1:45p.

I got up and had a bowl of cereal attempting to inspire myself to go to the gym. I knew leaving to do that would set the chain of events for the day into effect (Gym, Tanning, Food-shopping). I worked my ass off at the gym as it was basically emtpy around 6p so I didn't feel embarassed at all trying new machines (and hitting myself in the head a bunch of times).

As I walked down the Lungotevere I realized that at this point, I'm literally living in this city.

When I first moved to New York, I walked around so awed by the fact that I was finally, and actually, living there. That novelty obviously wears off as you learn to adjust to daily life in new surroundings. I think this was one of the things that excited (and continues to excite) me about coming to Rome. Going to a completely new city and having to learn it is fascinating.

All cities are fundamentally the same. You start off setting up your home base (the apartment), getting used to the kitchen/appliances/bathroom etc. Then it stretches to outdoors when you discover your supermarket. The next step is branching out to discover means of transportation from where your placed to where you want to be.

As I walked from the gym down to the tram toward Trastevere I realized that, although still in awe of the things I see each day, I'm actually living in this city.

Tonight I made Eggplant Rollatini for the first time. The recipe claims 20 minute setup, 20 minute cooking but that was a farse. I had to be cooking for over 1.5 hours.

I made my sauce from scratch which I'm quite proud of and to hold myself over, dipped bread in to "test" it as the eggplant fried.

Its all good though, now I can just scoop 2-3 out, heat 'em up and I'm set for the rest of the week.

Well after a full day of my boy not being online, he's on, so that's all folks.

24 hours straight.

Thanks to Carrie I didn't spend 24 hours straight in my apartment.

I don't know why I'm being such a slug. I wanted to go to the gym at some point today, and possibly another travel agency to sort out spring break. I did spend a good chunk of it combing the web for deals for spring break. Things are still up in the air between Sharm el Sheikh and the Canary Islands.

I also think subconsciously I was sticking it out hoping my boy would come online, which he did so I spent a few hours online chattin it up, having some dinner, and trading virginity-loss stories with my roommates.

Carrie was going to Campo tonight for a more chill night before Alpheus tomorrow night. Seems its going to be myself, Carrie, her sister and some of my roommates who want in on the gay club. Should be an interesting mix.

I managed to stall/lie my way into getting to Campo around 1ish where I met up with Carrie and her sister, the guys from last night (+ some hottie that they were trying to set up with her sister). Grabbed a drink then they threw us out at 2am as everything was closing. I segued into getting a gelato then grabbed the tram back.

Tomorrow I want to make uber-productive. Gym, tanning, food shopping are all on the agenda. I want to figure out some other meals to make here other than pasta and chicken cutlets which have become my staple. I'm thinking of buying the ingredients for either (or both) Chicken Francese or Eggplant Rolatini.

Do I NEED a Title?

So this is where my blog is going to divert into "ramblings from the road" as Patti LuPone would call them.

Speaking of which, Patti has said many times on her blog how she doesn't know how to style herself ("I've been wearing costumes all my life") but look at this bitch! She was at the Zac Posen show for Fashion Week. They met during the run of GYPSY over the summer and he actually disinvited his "celebrity" guests therefore making her one of the biggest stars there that night. He dressed her as well.

Today was fairly-to-not eventful. Woke up at 4p after being out until about the same hour (12 hours previous) "working" at Gilda. Cooked up some chicken cutlets in the evening while talking to Chad. Called Carrie to no avail but then heard back from here a few hours ago. She was in Campo and wanted me to come in for a drink, which I translated to getting a gelato.

We met up with some guy who she had met but didn't remember (???) and I had to translate their entire conversation. It sort of baffles me that they would have met and had connection enough to exchange numbers but then tonight be able to communicate at all. Oh well, I got a gelato out of it. It was called "macaroom" which made me think of "macaroon" and it had a cookie on the label. It was cinamony, and I got something resembling cherry jubilee with it.

Yum.

Thats one thing I know I'll miss back in NYC. I want to learn how to make it so I can incorporate it into the ice cream place I want to open at some point in the city.

Fuck, this is a boring blog. If for any reason someone is reading this, I'm sorry if you're bored to tears. I promise, it'll get more interesting at some point. Read the post before this about how I got verbally raped my some woman in Milan. Its worth the chuckle.

ciao

Milano

At this point I've told this story a shit-ton of times, so I'm going to put it down once more in blacn and white (white on black?) before this blogs becomes more of a tidbits of the day/rant space:

The girls downstairs were going to be away for my birthday last Friday (2/15) in Milano and had mentioned a few times the possibilty of me joining them.

I was a bit reluctant as I thought I'd want to spend my birthday somewhere I know (at least a little) rather than a completely new city. As the week progressed they told me they'd be in a hotel (rather than hostel) which had the reservation as 2 beds rather than 2 people, therefore leaving the loophole for me to go.

The first 4 girls (Dana P, Dana G, Kate & Niki) took RyanAir flights out on Thursday morning while Jacquie and Jenna stayed behind for the Thursday evening class and were to take the midnight train overnight arriving in Milano at 9am.

Mid-Thursday I decided I would join them. That evening (after an insane Wednesday night for all 3 of us) the girls were attempting to convice me to go in the morning instead, but we got our shit together and got ready to take the 12:47 train out of Tiburtina. We had no idea how to get there and were going to leave on public transport at 11:35p latest.

When I got to their apartment, a guy Jacquie has been talking to was there and we sort of hung out for a few minutes before leaving. We rushed out and took the tram to Largo Argentina in hopes of grabbing a cab to Tiburtina as none of us had ever been there. Arriving in the center at about 12:15 we didn't get a cab until about 12:25.

We arrived at Tiburtina at 12:31. My credit card didn't work on first try so I helped Jenna then Jacquie with their tickets. Jacquie's printed out 2 tickets so we thought we may have selected 2 so I took it as mine and we ran to the track. Once there we realized that Jacquie did not in fact have two tickets but we should all have 2 tickets. I ran back to get Jenna's and purchase mine. Jenna's was still there but when I attempted to purchase mine, it wouldn't allow me because it was within 10 minutes of when the train was to depart.

I asked someone (in the Italian) on the platform if I could buy one onboard and they said something along the lines of "yes." We boarded and found a nifty cabin and started scrounging our money together to make sure I had the €28.50 for a ticket. 2 hours in the ticket woman finally came through. [sidenote: from here on out if I say "said" or "spoke to" it normally denotes that we were speaking in Italian to the best of my ability] Luckily the woman had a credit card machine so we didn't have to worry about the exchange of money and had money for food. The problem was that in order to purchase the ticket onboard, there was a €50 tax, which therefore brought my ticket up to €78.50 (roughly $115). Already being on the train there wasn't much I could do so I had to suck it up and consider it a birthday gift to myself (as it was past midnight).

She was nice about it, thought, saying that if she could she wouldn't charge me. Idk, if she really didnt' want to she shouldn't have.

We arrived at 9a and went to the "hotel." Where we were "greeted" by a pretty rough looking Milanese man who informed us that the reservation was for 2 people not 2 beds. I told the girls just to go along with it and that I'd figure something out. Once in the room, we got a call and I went out where he informed me that I couldn't, in fact, be in the room.

I got my wits together and went out there to talk to him and explain that we came with the impression that as a hotel and a reservation for 2 beds we assumed I would be able to stay in their room and that we were friends (and lied and said Jacquie and I were cousins). He told me that there as a single available next door to them (and in front of his desk) for €60 a night. I told him that was impossible so he offered me it for €40 and I took it.

After a quick nap we headed into the center (with the already there 4 girls whose room was upstairs). We went to the center of Milano to the Duomo to see the church, the view from the top and shop.

We came out of the metro to the above view which was astounding. We were split on what to do as me and J-squared were still a bit overwrought from the ride there and wanted something slow and good to eat while the others opted for Burger King then the Duomo and its church. We stopped in a cafe and sat in the downstairs eating area for about an hour and ate a panini, some chips, cappucino and killed off some sodas/teas as we were all parched.

It was at this sitting, after spending nearly $115 on an 8 hour train ride & paying €40 for a room in the shittiest hotel on earth that we coined the phrase of the trip:"Whatever, buy it, I'm rich bitch!"

We then headed to the Duomo where we checked out the church inside which was breathtaking:
At first the girls were not keen on going to the top of the Duomo but 150 stairs later, we were up there and it was insane:

After il Duomo we headed shopping to the two H&Ms in the area, Zara and a few other shops. We re-met up with the other girls to try and find somewhere to have dinner but that was proving difficult as most of them don't open for dinner until 7p. We opted to head back toward the hotel and hope to find somewhere in the (sparce) area to eat. We ended up at the New York Bar & Grill and all ate huge cheeseburgers which was a nice birthday dinner for me.

At the hotel, we napped and prepared to go to Plastic at the suggestion of a really nice cashier (Miguel) at H&M. The girls had gone to the pizzaria the night before for pizza and cheap wine so we did the same thing that night to pre-game for heading out. The waiters wanted to take us out somewhere else but we opted to stick to Plastic so they offered to drive us. We also got some wine out of it which was a good deal.

Plastic proved more difficult to get into, so we ditched the Italians who got us in as we were 6 girls and 1 guy who they were willing to let in. The place was interesting having been described as 1/2 straight and 1/2 gay. The back room was a rock band and so grungy looking people.

According to the girls the bathrooms were hardly prepocessing. The other room was where the real fun was and the good 80's pop and techno. We decided to leave later in the evening just as I started seeing my first glimpse of a few gays in the mix.

To get back we ended up getting split up (myself and J-squared leaving to find a cab). The first cab refused to use the meter so we got out, but were lost in the middle of no where. That was interesting. We got back and played in the hotel room for a bit before going to bed at around 5a.

(attempting to find a cab in the middle of no where)

The next morning I was rudely awoken by a phonecall at 10:30a telling me I'd have to be out by 11a. I packed up and put my bags in J-squared's room and we headed out for american coffee. We hit up the center again. I texted a friend Mirko I had met online who said he wanted to meet up with us in the center. He did and showed us around the Monteleone area of expensive designer stores as well as an outlet in that area. He suggested I go to the gay clubs with he and his friends and could chill at his place until our train at 7am the next morning. The 4 girls upstairs were staying in and J and J were going out with respective guys in Milano they knew.

After shopping I headed back to the hotel and snuck upstairs with the girls to grab my bag and take a shower before heading over Mirko's. They went to grab a pizza and Jacquie came to use something in the room. While in the shower she knocks on the door and says,"Don't say anything, the mean one is here." The man from the desk and, I'm assuming, his wife worked there as well as a very nice older man who worked the desk at night.

I came out of the shower and she said he had left but the old man was standing there who I explained to that I was there to pick up my bag and then head out.

Out of no where, the woman comes tearing into the room screaming at the top of her lungs that I had to leave and that the police were on their way. She was asking me who let me into the hotel and who I walked by at the desk in order to get in and that I was going to jail. She literally had flames coming off of the side of her face

I then went downstairs and spoke to "the mean one" who was decidely more calm. He told me how if someone is in the hotel without their documents registered with the front desk and something were to happen, the hotel is held responsible and they don't have anyone to tell the police about because they don't know who was in the room. The woman, still screaming, was still fuming. I explained to them that in the US when you get a hotel you can have a party or an orgy and it doesn't matter as long as its been paid for. I secured that the girls wouldn't be charged or have any problems then left.

I'm now absolutely frightened anytime I hear an Italian woman raises her voice. This woman was a lunatic.

From there I moved on to Mirko's where I met some of his friends and went out to a gay bar (where I saw Miquel from H&M) then on to a gay club. The club was the run of the mill gay club. Good music and hot people. The downstairs had "la stanza di bugo" ie the Shadow Room where there was just dick all over the place. One section was a maze with doors that went into little rooms where people were doing there thing. There was also a big stone room that was completely dark and there was all sorts of things going on in there. One walk through there and I was done.

We got in around 5a and then had about an hour to get me a cab and to the train station. With a little frantic running around, due to our final destination not being printed on our ticket and only the stop we were getting off at, we found the train and headed to Pisa which was quite cool, but a short trip.

Post Uno

Well, as I'm in Italy now for a month and I've been sparse on photos and haven't been great about recording the happenings of my daily life in Rome, I think its appropriate that I do some catching up from January 12th to now:

The first week was awesome. I've learned through this and my trip to Vegas last January just how fun it is to travel with my parents. We had some great times and its amazing to share a city that you both know vaguely (from the 2004 exchange) but are re-learning yourself proved quite interesting.

During orientation I realized that Carrie (a friends of my roommate and ex-friend Emily) was studying @ JCU as well. I was, quite obviously due to the history Emily and I have experienced over the past year, scared of what this would mean. We quickly latched on to each other as having a little bit of New York with you in another person proved to be very helpful in the first weeks in Rome

Its become evident that the gay presence in Rome is not as visible as New York. This is something I expected as there are still many place in the United States that don't match New York in visibilty, but I can say that its interesting to see the juxtaposition of a major city which is very much like New York not carrying the same feeling of "acceptance."

John Cabot as a university seems overall more challenging academically then my home university of Pace. Each teacher seemed to be very adamant about their respective (strict) attendance policies. This seemed to be more to scare us "visiting" students not to use study abroad, weekend travel etc. as reasons to skip class.

Also, within the first two weeks, the school experienced extreme tragedy. One very prominent male student (fully attending JCU) was killed in a motor-accident the night after Heath Ledger's death. The following morning there were calls the girls in SAI from our program coordinator checking on them and their roommates as a female body had been found in the area of the ponte sisto bridge at 5am. We later learned (after many mixed messages and misinformation) that it was a study abrod student who was the roommate of Carrie's friend Jesse.

It was quite an experience to take on the second week of being in Italy (and the first week of classes). I was already for a vacation while on this seemingly vacation.

On to food:

Mostly everyone from the States here had been going into protein-deficiency due to our mostly Pasta-based diets of the first weeks so when the possibilty of Mexican food came up, I happily joined my roommates.

Oh, about them. All very nice, I was a bit stand-offish at first as to try and make friends outside of the school (hopefully Italians) which has proved more difficult.

Anyway. The Mexican wasn't good, but I did meet Jacquie and Kate from an apt. of 8 girls downstairs. The next night I went down and ended up meeting the rest of the girls and in the weeks following have all become very close.

(Jacqui, Dana P., Me, Dana G., Niki, Kate, Jenna: unpictured)

2008.02.10 I had my first trip outside of Rome to 2 small towns in Tuscany. The views were amazing and the towns looked fake, almost straight out of Epcot. We had a dinner which was outstanding.

I was a little annoyed with the ride home as the whole meal I talked about how awesome the nap on the ride home would be, but as I closed my eyes on the bus "Swordfish" came on the TV (and on the only speaker above my head) on full blast. It was torture.

Allora. Once back in Rome I realized that Friday was in fact my 22nd birthday. The girls downstairs (Jacqui, Kate, Jenna, Dana P., Niki, Dana G.) were going to be in Milan and invited me to join and on a whim I decided to do so. More on that in the next blog.