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.