European Vagary

Stiamo a Roma! I'm going to be completely honest with you guys. Because I'm pretty sure only my mom reads this blog. I haven't cried in a long while. I don't know why and I'm not sure how I feel about it. But once we landed in Ciampino and were on the bus through Rome to get to Termini, I began to feel overwhelmed with a desire to stay. It's like I'm reliving my last 5 days in Rome all over again. That feeling of being ripped away from everything that I am. And I cried. Jessica is my external hard drive of emotion so naturally she cried too. She's already cried multiple times. I kid you not, she cries every time it would be appropriate for me to cry and I can't. Examples to follow. So after we got to Termini, we walked over to our hostel and I ended up having to ask directions. I'm pleased to report that my Italian came flooding back, like riding a bike. We found the hostel and once we got settled in I took Jessie over to Trastevere...

Why should I mind my P's and Q's, you ask? Well, the origin of the phrase is... honestly I don't feel like writing it out. If you haven't heard the story, I recommend wikipedia. But it is relevant to today. Because at one point Jessie and I wound up in a pub and definitely DID NOT mind our P's and Q's. But we'll get to that. So we woke up late this morning. And by this morning I mean yesterday morning. Because it's 5:30 in the morning and I just got home. Wooooooo. After waking up we went to the Post Office to run an errand. Because we're RESPONSIBLE GIRLS. That was for you Mom. After the Post Office we got majorly rained on. Because it's London and that's how London rolls. We ran into a kitchen supply shop and asked them where we could get afternoon tea. The lady told us to go to Piccadilly. Off we went with nary a qualm. We found Piccadilly and were struck with the realization that: this is where we should have been the whole...

It took Jessie a full minute to wake me up this morning. Apparently she shook me for a while. I don't know about that, but I do remember having a dream about an earthquake. So we got ready, went down and grabbed free continental breakfast, and ran out the door to the tube station. Tubed it over to Baker Street in an attempt to find the McDonalds where we were supposed to be picked up for our day trip. As soon as we stepped off the subway, 10 minutes ahead of schedule, I turned to Jessie and mused, "I wonder why the guy at the hostel told us to take 30 minutes to get here, the ride only took about 5". Her response was, "He must have thought we were too stupid to find it". And we laughed. Turns out front desk guy was right. About the stupidity. We spent about 10 minutes walking down the wrong street before we realized our error. At that point, we had the adventure of running around central London like stupid Americans. So basically your average Tuesday m...

Hello all. Currently in Europe fighting over computers at the hostel. Lovely. Actually Jessie's fighting. Quite a scrapper that one. So the flight into London went well. It was long but I slept so I didn't really notice. Upon landing I loaded myself up on caffeine and waited for Jessie's plane to arrive. FINALLY she showed up, walking out of the international terminal. It was a reunion for the ages. A scene out of Love Actually. Then we caught up on the past month and a half and tubed our way to our hostel (Palmer's Lodge). It's a good hostel. Still a hostel, but there's free internet and breakfast so they're covering all the important bases. After dropping our bags off we went to a bar and tried a couple of bizarre drinks. Pictures were taken and will be posted upon my return to the ole USofA. Then we went to see the London Eye (overpriced) and the Tower of London (therapy session ensued... more productive than sightseeing, quite frankly). Th...

First off, let's examine the word musings. It has the word muse in it... I wonder if there is some connection to the concept of the Muse. Like maybe my random thoughts are inspired by the Muses? These are the kinds of things that my mind does now that I've developed a newfound passion for linguistics. It's quasi-annoying because now when I speak even in English I'm always wondering about what I'm saying and where the word came from and all of that. My signora and I laugh because she has the same problem, since she knows so many languages (German, Italian, French, English... and those are just the ones she knows well. She also learned Portuguese and Spanish). Oh well, I guess it's just a cross I'm gonna have to bear ;) Anyway, let's talk about feelings. Namely, mine. I'm having a hard time thinking about leaving Rome. I mean I really start to freak out when I think about it for too long. I feel like I'm losing a part of myself that I do...

Alright everyone. Five new blog posts below (not including this one). Read them at your leisure.

So Ashley and I decided quite a while ago that we were going to make Thanksgiving in Rome. We just can't live without it. So finally, the day rolled around and we put on a show. We had told our signora to invite a friend and we had invited our friend Matt, so we were able to show a whole group of Italian people what Thanksgiving is all about. Ashley did all the grocery shopping, bless her heart. I only had to go out and get the stuff that was forgotten. Because what is Thanksgiving without having to go back to the grocery store multiple times? Then we spent hours and hours cooking and preparing everything. We made deviled eggs, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, gravy, cranberry sauce, and apple crisp. Our signora brought a cake, her friend brought cookies and Matt brought vino. Everything was delicious and cooked perfectly. The sweet potatoes were a little bizarre because Italian sweet potatoes are not like American sweet potatoes. ...