Roma, Italia
So I just got back from Rome on Friday evening. I'll tell you, being in a foreign country is exhausting. And Rome was totally ridiculous, and we all masked our disappointment at Italy not being somehow fundamentally more fabulous than America by going to the IRISH PUB (of all fucking places) and getting schwasted more nights than not.
Now I am not saying that Italy sucked. Italy is probably fabulous, but ROME is a hot mess of tourists and immigrant souvenier hawkers coming up to you constantly and insisting that five Euro for a paper umbrella is a 'bueno price, just for you, special discount'. I swear that for every actual Italian person we saw, we probably saw three tourists, usually American or German.
And the food was not that great. Honestly, even when we went somewhere expensive (which covers practically every place in Rome, but you know what I mean, a real fancy joint with the candles and whatnot), the food was only as good as what my Grandma makes me when I come home (and my Grandma ain't even Italian).
And the traffic, my god. Everytime you step into the street, you just have to make the baseless assumption that you won't be killed or maimed by an oncoming Vespa.
And the people are so rude! And the buildings are old. I would say those three things summed up Rome: expensive, old, and rude.
But it was a cool experience anyway and I'm glad I went so I can finally say I got some use out of my passport. And I did get a wicked awesome tan.
When I got home, Dave had made me a candlelit dinner as a welcome home gift. Our new place is quite nice, but we haven't gotten the internet set up yet, so expect pictures and more stories in the future. I'm playing catch up right now in my class as well, so...I have the illusion of being busy with the reality of having time to do things, which haven't lined up in a long time.
Now I am not saying that Italy sucked. Italy is probably fabulous, but ROME is a hot mess of tourists and immigrant souvenier hawkers coming up to you constantly and insisting that five Euro for a paper umbrella is a 'bueno price, just for you, special discount'. I swear that for every actual Italian person we saw, we probably saw three tourists, usually American or German.
And the food was not that great. Honestly, even when we went somewhere expensive (which covers practically every place in Rome, but you know what I mean, a real fancy joint with the candles and whatnot), the food was only as good as what my Grandma makes me when I come home (and my Grandma ain't even Italian).
And the traffic, my god. Everytime you step into the street, you just have to make the baseless assumption that you won't be killed or maimed by an oncoming Vespa.
And the people are so rude! And the buildings are old. I would say those three things summed up Rome: expensive, old, and rude.
But it was a cool experience anyway and I'm glad I went so I can finally say I got some use out of my passport. And I did get a wicked awesome tan.
When I got home, Dave had made me a candlelit dinner as a welcome home gift. Our new place is quite nice, but we haven't gotten the internet set up yet, so expect pictures and more stories in the future. I'm playing catch up right now in my class as well, so...I have the illusion of being busy with the reality of having time to do things, which haven't lined up in a long time.