Happy Valentine's Day!

 

 

We had a really fun Valentine's day in my house!  Jordan and I had just spent too much money in Milan, so we did Valentine's day at home with all my roommates!  We worked so hard to make a delicious dinner of pasta with chicken and artichoke hearts, salad with pear and walnuts, and tiramisu.  The tiramisu was especially hard to make because we didn't have an electric mixer so we had to break our arms whipping the egg whites.  But it was totally worth it.

il ritmo circadiano

Remember when i told you that i had no idea what time it was, or where i was, or that i felt this whirlwind feeling? Now I admit that before I had exaggerated a bit, now I really have a whirlwind feeling. I started to change my circadian rhythm so that my body would be prepared for the change of time zone in advance of my trip.
My uncle suggested it. He travels a lot because he is an administrator in the hospitality industry. Maybe he was joking, but im crazy so I wanted to try it. I can’t really hurt and the most important thing is that this will help me sleep on the plane. The Idea is if I sleep and eat at the same hours as I would in Italy, my body will already feel adjusted when I arrive in Italy.
This is the hard part because if I plan on doing this I must stay up all night. If you don't know me like this I am a classic early riser. My routine is this: I get up early like a farmer between five and seven (never later if I didn’t drink the night before) and consequently I am already tired by nine or ten in the evening. The most difficult part is meals because a meal like breakfast would be at three in the morning in the United States.

Ricordi quando ti ho detto che non so che ora è, o dove sono, o che mi sento una sensazione “mulinello”? Adesso ammetto che ero esagerando, oggi mi sento proprio come mulinello. Ho cominciato a cambiare il mio ritmo circadiano in modo che il mio corpo può prepararsi per il cambiamento di fuso orario prima che viaggio.
Mio zio lo suggerisce. Lui viaggia spesso perché lui è un direttore nel settore alberghiero. Forse scherzava, ma sono pazzo e lo voglio provare. Non può farmi di male e l’ultima cosa d’importanza è che dormo in aereo che farò così. L’idea è che se dormo e mangio nella stessa ora che farei in Italia, il mio corpo si sentirà già regolata quando arriverò in Italia.
Questo è punto difficile perché se ho intenzione di fare questo devo stare svegli tutta la notte. Se non mi conosci così io sono classico, quello che diciamo in inglese, “early-bird” . la mia routine è così: mi sveglio presto come contadino fra cinque e sette (mai più tarde se non bevevo la notte precedente) e di conseguenza sono già stanco per ventuno ventidue alla notte. La parte più difficile sono le ore dei pasti perché un pasto come colazione farebbe tre di mattina agli stati uniti.
Sono stato sveglio dal mezzogiorno ieri e l’ora di andare a dormire in Italia è forse le otto o nove ore di più. Ora devo pacchetto in questo stato strano di mulinello.

delicious dinner

We went out for dinner and drinks for one of my roommates 21st birthday.  The dinner was delicious, and so cheap!  My roommate and I shared two different kinds of pizza: one had zuccini flowers on it, and the other was pancetta and parmeson cheese.  So light and tasty, truly amazing Roman pizza.  We then went to a little bar in Travestevre.  It was a perfect night- there are so many great places right in my neighborhood, I want to explore them all!

Roommates!

Just parmeson cheese, tomato, and pancetta

4th floor

at the bar

Toga Party

We had our first toga party last weekend.  It was so much fun to have everyone together and in togas!  And of course it was very relevant to our studies here.  We didn't have any safety pins so we used hair clips to hold our togas together.  I don't recommend it.  Just wanted to share some pics from the night!

Elevator

 After a night of dancing and walking to and from the club, my friend and I decided to take the elevator up to the fourth floor.  My feet were killing from my new heels, so it was the obvious choice.  Of course, the elevator gets stuck in between the third and fourth floor.  I start freaking out because it was around 3AM and no one knew we were in the elevator.  So we start screaming and pressing every button for about ten minutes.  Luckily the elevator had an alarm button, although I doubt the alarm was louder than our screams.  Finally a few people hear us and start talking to us through the door.  At one point I think people from the third floor were yelling up to us and my housemates on floor four were yelling down to us.  At this point it is just hilarious, so we start yelling out of boredom and not fear.  We are telling our housemates to slide a deck of cards in between the cracks and screaming about wanting food. 
We were in there for maybe 20 minutes when all the lights go out.  Of course we start screaming like crazy again.  It turns out that one of the guys in our house was messing with the wires of the elevator trying to get it to open.  Eventually he was successful, the elevator opened, and we were free. 
We got out to a houseful of people watching the incident.  They were very surprised that there were only two girls in the elevator, apparently all four floors could hear us yelling.  Good thing this whole building is students. 
The lessons learned: I shouldn't be so lazy, I shouldn't wear heels in Rome (that one is not going to change), and most importantly, Do Not Trust European Elevators.
The next day I walked up all four flights of stairs with four bags of groceries.

The Ice Bar

We went to The Ice Bar last night.  Literally, it's an ice bar.  We went inside and had to wear special coats.  And everything was made of ice.  Even the glasses.  At first it was really fun because it was an open bar and they had a lot of fancy cocktails to try.  All ice themed of course.  "the frozen sun" "arctic melt", etc.  Some of the drinks were good, but the best part was that they came in a glass of ice.  Everyone was biting of pieces of their glasses after a while.  So we were in there for about an hour when we started to get really cold.  First it was just my hands, and that was tolerable.  But then it was my feet, and I couldn't handle that.  Plus it was awkward trying to move in a small area with giant, heavy coats on.  But we paid to get in, and it was an open bar, so we wanted to get our moneys worth.  It became a game of how cold we were vs. how many drinks we wanted to try.  Soon the cold won, and we left long before closing.  It was fun, but pretty touristy.  The bartenders spoke perfect English and it was almost only students inside.  It was like being back in the States.  I really hate being cold, so I don't think I'll be going back to the ice bar anytime soon.

discotecha

Last night we went to a discotecha.  It was in a touristy area of the city, Campo di Fiori.  So I don't know if we got the full Italian discotecha experience.  But it was open past 2 and there was no cover charge.  So my roommates and I went a little after midnight.  There were about 20 of us, so you can imagine the difficulties that arose.  As soon as we got inside we all lost each other.  Luckily I was with two other girls and we were able to stick together.  Dancing was fun, but the drinks were way overpriced.  5 euro for a beer and 10 euro for a cocktail.  Then again, these are the same prices you would expect for find at a club in Manhattan, so I guess it is just what is to be expected.  We danced for a while, American music is incredibly popular, but it is not the usual top 40 songs we are used to.  The discotecha is also a great place to practice Italian.  I was able to meet some Italians and ask them their names (Come te chiami?) how old they were (Quanti anni hai?) and if they study or work (Studi or Lavori?).   I was also able to tell them that I study architecture (Io studio architectturra) and that I live in Travestevere (Vivio travesterve).  Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with my conversational skills.  I also got to practice saying "no" and "goodbye" to the Italian guy who wouldn't stop following us around.  Luckily we left the club sin Italian men, and were able to make it home.  Of course, we relied on the guys in our group to carry the keys, and we lost them, so my friend and I stood outside the apartment yelling for someone to come downstairs and let us in.  "Pantheon Institute, open the gate!"  We were rescued in a matter of minutes.  Overall, I'd say it was a successful first night out.

Gelato

I am trying not to make the afternoon and nightly gelato run a habit, but it is hard not too.  I just got back from having my second gelato today!  The gelato is so delicious, and there are so many flavors to try, that it is hard not to venture out for the perfectly portioned snack.  There is also a gelatoria on every corner, and they all have different flavors!  This adds to the temptation.  Today I tried pistactio and bacio on a cone, and then tonight I had pear and straccatoria (chocolate chip).  So delicious!  And it is a fun, cheap, group activity.  Of course we don't sit in the gelatoria, we just get a cup and walk around the streets with it.

As we were walking around tonight, another equally sized group of people heard us speaking English and started talking to us.  They were from London, and they were here doing a Beatles play.  No seriously, they were doing a play on the Beatles.  One of the guys started introducing his friends to me by their characters; "this is george, this is ringo".  I honestly thought they were joking, but they were actually on tour for this.  We talked with them for a while, a couple girls tried to get dates, and then we all eventually went home.  But they were a fun crowd.  Maybe we'll go to their play sometime!


Sto provando a evitare gelato ogni sera e notte come abitudine, ma è troppo difficile da evitare. Ho tornato subito dal mio secondo gelato da oggi. Gelato sono cosi deliziosi, e ci sono tanti sapori a provare che è difficile di non uscire per quello spuntino da proporzione perfetto. C’è gelateria per tutti angoli, e ognuno ha sapori diversi! Per questo la tentazione è troppa. Oggi ho provato pistacchio e bacio sul cono, stasera ho mangiato pera e straccatoria. Così delizioso. E’ divertente, economico, un’attività per gruppo. Certo non ci sediamo alla gelateria, invece mangiamo a piedi e ci passiamo le strade.

Passeggiavamo stasera, un altro gruppo numeroso come noi, sentivano noi parliamo inglese e cominciano a parlarci. Sono da Londra, sono qui per fare una dramma sul Beatles. Per vero, sono qui per fare una dramma sul Beatles. Uno dei ragazzi introdotta i suoi amici come i personaggi che si giocano, “si chiama George, si chiama ringo, e così” Pensavo che sia scherzando, ma sono in giro Europa così. Abbiamo chiacchierato un poco, alcune delle ragazze provano a fare appuntamenti, e dopo torniamo a casa. Erano un gruppo divertimento. Forse andiamo alla sua dramma!