The Vatican

Today, 6/23 we did the Vatican thing. We started out at St. Petes Square. waited in line for over an hour to get into the Vatican Museum. We did the museum pretty quickly except when we got to the Sistine Chaple. They dont allow phots in there so i had to be sneaky about it. The pics turned out really...well bad sorta. They were all at weird angles and most of them blurry but oh well. Then we went up the cupula to get o view looking over st. petes. The view up there was amazing. I couldnt really tell where vatican city and rome separated though, it all blended together. Then we went back down to St. Petes Square. St. Petes is elliptical shaped and surrounded by 4 rows of columns. The designer, Bernini i believe, made so that the columns radiate from these 2 foci and the columns in the back are a bit smaller. so when you stand at one of the foci you dont see all 4 rows just the first one...its really cool. Thats pretty much all for the vatican.

Germany Trip day 3...We didnt just come here to drink did we?

Day 3 we sleep in a little, grab a sweet continental b-fast and head out. i have lug all my luggage with me because its the last day in that hotel for me...the otherguys are leaving but my flight isnt until the next day. So we head out for Schloss Nymphenburg. An estae build on the outskirts of Munich by one of the kings, im guessing King Nymphenburg? Its a pretty large set of buildings on the estate. I snap a few photos, everyone else decided to go into the museum, but im running low on funds and ive seen a bunch of museums already so i wait outside for them...which ended up being a lot longer than i had originally thought (2 hours). Then we walk to the UBaun station, theyre taking one to the airport and im taking one to meet up with Derek, Horna and Mick, who i will be staying with the next night(because the cheaper flight left a day later). We get to the station and i go to my platform and they go to theirs which is right across from mine. Powis calls Derek to see where i can meet them. oh crap there train is coming and derek hasnt answered his phone yet. crap the train is here blocking the view from my platforn to theirs and i still dont know where im meeting them. Powis yells over thetrain and i vaguely here marienplatz and i might have heard a 3 but i wasnt sure. they get on their train and try to open the door facing me but its locked, so they start drawing with their fingers on the glass tryin to communicate something to me. i didnt understand it at all so there i was along in Munich again...no cell phone, no way of finding out where anyone is, oh and i still dont know german...i dont even know what ubaun ticket i need to buy. i stare at it for about 10 minutes again, and finally i ask someone for help. He tell me what ticket i need and helps me get it. i decided to just go to marienplatz and meet up with Derek and them hopefully, i still didnt know where in marienplatz or the time..and marienplatz is big and the brazil game was later that night so it was crowded! I get there and get off the Ubaun. And as expected marienplatz is shoulder to shoulder. im thinking theres no way im gonna find them. so i just sit under a tree right outside of the entrance to the ubaun...within about 5 minutes someone grabs my shoulder and says "you cant sit here" but i recognized the voice..so i turn and all out hug mr. steve horna. i was so happy and so lucky to find them. We do alittle shopping around marienplatz, and when i say we, i mean them, but im there. We meet up with Dereks exchange student friend who lives in Germany and he takes us to the English Gardens to watch the Brazil game which was later that afternoon. on the way there we pass by the nude part of the english gardens...it was major awkward. A lotta dudes there with nothin but their birthday suit. We get to Chinesischer Turm, a beergarden in the English Gardens. I get a brew and a leg of meat, mutton i think, maybe pork?? i dont know really. Im pretty beat at this point, luggin the luggage around all day put a beating on my shoulders. We watch the game then head back to the hotel to change and go out later...we end up just going to bed, we were all dead tired.

The next morning we had another amazing breakfast then caught the plane back to Roma. We were a bit delayed but got in arund 230. We all had to do our homewrok on the plane, in turbulance and study for an exam we were supposed to have this morning but got it postponed due to us not being in the same country...My homework, the "route map" il explain later, looked really bad but i didnt care. Then cramming for the exam on the trains in from the airport to our piazza was no fun either. we got back at around 430 or so. we rested a little then had to go to class at 6...2 hour class then went directly to take the exam. i got out of there at around 10 completely exhausted from my weekend.

But it was all damn worth it.

Germany Trip Day 2...Ich Haben Ein Baren Hunger

Germany day 2...wake up early...grab an awesome continental breakfast...seriously they didnt hold back on us, eggs, meats, assorted fruits, yumm yumm. we had to sneak a few plates back to the room for the other 4 people that couldnt go down though. So after breakfast we decided to rent bikes and bike around the city hitting all the major monuments and sites. We take off and our first site is going to be Olympicpark. This was bult a few years back when Germany hosted the Olympic games. The stadium is really sweet and the roof of the stadium and accompanying buildings is even sweeter. The roof is held up completely by tension cables which creates what looks like a cobweb from overhead. Their form of the space needle is over by Olymicpark too. We went up it and had views of the whole city. unfortunately it was cloudly that day so we couldnt see all the way to the alps, which are visible on clear days. Next on the list of sites was Alliance Arena, which is where the World Cup was being played in Munich. Its pretty far from Olympicpark but we decided to try it anyway. We went in the right direction,,,for a little while, then we got lost, then asked for directions, then got lost agian, then asked for directions, then got loast agin, then asked for directions.....luckily Tyler and Doug know a little German or else we'd be in a heap of trouble. Everntually w asked for directions from this elderly couple that was also riding bikes the same direction as us. The old dude couldnt really speak english, but his wife could. They gave us directions then just said "we take you"...our guides are shown in the pichure at the top. they were really nice and took us there in about 10 minutes. The old man was actually 86 years old! in good shape though, i wouldnt mess with him. We saw Alliance Arena from afar..they had it gated off pretty far back. Our next stop - Enligh Gardens, which is an enourmous garden that spans the entire length of the city and actually send a strip of it all the way out to the airport, about 25 kilometers away. There was a Beergarden in the middle of the English Gardens which we made a pitstop at, grabbed a pretzel that was bigger than our heads and a stein of beer about the same size. We saw the rest of the English Gardens then went to Marienplatz for lunch at the Hofbrauhaus. After that our next stop was a few of the other platz around Munich, which were really sweet because hardly anyone was there...everyone was in Marienplatz because all the World Cup stuff was centered there. We returned the bikes around dinnertime and went back to Olympicpark to watch the USA - Italy game at Fanfest. Getting there was difficult. We got off at the wrong UBaun stop and had to walk forever to get to Olympicpark. anyway we got there ust in time for the start of the game.. Fanfest set up this bigscreen tv in the middle of an outdoor theatre and there were tons of people there. It was a great atmosphere to watch the game, too bad we only tied it. After Fanfest ended, there was a mad-dash for the exits. We all ended up getting split up. Luckily we found eachother about 10 minutes later. So we started walking out, i was in the lead. I turn around to make sure everyone is still with me, and i see that in fact nobody is there anymore. I walk back to where we came from and nobody is there either. Im thinking CRAP, im lost alone in a city where i dont speak the language or have a cell phone or anyway of contacting anybody at night and without the hotel room key!...so i looked for them for about 15 20 minutes and decided they must have gone another way, so i head for the exits, hoping there is a closer Ubaun stop in the other direction from where we came in (i didnt want to walk all the way back to the other one) so i start following the masses of people. They do in fact lead me to a UBaun stop. it takes me about 10 minutes to buy a ticket, and i still dont think i bought the right one. but luckily they rarely check them so i was ok. I decided to take the Ubaun to Marienplatz in hopes of meeting up with them since we planned on meeting there and hanging out after the game, only i didnt realize it was about 1AM at this point, the game took a longgg time. so i chill at marienplatz for awhile then say screw it they must have gone back to the hotel. so i take like 4 different UBauns back to the hotel...I didnt want to stay n any singular UBaun too longin fear they might check my ticket. So i get back to the hotel about 2 and im thinknig they will def. be there...there not, and im starving at this point so i start to walk around looking for a convience store or something. i look for about a half hour, come up short then decide to just go back, maybe they will be back by now....guess what theyre not. so i clean up in the bathroom downstairs and just decide to camp out in front of the door until they get back. Luckily im not waiting long...only about 15 minutes and they come strolling through, ending one heck of a long night for me. I was very wornout by those events. (what apparantly happened was they got into a line for food at Olympicpark and thats how i lost them, then they searched for me there and i dont know how we didnt find eachother, but i left for Marienplatz and they searched there longer, then they went to marienplatzat the time i was on many different UBauns trying to get back to the hotel)...anyway it all worked out right...i got a bed that night, so it was worth it.....

Germany Trip Day 1...Bigger and Better

Arrival...Plane takes off around noon, so Derek, Horna, Mick and myself wake up early, pack and take the tram, rail, and plane over to Germany. We get there midafternoon and check into the hotel. Im not actually staying with these 3 dudes, i just took the cheaper plane whcih was with them. anyway they check in, fitting 3 people into a 2 person room..whcih isnt that bad considering im staying 6 in a 2 person room. anyway while Derek and Mick check in, me and Horna check out Munich. Their hotel is actually right in the heart of the Bauhaus, which was an architectural movement in Germany which we talked about many times in class. The old Bauhaus building have been converted into dance clubs...doesnt really seem fitting.... We stop in a little sandwich shop and Steve gets a Mezzo mix which is probably the best drink ever made. Im going to petition it be brought to the states. next we take the U-Bahn, which is the German subway system, downtown into the heart of Munich, Marienplatz. We take in the sites and go in a monsterous cathedral. there is another enormous gothic cathedral there too but it seems to have been converted into different sports memorablia shops and beer gardens. They also have many ceramic lions set up all over the city put there mainly for the World Cup and to sort of use the lions as a metaphor of Munich i guess..i dont know it was sort of confusing, but anyway we went around and sat on a bunch of them and got our pichures taken with them. next we went to The Augustiner Beerhall and got our first steins. We did some more hanging out in Marienplatz, got a nice bavarian pretzel, then headed over to the Hofbrauhaus, probably the most famous place to drink a beer in the world. the atmosphere inside was awesome. There was soccer chanting, singing, dancing, steins of beer, plates full of sausage and potatoes and just what i pichured Germany would be. We hung out there, i think i had 2 more steins, then we went backout exploring Munich. i met up with the other 5 guys i was staying with, we went to a restaurant and got some food, well they did, i was full from the hofbrauhaus. The menus were in german and Tyler knows a little german so he thought he could do pretty well. He saw one dish that said something about 4 sausages so he got it thinking it would probably come with potatoes and some other sides but what he ended up getting was just 4 microwaved hotdogs on a plate. quite humerous... we packed it in after that...finding the hotel was a journey in itself but we eventually found it and i slept peacefully...on the floor without a blanket...

6-11-2006...Oh Woodrow...

I think ill chalk this day up to fate. I was in a bad mood most of the day, but earlier i promised Ty, Ty, and Doug to play soccer with thme around 7ish. I honestly had no desire to play, but not wanting to leave them stranded without a forth, i decided to suck it up and play. I started to feel a little more chipper on our way to Castle San Angelo, our usual playing spot. We walk by the castle and Ty says, "is that a fight?" I immediatly look up hoping to see a brawl in the middle of the street ahead, but what it actually was was a boxing match set up in the middle of the usual grassy area around the castle. We stayed there about 5 minutes watching this match, it was pretty cool, and i started to feel a little better. We walk down the ramp to the ground of the castle where its pretty much covered in dust and rock bits small enough to play soccer on. We played there before, actually with some italian locals, which i thought was really fun. But who we would end up playing with today would top those italians about 5o times over. So we start getting ready, Ty puts on his cleats and i start bouncin the ball around. Theres a family on the other side of the rocky area, near the ramp talking to three guys on bikes, i think nothing of it. Im pretty much in my own world at this point, lost in thoughts. Ty overhears the family say something with the wod Woody in it and looks up. One of the bikers is wearing a red tank top and is noticably balding. Ty is fixed on him for a few minutes then says to us, i think that family is talking to Woody Harrelson...I look up just as he turns to face us and it definitely is. Then out of nowhere, another of the bikers turns around looking at us and says, "what do we have here" and starts kicking a soccer ball around. I recognize the face instantly, having seen many of his movies in the past few years. Its none other than Owen Wilson. My jaw drops, i have no words. They walk over towards us and ask what were doing. We tell them were about to start soccer and they ask to join in. So Me, Tyler, Tyler, Doug, Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, and the family that was talking to them all play a pickup game of soccer right next to Castle San Angelo in the middle of rome for over an hour and a half. Our team won naturally...me tyler lobb, doug and woody were the stars of that squad. The funniest part was probably when woody was chasing after the ball and tyler kicked it under a bench to the other side, jumped over the bench and got the ball with woody hot on his tail...well woody didnt see the bench..yeah he pretty much headplanted over the bench with Owen shouting "Oh Woodrow!"...It was a pretty good afternoon. It definitely brightened my spirits.

Field Trip North Day 7 - Cinque Terre...my favorite day

So Cinque Terre is made up of 5 little coastal towns about 9 kilometers apart all linked together by hiking paths through the mountainous terrain. WE decided to hike the whole damn thing. why not right. We lived on the 5th town, Riomaggiore,and the beach was at the first town, Monterosso, so we planned on hiking the whole way and then relaxing on the beach and taking the train back. We set off and the trail takes us right to the coast which we end up following the whole way. you could pretty much see water the whole time, only thing was, we were hiking on cliffs hundreds of feet above that water. a fall would probably hurt a little. so to make a long story short we started with 8 people, ended with 7...
only kidding of course. The first leg of the journey was easy hiking, pretty much paved walkways, but we kept pressing on the trails got more and more rugged and admittingly a little dangerous. anyway we pressed on, making it through all 5 twns, each of them we stopped in to catch a breather and to explore it a little. They were each special in their own way. The 5th was of course the beachiest of the 5. We got there, and ate at the first restaurnat we saw off the hike which was a really chill, inexpensive little restuarant rght off the hiking trails and overloknig the beach. We all got girly drinks, pina colada here. hey, it was delicious. We relaxed for awhle at the beach and swam in the crystal clear water. We took a train back to our town around 6 or 7 and ate dinner pretty late that night. It was a great day and i wish i could hike it again, maybe explorig some of the non-coastal trails they had. The next morning we checked out and left taking the train back to Roma, after what was one of the best weeklong experiences i think ill ever have.

Field Trip North Day 6 - Venice to Cinque Terre

wake up time again 9AM, another break i suppose. We get a lecture from Romolo on new housing projects in Venice. It was a pretty interesting lecture but i was just strait up worn out from the previous day. it was a short lecture, and right after we gathered our stuff and got to the train station. the day was pretty much all spent on the road, well tracks actually, to Cinque Terre. We got there around dinnertime ad checked into out hostel. Wow what a place. Cinque Terre was amazing. And our hostel was pretty much an apartment on the top of a cliff. quite difficult to get luggage up to but a great place to stay. We had a nice dinner that night then went to bed. wow, short blog entry...

Field Trip North Day 5 - Venice....i'll give it 10 years before its the new Atlantis

Woke up, a bit tired, a bit thirsty, and bit bitten. damn bugs. meet at 9 today wahoooo. free breakfast wahoo. We meet up with Romolo and we get our lecture walking around Venice. we see the numerous glass shops. it seems the whole freaking place is one big glass market. We walk down and see Piazza San Marco, which is a huge piazza on the south end of the city. After our lecture we had all day to explore. i did an incredible amount of walking this day. proabably the most of the trip, well i dunno everyday i walked a lot, but i remember being exhausted after this day in particular. We did some window shopping for a while, then a few of us decided to go see the park at the far end of the city. we found a nice soccer field down there and dediced to meet back later to play. We met up with everyone that was planning on going to Cinque Terre at the train station to figure everything out for our trip. Then we split up again, 4 of use wanted to go on a gondola ride, 4 didnt. So me, Ryan, Monica, and Gloria went on a nice gondola ride through the canals around the city. It was quite a relaxing experience. After that i was supposed to meet witht the guys to play soccer down on the far end of the city, i was aleady late so i pretty much did an all out run for about 20 minutes through people window shopping with my backpack on down to the park, only to find...nobody. the freakers decided it was too far for them to walk and i didnt have my cell on me...made for a great walk back lol. Later that night we got a few beers and chilled on the bridge over a canal pondering the myseries of life,,,haha, no we just chilled there shootin the breeze as you old heads would say.

Field Trip North Day 4 - Verona, S. Vito in Altivole, Venice.....so shoot me - im not splelchkeing this.

A 7AM meeting time this morning...great. im a morning person anyway right? We depart for Verona at about 715 and get to Museo Castelvecchio, a museum in Verona at about 1130AM. We explore not the pieces of artwork in the museum, but the museum itself as a piece of architecture. We museum was designed by Carlo Scarpa who designed in reverse order from most architects, He designed building based on small details then fit everything together. His work is pretty much one of a kind, its been rarely duplicated well. After the museum we got some chineese fooood at a stop on the way back...we had over an hour before we were supposed to meet and get back on the bus. We get there and order, we dont know the protocol anymore, were in a chinese restaurant in Italy, do we speak english, attempt italian, draw chinese symbols, or just point at what we want? we all order and wait, and wait, and wait. the food takes forever to get there, and were he only people in the restaurant, we think they only had one burner or something. we get out of there 15 minutes past when we were sposed to meet for the bus, and some of us just got the food to go and still havent eaten it yet. we go to the meeting spot, and the bus isnt there...crap...we call romolo and they just went around the town for a little bit, luckily they havent left yet. phew. we get on amoungst the boos from fellow ae's. we make our way to the next spot- S. Vito in Altivole. More specifically the Brion Cemetery, another work by Carlo Scarpa. His focus on detail was precise here also. it started to rain so we left a little earlier than we had planned for, which actaually made up for the time we lost waiting for us and our chinese food adventure. Our next spot, my favorite of the big italian cities - Venice. We check into our hotel after crossing five bridges to get there. This time we get a bathroom witha showerhead in the middle and a drain on the floor. awesome. That night we do a little exploration and then get to bed. unfortunatley the bedbugs got me...

Field Trip North Day 3 - Florence...damn this is a lot of writing

Alright day 3 let do this...first thing on the menu- lecture at 8am. Romolo walks us around comparing Florence to some of the other places weve been, and im sure you dont want o be bored by that, so ill skip ahead until after the lecture...is about noon now. Me, the tylers, jay and steve make a decision to explore the cupula of one of the churches in Florence. Doug elects to instead see a different church with some of the girls and meet up with us later...which would end up biting him pretty badly. The church cupula we want to go to is a Renaissance church in the middle of Florence. The decorations on it are amazing. The church is enormous, one f the largest ive seen, and another distinguishing feature are the twon parts that stick up well beyond any other building in the city- the church's cupula and the church's tower - both extending well into the atmosphere. Our group climbs up the cupula whcih is a grueling 463 steps to the top, most of it winding through spiral stairs and narrow ways. there were only a few break spots on the hike, one when you get to the top of the inside dome and can look down upon the whole church and another at the very top of the church where you are physically on top of the dome looking out on the entire cityscape. To get from the top ofthe inside dome to the outside part you have to walk up sairs that conform to the shape of the dome, so you can imagine how awkward the stairs are. you couldnt stand up up there, you had to hunch to get to the top. it was a heck of a 463 step journey to say the least. later that day Romolo told us about these monks that sing atop another hill in the city, so me, jay. and royer decide to go see them. We walked up another extremely long set of stairs to find the correct spot. i probably walked up a modest 1500 stairs that day. The monks sang, i listened, i enjoyed. I was ripped off by a gelato place earlier so to save money me and jay found a McDonalds where we enjoyed 80cent cheeseburgers. much more affordable. We caught back up with the group at the hotel and a while later-with doug-whom we couldnt reach all day because he went to the first church without a phone and we couldnt find him. He had the misfortune of hanging out with the super annoying girls in HDFS (human developement and family studies) all day SHOPPING. hahaha, he wasnt too pleased with us. That was pretty much all for day 3.

Field Trip North - Day 2 Pienza (home of retarded birds) and Florence

Ahhh. day two- departure time-8AM...will i ever get a goodnight sleep? Our journey today leads us from S. Anna in Camprena to Pienza and finally to Florence. Our first stop, Pienza, is another small town in Tuscany. We spent a few hours there, it was really chill. The streets were overrun with pretty much 3 kinds of shops- cheese, wine, leather. Again, we were on what seemed like the top of the world, all around us there were rolling hills, pastures, clear blue skies-pretty amazing stuff. We hung out there until about 1 when we departed for Florence. We pretty much slept the whole way on the bus, and when i say we slept i mean people slept and i tried to sleep but as usual i couldnt. We got to Florence around 3PM italy time. Our hotels were shit-tactular. Whoever heard of putting a showerhead in the middle of a powder room and putting a drain in the middle of the floor and calling it a bathroom? and the window opening up into what i can only assume was a sewer drain judging by the smell. it was just a small shaft in the middle of the building that smelled like sewage and was about 5 feet byt 5 feet wide. i have no idea what it was originally planned to be used for, but now its clear what it is...a literal shit hole. Anyway this was luckily not my room...i was tyler and ryans, poor them. Ours wasnt great either but better than that. but i digress. we got to flornece and figured we might as well see the statue of david becuse it would be clased on monday. we got to the museum just as it was closing. it was a rather bland museum, it ddnt stick out at all, i wouldnt have known there was a museum in there if it wasnt for rick steves and his guidebook writing skillz. David's a pretty big dude, i thought he was lifesize, hes actually much bigger, and his hands looked a bit larger scaled than the rest of his body, i think i coulda done a better job than mickey did. Dinner that night- calzone. we explored a little of florence that night then hit the hay.

Field Trip North Day 1 - We All Speak Football

So its been awhile since ive had the time to blog. We just got back from our weeklong trip in the northern areas of italy around 5 PM Italy time yesterday, 11AM for you back on the east coast of the good ol red white and blue. We explored many places in northern italy including Florence, Venice, areas in Tuscany and Cinque Terre (coastal towns). OUr journey started on saturday morning at 715AM. The busses pulled out and we were on our way up north, our first stop-Caprarola. Admittingly i was not extremely excited for this stop, i pretty much assumed it was just a pitstop on the way to Florence, which we would be arriving at the next day. However, as usual i was wrong. We arrived in Caprarola at the estate known as Palazzo Farnese, an old fortress built in the 1500s as a future hideout in case of an attack on rome. It was set on top of a large hill overlooking the city of Caprarola. The Palazzo was built in plan view in the shape of a five pointed star, but looking at it from the front, you cant notice that at all. What you can notice is the fact that it looks completely symmetric, with staircases crawling up both sides of the courtyard at the bottom to the entranceway at the top. Quite a beautiful site it was, especailly the view from the inside of the palazzo to the adjacent city and one misplaced mountain in the distance. The whole estate was beautiful also, with precisely trimmed hedges making what seemed to be mazes all around the yard, which were in turn surrounded by statues of former roman warriors and kings. We left there sometime after noon to get to our next spot - Bagnaia where we would be visiting Villa Lante. Villa Lante had a blend of two different garden types we were supposed to explore, the italian gardens which we axially alligned versus the englsh style garens which were more natural-seeming with labyrnths and paths, however by this time we were all hungry and the main thing on our mind was getting food. We qucikly made our way to the estate and explored the italian gardens then decided to go get some lunch, after all we live in america, we can see english gardens whenever we want, right? the gardens again were really amazing. For lunch Romolo told us about this sweet vendor tha made wild boar paninis which were suposaly really good, however he was closed and we were all a little dissapointed. Not to worry though, iwould get to experience that meat later on the trip. After Bagnaia we left for S. Anna in Camprena, a small town in Tuscany. We stayed at Agriturismo S. Anna in Camprena, which was a small estate where the movie The English Patient was filmed. This place was literally in the middle of nowhere, the bus barely made it up the narrow dirt road that winded up and around and finally to the estate. There was no chance of anybody getting themsef in trouble here...there wasnt anything to do...except enjoy the amazing views and scenery all aorund us. The estate we stayed at was actually an old monestary used by yeah u guessed it, monks. The artwork in the house was really something to be amazed at also. Later that day me Doug and Kristan went for a run along the carless rural roads. I made them all freak out when i screamed wild boar and jumped , which freaked out doug and made him jump to the complete opposite side of the road, and Kristan let out a quite yelp as well. That night we all were given a meal prepared by the hotel which was really delicious, another 5 courese meal. Italians are odd though, the meal lasted for like 3 hours, between every plate there was like a half hour or so of downtime/time to socialize. One guy, Todd Povall actually left partway through, took a shower and came back and didnt miss a single thing. That noght we all slept pretty well after a big day.

Under the Capri Sun

This weekend a bunch of ae's journeyed to the isle of Capri. Going into it i was excited, alittle nervous, and a tad hungry. The weekend actually started on Thursday when we as a class went to Herculaem and Pompei as a class. We pack Wednesday night and have to wake up at 6:30 the next morning in order to get to our meeting place by 7:15. So me Tyler and Doug leave the house at about 5 of 7 to walk 20 minutes to Trajans Column (our meeting place). Me and tyler get about 3 mintes down the street when we realize we left our papers which Romolo emphasized us bringing, so we turn around and book it towards the house again. run up our 106 steps and into our rooms, Tyler finds his papers, i dont and realize i left them in the studio, which is sorta on the way to Trajans column. So me and tyler run the whole way, about a mile, to the studio with all our bags around our necks and we get there and its locked...im exhausted at this point and thinking...eFFFFFF this...so we just go to Trajans column, actually beating Doug there, cuz were good like that. The bus arrives on time and we set off for Herculaem, an ancient city thats been excavated showing the remains of a former great city, which is now pretty much a shithole, the town is at least, the Ruins are pretty sweet, well ruined of course, but still nice. We stay about an hour then leave for Pompei, another ancient city. Pompei was pretty sweet. We get there, eat lunch, our little group found a nice pizza place that gave us a pizza and coke for 6 euro, while others paid as much as 25 for the same size meal at the rip off cafeteria, i felt pretty good about that one. Then we all get together again and Romolo talks to us about the importance of Pompei and some interesting sites to see. We split up, this time im with Mike Royer, Monica, Todd Povall and Ryan because we all wanted to see the ancient villa a the far end of the excavated site. We see it and travel to the complete opposite side of the site to see the old stadium. We see it quickely because we were short on time and needed to meet back up with Romolo. So we start briskly walking back. Then we realize how far we are so we pick up the pace even more. We take a turn which we beleived would put us back on the main road, it end up leading us to a dead end. so then were thinking ok, we can just duck under the fence, and THIS road will lead us to the main road. So we duck under the fence and start running because we only have a few minutes left before the bus is pulling out. We take the next turn and look around and all we see is workers excavating some new part of the site thats fenced off on sides and were stuck in the middle haha. They unhook the fence for us and we walk around now in a full sprint bending around corners, bobbing around people, jumping over ruins, and we barely make it back before the bus leaves. The bus takes us to Paestum, which is on the Mediterranean coastline and to our hotel. The hotel ends up being right on the coast and its very upscale. We get our room (Tyler, Doug, Tyler Rickers (he's going by Maximus on the trip to avoid confusion) and myself) and head up to unpack. We get a room on the far end of the third floor, which ends up being the only room with a strait-shot view to the sea. it was gorgeous. We immediately changed clothes and went down to the sea. we were so grimey and disgusting from exploring ruins all day. At the beach we start a pick up soccer game then all dive into the Mediteranean to cool off. Later that night we were all given complimentary meals at the hotel, which was a five course dinner consisting of pizza, 2 forms of pasta, pork with lasagna, and a fruit bowl. it was all unbeleavably delicious, best meal so far by far. Late that night we all hangout by the sea, just sorta chillin like. The next morning i wake up with all the beds surrounding me, my hilarious roomates thought itd be funny is i was surrounded with males the entire night, gay or funny? u decide... actually it was pretty funny when i woke up. anyway after we had breakfast we left for the ruins of paestum. they were pretty cool. They still had 3 temples pretty much intact. they were built around the year 0 so you can see how long theyve lasted. We also got to see an acient swimming pool which had all these weird stone obstacles under the water for swimmers to swim through. we then went to the museum there and were supposed to see the tomb of the swimmer. We went there and couldnt find it for the longest time, then finally went downstairs and saw an old decayed body sittin in the middle of the hallway not under any case or anything. were all thinking, is this it? someone said touch it, but we withheld from beng so crude. Then security people come over and explain to us that this section is closed off for maintanance. they escort us upstairs and we leave pretty quickly after that, not wanted to get into any further trouble. Its now a little after noon and were done for the day, but most of us are going to capri so the bus drops us off at the train station. We take the train to Naples, where we think we have a hostel reservation. The european train process is new to me and most other people, but luckily we dont have any major incidents. We get tto naples and try to find the hostel which ends up being a heck of a trip. the hostel was actually like right behind the train station, but we walk around for close to an hour look for it. We walked through this enormous tunnel which smelled like sewage and was covered in dirt with broken glass all over the one side and screaming cars flying by on the other side TWICE. finally we find the hostel and try to retreave our reservation...3 problems here: 1- me and Doug didnt bring our passports and for some reason they need them 2- they didnt have our reservation on file and to top it off 3- they only had 2 beds left in the whole place. Its not as bad as it sounds, we had a feeing the reservation didnt go through and we were prepared to find another place to stay. we find a brochure for holiday inn and called them up. they have rooms available and we book 2 rooms for 11 of us that were left (about 20 other ae's stayed at the hostel...those were the ones that made sure they had reservations and put a downpayment..we were sorta wingin it) so we check in and sneak the other people in and end up only paying around 25 euro a person and have a good room, a hot shower, a good view, TV! and good company in a nice part of Naples(most of naples is a shithole, and from one source - the organized crime capital of the world). The next morning we take a metro, and a tram to the dock and take a ferry to capri. Pubic transportaion was used frequently in naples...We arrive in naples and we are in complete awe of whats in front of us. Its the most beautiful place ive ever seen. We chill out at the beach for awhile, climb on some rocks, and swim in the sea. then we run into this guy called the pizzaman(dont ask why) that takes groups out on tours around the island. He had just taken out one of the other ae groups out and they were all really pleased with it. So the pizzaman takes us around the island, taking us into all the amazing naturally formed grottos around the island. At times he stops the boat and we all get out and swim through the grottos. One grotto we swam through and ended up on a nice beach on the other side hidden from view. ( i think we interupted a couple when we arrived). The next grotto we swam though and we were unpleasantly interupted by a gang of armed jellyfish. we quickly got back on the boat then. The pichures we snapped were just like pichures youd see on a desktop wallpaper or something....just really beautiful. We hung out at the beach until the last ferry departed back to the mainland. From there we took a metro and train back to Rome. We got back around 1AM last night, completely exhausted but still in awe of what we had just experienced.

Day 3: Pantheon Shmantheon

Somehow I wake up at 6:30AM and slept beautifully, unlike many of my colleagues, who couldn’t because of the noise in the piazza. Pondering what to do, I decide to take advantage and go for a morning run around the piazza. I meet up with Royer and Antonio and get to it. We then have our first Cartography lecture which turns into us wandering around the streets of Rome looking for Allen Ceen’s studio. We make it there fine, some people show up 45 minutes late, well one person. We get an overview and then go get some panini at one of the several thousand panini shops. I’ve learned not to buy a can of soda at the shops. One can of fanta = 2 euro, One enormous loaf of fresh baked bread = 1.17 euro. What’s up with that? The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, just traveling to and from class trying to get some sketches and shit done.

Day 2: 1st Classes and further exploration

We all wakeup, still tired but ready for more roman confusion. 8:30AM is our intro with Romolo. Again we get a lecture on not being “American pigs.” We then get a tour of the city with one of our professors who seems to know a lot, but speak at about .5 decibals. We take care of some mundane business such as getting a cell phone, notebooks, groceries, the usual. Later that night we have our group dinner, save some euro and proceed to spend it promptly for our first night at the roman bars. The first one we checkout is La Vineria where they serve good cheap wine, although I wouldn’t know…me and tyler decided to try out the much talked about, rarely consumed alcohol of all alcohol, yes u heard it my friends, we had some Diserona. Then my first beer in Roma was consumed, the illustrious 'Royal'. The we journeyed about 20 steps east to an American bar, The Drunken Ship, where we found Lil John on the radio, NBA playoffs on the tv and beerpong in the middle of the bar…cant find that in the States! Our evening ended a little after 12, and I’ll admit I was a little tipsy at that point.. It was a good second day.

Day 1: Arrival and 1st day

So I arrive at the airport …way early and ready to get it goin. Eventually everyone piles in but not before I start to worry about being at the correct gate. We get a late takeoff and I know im bot going to be able to sleep at all during the flight…as usual. I do luckout and get an empty seat next to me which allows me to stretch out slightly/curl into a ball and pass out, but I don’t luckout because im right next to a bathroom and there was a meal served on the flight…distinctive smells reoccurring throughout the night…$5 beers also served on the flight…why would anybody ever buy a bud light for 5 bucks? The chick next to me did, twice.
We arrive in Rome and get a taxi to Piatza Navona. One word to describe the taxi ride – dangerous. Seems common over here though, dangerous drivers all over the place. But there good at it. We bring our stuff up to our floor, which happens to be on the 3rd floor and is a hike to say the least. The elevator is also sub-par and will rarely be used by anyone. We took our first journey to the studio, not a bad hike, and right past the pantheon. We end up making the trip about 5 times due to housing mix ups. We finally get set up and everyone is exhausted from not sleeping the night before. We get some lunch (get ripped off) at a pizza place by the pantheon and chill there for awhile. Later Tyler, Doug, Tyler and I decide to wander around looking for Circo Maxima and the Colleseum. On the way we mistakenly wander through what appeared to be the gay-axis of Rome. It looked like the remnants of a former zoo, now accommodating only males wearing tight yellow shirts. We get to Circo Maxima and will probably go back to play futbol at some point. Its pretty run down now though. Then we make our way northeast to the Triumval Arch /Colleseum/Ruins of the ancient city. We really didn’t know all the history and are looking forward to seeing it again with our professors showing us all the intricacies. We wander back, get some Italian dinner, and head back looking to get some much needed sleep and plan out our next 6 weeks.

So its 6:49 on the wednesday before i leave, ive got most of my belongings together now, except a shirt which was malliciosly stolen from me by my younger brother, but thats neither here nor there...or something. anyway i just created this thing to document my travels for all yous'ens. Hopefully i find the time to update it, if not, oh well i lost 10 minutes out of this amzazingless useless, but utterly enjoyable week of nothingness. ok, time to go watch the last few minutes of parental control. will she stick with the loser? well ill find out. later peoples, if anyone even reads this