Catch Up Blog - End of an Era

Wow! Have I really not blogged since last Friday. This week went by so fast. The one week I didn't want to go by fast was easily the fastest of any week so far on this amazing adventure. And now, sitting in my hotel room on via Carini, I still don't even have the time to blog well about this past week. But let's see how quickly I can do it.

Saturday, after my last blog, was an awesome day all around. After going shopping with Ethan and Eran, I was all prepared for my pre-game AS Roma v AC Milan cookout to pump up our troops to cheer hard for Roma. It was so so so so fun. We had plenty of burgers, hots dogs, pasta salads, chips, dip, rum glazed pineapple, beer, sangria, etc etc. Even my neighbor above us peeked over the balcony to check out the fun, he turned down our burger offer to him though, but he did wave his AS Roma watch at us and received a thunderous applause from the about 25 of us. I have to give credit to Eran for doing a great job on the grill despite everything working against him, like the cheap Italian burger meat, inefficient grill and my lighter fluid mishap. Oops. With my classic American music playlist spinning everything from Jack and Diane to Hey Girl, it was a fun time all around and got us very excited for the game that night. It's a shame that that grill wasn't used until the last Saturday it could have been.. but let's not get me started on regrets from this semester, I'll keep focusing on the great things I did.

Crazy Italian Fans

After those incredible 4 hours of burger smells and beautiful weather on my patio, we trekked over to Il Stadio Olimpico for the main event. It's easy to see that our group dominated that entire section. In between the obscene shouting, gestures, and flare throwing by the Italian fans on both sides, there was a pretty exciting game played. I know most people reading this blog don't care much for soccer, but after seeing my third AS Roma game, it's really starting to grow on me. Although they never scored, Roma seemed to be on the offensive all night. It ended in a tie, underwhelming, but the AC Milan fans still had more to cheer about at days end than us. The fact that tons of lit flares had been thrown at them throughout the course of the game did make me envy them less though. All those Italian fans there were nuts. Oh and for the bus ride back home; ridiculous. It wins the worst bus ride of Rome prize hands down. I could not move for the whole 40 minute ordeal, smack sandwiched between way too many people. Then dealing with the chants and shouting by the other fans on the bus, what an experience. Finally, we got off it, walked to the Belli stop through the swarms of Trastevere nightgoers and got on the tram to Panino Planet for a 1am snack before calling it quits and going to bed.

Biking in Villa Borghese!

Back up early for mass. Figured I should make the most of my last Sunday in Roma. I put on some good clothes and went over to San Andrea delle Valle for mass. I'm getting better at understanding priests homilies in Italian. After that, I went biking in Villa Borghese again with some friends, it was NATIONAL BIKE DAY! It was also the celebration of the little municipalities of Rome (under 5,000 pop.) so there was a festival for them that we stopped at. After biking for a few hours, and almost all of our chains popping off at some point, we went to Scholars Pub to watch Man U v Chelsea. I made another appearance at Scholars later that night for karaoke night, but let's not talk about that.

Inedible - worst dessert ever candidate

Sorry for being so brief, but I didn't sleep at all last night and want to go to bed. Monday was my Italian listening exam which went well. Tuesday was my Archaeology final, followed by Italian on Wednesday and EU Defense Policies and Business Law on Thursday. I went out every night this week with different groups of friends. Tonys with Brigid and Amanda, then Tonys again with Nick, Michelle, Jen, Casey and Adam (one of the funniest dinners of my life) then guys night out for dinner on the last night with Josh, Ethan, Eran, Adam and Geoff at restaurant #2400 on tripadvisor (not actually). The restaurant wasn't as bad as we made it out to be, but it was pretty bad. I now can say I've had a bad meal in Rome, but, it was memorable and I will never forget that dinner for many reasons. After dinner, we went sightseeing at night to Trevi and Pantheon then met up with everyone at Stairs bar in Trastevere where all the final goodbyes were said. This was all on Saturday, last night. Wow, last night. It seems like forever ago. Here I am sitting in Rome still but all my friends have gone and have just landed safe and sound back in America. I think I'm going to have to save my blog for my feelings about yesterday for another blog, if I blog about it at all. It's safe to say I was sad. I know I'll see most of them again at some point, that's not what I'm worried about. It's that we will all never be together again here in Rome. I'm going to miss that a lot. I don't know how they said good bye to Rome but I'm going to need a lesson for this Wednesday when I leave for Paris. My final for Italian had a final essay part about writing your feelings on leaving Rome. I felt like I was writing a break up letter, not an essay. I love this city, and everything about it. I'm not going to get started on it now though.

Last time ever waiting at the Belli stop to take the tram home

To all my friends from this past semester, I knew not a single one of you 4 months ago. Today, I consider many of you some of my best friends. It would not have been as fun without you all, we rocked this town. Thanks to everyone for making this such an amazing semester. But I think I'm also going to have to save my thank you blog for another time too. Whew, lots to blog about.

Oh and Adam's here! We had an incredible day today, saw lots of stuff and I was able to show him stuff he hadn't seen the last time he was here. Props to tour guide Mike. I'll blog about our day another time too - ha. This is what happens when I get backlogged on blogging.

I'll also upload pics to this blog another time, I'm too tired now. I didn't sleep a wink last night, I got home around 2:30 and just tossed and turned until I woke up at 6am to get Adam. So much for a pleasant last night in that bed. Too much on my mind.

Buona Notte Tutti, I'll fulfill all those blog promises soon