Mountains, Caves, Beaches, Florence & a Satchel

Sincerest apologies to the blogsphere and twitterverse for my absence. I've been busy with living in another country but don't think I haven't been thinking about you all. I'm not going to lie, you won't hear much from me in the next couple weeks though, so apologies in advance (and also kind of belated).

I left you all off last Wednesday so I'll catch you up there. My week ended like most do. A couple classes on Thursday and then my Extreme Language Exchange on Thursday night at the local pub. I love that thing more and more every week. For all my die hards, you know what it is by now, but for the rest of you, it's held at a local pub every Thursday day and is free and basically you go and get paired with Italians and rotate every 15 minutes and you teach them English while they teach you Italian. Also, the bar has "aperitivo" at the start of that which is an Italian thing where there's an all you can eat appetizer buffet + a drink of your choice for only 7 Euro. Pretty fun deal and I always learn and improve my Italian. Also, I love it because I get to ask Italians what they think of current events in the world, ranging from politics and wars to sports. In return, I get to give them my American perspective on things so we both learn a lot about each others cultures in the process. It's also run by a really great guy, Andy, who puts it on for free every week for the benefit of people like me. Then just like every week, my friends and I went out for dinner in Trastevere. Then I went over to my friend Eran's apartment to watch the UMD game (which we won, go terps!) but it didn't end until after 3am our time, still completely worth it.

Friday I tried out some studying for mid-terms and that's about it. It was beautiful out so I just hung out on our patio for most the day and got some studying done. It paid off though, spero. Friday night, I went out with a couple friends to a completely Italian area of Rome with a guy I had met at that Language Exchange who was a local. We were going to go to a place that was all you can eat and drink of pizza and beer for 10 Euros, BEST deal ever, but it was all full so we went to a place next door (it was still good). We also got to meet another local friend of his so we learned some new Italian phrases and for the first time I can say I was the only American (except for my friends) in that whole area of town. It was swamped with local Roman youth, too bad it took over an hour to get there though..I'll have to check out that first place again some time though for sure, that's a deal I can't refuse. Then afterward, me and Eran watched the Terps game, again at 1am, in hopes of another rewarding win in return for our dedication. The outcome was too depressing to blog about but the fact that we didn't even make the NIT makes it even worse; I guess I've seen the last of Terps bball for this season, thanks for the memories Dino, Cliff and Bowie.

So after getting home and in bed by 4am, I had to get up a few hours later and be at AUR for a class field trip Saturday morning at 8am. Rough morning. I made it, and after a few espressos and cappuccinos, I finally was up and running. We went to Circeo to explore some prehistoric caves for my Archaeology class and learn about the past species (Neanderthals, Homoerectus, Homesapien, etc..) So first we went to a museum and were lectured on all the academic information and stuff (I was still trying to wake up at this point) and then we went to two different caves. The first was where they had found bones and other evidences of people living there and I forget the significance of the second one except that it was at one point flooded by the Mediterranean Sea but also was miles and miles from the shore too at one point. It had to do with ancient burials though or something. Let me remind you, it was a Saturday morning class, you can't expect me to remember everything, especially on a few hours sleep.

Trekking down to the 2nd cave

So the coolest stuff about that trip was the scenery. It was a coastal beach town basically, so it was dead while we were there because its the off season, but it definitely had the looks of a town well ready to suit all the beach goers once summertime rolls around. It was just rolling mountains on the east and beautiful coastline to the west.

The town itself was also pretty neat and quaint, nice, I rarely ever get to use that word, but (I think) it fits perfectly here, is anyone really sure what that word means? Anyways, the town and area was real cool, only about a 90 minute drive from Rome. Also, shoutout to AS Roma for beating big rival Lazio this weekend, big win! I was in Florence with my sister so I missed the game but I'll make sure to catch another one and keep wearing my AS Roma scarf proudly (which made me quite popular at the Italian pub language exchange.)

The most fun part was climbing around on the rocks as we made the hike to the second cave which was literally on the water. Also got some pretty neat pictures of me on the rocks, and also some of me running away getting splashed by the sea (thanks Rachel..). So then after I got back from the field trip around 4pm, I met up with my sister who was wonderful enough to come visit me and we set out for Florence for a few days.

Since I've already blogged about Florence, I'll make this quick. Basically we did the big things, Duomo, Uffizi, Medici Palace, Ponte Vecchio, etc etc. We got back Monday afternoon. The bathroom at the hotel was awful, it was just a shower head in the middle of the bathroom so the whole room would flood, worst designing ever. It was ridiculous, they will definitely be getting a bad review from me on Tripadvisor. Yes, it was that blogworthy. I did have a successful shopping trip, getting a genuine leather wallet and postman bag (satchel.../murse..). It's awesome, and way better than sporting my LL Bean green backpack around Rome with MIKE embroidered on it from circa 2004. But that market we found near the Medici Palace was awesome and such a great place to find good deals on anything leather related.

Alright, back to the books. One exam tomorrow and one Thursday and then I'm all clear for Canary Islands! Supposed to downpour tomorrow so I might take Maria to see some catacombs, then Thursday is the 150th anniversary of Italian unification! Party all day long! Viva Italia!

Ciao, hopefully I'll get another blog in before I leave Sunday!

Me rocking my satchel on the patio wearing my Florentine leather jacket. Note: no dryer, only washer