Thursday, August 30, 2012

John Cabot: The Beginnings

I haven't posted the past two days because I have been rather busy with handling forms for John Cabot as well as moving into my new apartment etc etc etc...

I won't bore you with the unnecessary details, but instead take a look at my new apartment!



Entryway and dining table

Tiny kitchen, but solid

Living room space and main window


 Views out the main window

Bedroom

View out bedroom window

I've been really enjoying meeting all my new JCU friends. In particular, I've spent a lot of time hanging out with a group of guys who all live in the same apartment. Their names are Bobby, Jacob, Alex, Austin, and Sam. Fun group of guys to hang out with and go out and have a good time with. Pictures to come later

The past two nights we've gone out to bars. Both nights everyone has been sorta tired because of jetlag and whatnot, so things haven't been too crazy, but even just hanging out doing random things has been really fun. It's great to meet new people. There a ton of other people that I've met, but I haven't hung out with anyone as extensively. Not really any exciting stories yet, but I promise they will come!

Also met my roommate, Eric, today. Haven't really gotten much of a chance to get to know him yet, but that comes with time. First meeting of him involved him moving in while I was passed out on my bed and waking up to him being in the bedroom. Seems I meet all my roommates that way (Michael... lol)

Everyone spent 5 Euro to all go on a walking tour of Trastevere, the neighborhood that we're located in. The tour wasn't really that interesting to be honest, but I got a couple sweet photos along the way for you to take a look at :)

The Tiber River

Cool photo of standard alley in Trastevere

Piazza closest to my apartment, place where everyone gathers at night to sit and people watch

Tree man...? Don't know what he was doing, but his face looked like Robin Williams when he smiled :P

Only other interesting thing was grocery shopping for the first time entailed me learning that their grocery stores work drastically different! And.... they don't sell salad dressing.... I gotta make my own from oil vinegar and salt. LAMESAUCE!

Sorry for a primarily photo-oriented update, but this transition period doesn't really entail many interesting stories or adventures yet. I promise more to come!

Everyone was already talking about planning some trips to a bunch of different fun places, so I'm certain that there shall be some great stories to come :D

Ciao!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Day 2: Exploring Roma


Today was an awesome day! I did so much and saw so many things that its almost hard to remember everything. And I didn’t even leave my room until noon! So I hope you’re in for a long read, because it’s worth it!

Well, after having slept until 11am and talked with my friend Alex for a bit about his first day in Firenze (Florence) I had the plan to go see the Colosseum and Roman Forum today. I simply couldn’t wait any longer.


The first thing I did was meander about on my way to the Colosseum, stopping for the breakfast of a panino con prosciutto e formaggio (meat and cheese) as well as un caffĂ© (coffee). The food was cheap and delicious and I was pretty happy until I remembered that I’m not supposed to drink coffee while whitenening my teeth… Lol *smacks forehead*

I continued making my way to the Colosseum, deciding that I prefer to meander about in the general direction of where I’m going, seeing all the neat little shops and cobblestone alleyways that Rome has to offer rather than taking a main road straight to my destination. Just as I started to feel a little bit lost, I came across a little park where there are people feeding birds, children running and playing, Italians merely sitting and enjoying the sun, as well as a nice outdoor cafĂ©. However, none of that mattered too much to me because directly in front of me was my first glimpse of il Colosseo!!! (The Colosseum)


It was beautiful; I simply had to get closer! I power walked my way until I was right beneath it. Let me tell you something, it is undeniably grand and majestic. Despite all those years weighing down upon it as well as destruction from wars, this building is utterly glorious. I almost wanted to start killing people on the street in front of it to win the honor of the Colosseum! Yes, it’s that glorious. See for yourself.


Sadly, I was not the only person who felt that the Colosseum is epic, which I noticed when I looked at the 500 person line to get in. At this time it was around 1pm and so I figured the lines would die down later in the day. Unfortunately I never returned, enjoying myself too much to go back once I began exploring the rest of the city.


Immediately next to the Colosseum is the Roman Forum, which, quite frankly, I got plenty of merely from walking by it. It’s not really that special in my opinion, but maybe I was just biased after taking in the glory of the Colosseum. I did, however, really like this statue of Caesar right outside of the Roman Forum.


Continuing along my way lead me to two firsts: 1) my gelato experience in Rome. It was merely gelato from a little stand and WOW they’re not joking, it really is freaking delicious. I can’t wait to eat at a real gelateria.  2) Possibly the most beautiful building I have ever seen, and I couldn’t even figure out its name for like half an hour.


After speaking to the only guard that wasn’t holding a machine gun (see below), as well as one of the employees at the shop, I learned that it is il Vittoriano, only a century old and built as a National Monument as a tribute to World War I and I believe they said the King of Italy as well, but they were a little bit difficult to understand. I spent a good long while inside of this building, looking at the statues and paintings and historical artifacts, but the outdoor areas were certainly more amazing.


I went to the top of the building where they have a cafeteria (no, not as shitty as the one at your Elementary/Middle/High Schools) and bought myself another panino (they sure are cost-effective), but this time with artichoke, prosciutto, and lettuce, as well as some pineapple juice. It was really nice to enjoy the view of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, as well as the rest of the city around it while munching on my sammich.


And here’s a close-up of the front of il Vittoriano, protected by guards with machine guns. Definitely necessary….


It still being fairly early in the afternoon, I decided to take my journey north towards the Trevi Fountain. Along my way I encountered a restaurant that caught my eye. I didn’t ask or anything but I’m like 99.9% sure that this means that the owner is from San Diego… right? :P Here’s a shout-out to everyone from SD!


After the restaurant I find my way into a little back alley, where a street artist was using spray paint to create absolutely amazing artwork of space and planets and other random things. She even sold them on the spot for only 10 Euro. In case you don’t remember, I only had 20 Euro in cash for the past two days and despite attempting to save the money, I had about 8 left at this point. I really wanted to watch her make a painting and then buy it, but alas I could not afford to L

Once I finally found my way in the direction of the Trevi Fountain, there were hundreds of tiny shops selling really cool wares of many types, having something that almost any customer could appreciate. In particular, they sold “original murano glass” in all shapes and for all purposes. I really enjoyed walking in and around all the shops as they were located in a tiny little alleyway with hundreds of people meandering in and out of them. Soon I could the pounding of water on stone and realized with excitement that I had found the fountain! As I began walking in that direction, a bird caught my eye and I followed it to a lamp post. This lamp post was no ordinary lamp post, but in fact my first sight of la Fontana di Trevi!


Now, this is not merely a fountain. If you’ve seen any movie that has Rome in it, you’ve probably at least caught a glimpse of it. There is very good cause for this: it is fucking beautiful and epic! Thousands of people (not exaggerating) flock to the front of the fountain just to sit and relax by the water as all the glory of Neptune (I think…?) flows down in front of them into a pool of several hundred square feet. Needless to say, I took my time in leaving this place because it is so spectacular. I will certainly return with friends from John Cabot later.


Continuing along in my journey, I was pretty tired by this point, so I strolled along the streets in the general direction of my hotel (probably 2-3 miles away from me at this point), and I came across a little park area where two teams of kids were playing some pretty intense soccer. I sat and relaxed, enjoying the competition and skill of mere 12-15 year olds. I was also really thirsty, for the first time doing as the Romans do and gulping down water from one of many tiny fountains that the city runs water to nonstop. It took me a couple attempts to realize that there’s a hole you’re supposed to cover up with your finger so it acts more like a normal water fountain rather than getting in an Asian squat and slurping it up from below… You can see the fountain in this photo.


Just as I was about to leave, I saw a basketball court with two guys playing. If you know me at all, you know I can’t turn down an opportunity to ball, so I walked over and joined their game. We just shot around for a bit and then played some 1v1. In no time at all they loved me, telling me my Italian was spectacular for it being only my second day, thought I was amazing at basketball, and told me to come back to the court to play with them tomorrow. I informed them that I wouldn’t be able to because tomorrow I’m moving into my apartment on the West side of the city in Trastevere, but that I’d try to comeback some other time. There I developed the beginnings of my first friendship with Italian locals. Here they are, one posting up the other one.


By the way, this basketball court has a legit view of the Colosseum. Check it out!


Soon, two other locals showed up and we got a game of 2v2 going. I’m not exactly sure who won, but it didn’t matter. It was so much fun playing with Italians… they seemed to care much more about having fun through competition than merely only finding winning important. Here’s a reverse layup that I made in, photo credit to my new friend Roger.


And here’s me standing around pretending to play defense and lookin goofy as hell…


While playing 2v2 I sort of dived for a ball, thoroughly bruising my tailbone and ending my basketball experience for the day, but it was okay because I was completely exhausted at this point. The tiredness certainly contributed to my mistake, so I figured it was a good time to stop.  I said my goodbyes and made my journey  back home, using my usual tactic of “walk in the general direction down whatever street I think looks coolest until I’m home,” but it totally fucked me over this time. Again, I blame this on being tired, not on using a flawed method :P

As I meandered about, my great sense of direction failed me, causing me to go wayyyyyyyyyy too far south than I should have, going probably a half mile off the tourist map of Rome that I had procured. It took me until I was in a massive piazza that was not on the map until I stopped and asked for directions. It turned out I had what was probably 2-2 ½ miles more to walk to get back to my hotel,  already having a hurt tailbone making it painful to walk and having walked around for the past 7ish hours. Daunting as it was, particularly as this area of Rome starts to get fairly sketchy come nightfall, I made it back safely and happily. What a day! 

Monday, August 27, 2012

Day 1

Today was my first day in Rome. God f***ing damnit it was frustrating at first. Upon arrival I attempt to get out some Euro as my university adviced me, but for some reason it didn't work at the airport. Assuming that it was a localized issue, I ignored it and took the train into Rome, deciding to stay at a crappy hotel in Termini. In case you don't know, Termini is one of the more sketchy places in Rome, particularly at the train station, which my hotel is directly across the street from. In retrospect, I could have chosen a better hotel.

My main issue all morning was that I hadn't spoken italian in approximately 3 months and wow I was rusty. I felt so stupid trying to communicate with the locals, especially when they basically said "fuck it, lets use english". I felt like just another idiotic tourist. Fortunately, this experience really made me feel determined to get my italian back to its former level.

Anyways, I spent a couple hours walking around Termini looking for two things: 1) a bank that will let me withdraw money and 2) a free wifi hotspot, which I was told before going are supposedly very prevalent.

I probably went to 10-15 different indoor banks and ATMs attempting to get money out, being frustrated by the fact that the ATMs request a 6 digit maximum code, while mine is 7 digits. fI even had an indoor banker come out with me to an ATM and tell me to enter only the first 5 digits of my code, which by the way didn't work at all, before I simply gave up and found a group of Americans to ask. It turns out I have to call my bank and change the pin number to a shorter number, which I have yet to do. I'll take care of it in the morning I suppose. As a result, I spent the rest of the day living of 20 Euro that my friend Mark gave me for my birthday as well as using my brand new credit card excessively.

As for the wifi hotspots, I found one free wifi hotspot throughout my entire day of exploring and wandering about Termini... once I had already paid for internet use at an internet cafe because I didn't want my parents or Sloan to worry for my safety. By the time I got back to my cheap, barely 2-star hotel from searching for these things fruitlessly and attempting to break a difficult language barrier as a result of my rusty Italian speaking I was completely frustrated and tired from walking and jetlag. I relaxed for a little bit and took a shower.


After having done this, I managed to reinvigorate my sense of adventure and inspire myself to go on a determined journey of exploration, during which I encountered my first epic piazza and fountain in la piazza della reppublicca. In that piazza there was also the basilica di santa maria maggiore, which was basically a really big church. I'm not normally into churchy stuff, but it was pretty amazing just to see the grand scale that the thing was built on and the exceptional craftsmenship of the makers of the sculptures and art.

Later in the evening, after enjoying my first delicious italian margherita pizza, I went out to a pub called the Druid's Rock and spent my first 30 minutes there in near-silence sipping on my 6 euro Carlsberg beer because there wasn't really anyone to talk to. Fortunately after a little bit I got in a pretty nice conversation, entirely in italian, with the bartenders, really building my confidence in speaking and listening in italian. After spending a good while practicing my italian and learning about italy's culture from the bartenders, an aussie walked in.

This guy literally knew NO italian and walked in asking if anyone spoke english, so being me I of course had a chat with him. It turns out that he was a fairly interesting guy who was coming from his brother's wedding in Poland, at which he got completely blasted off vodka, taking shots from around 4pm until 730am. Him and I had a good long talk, deciding to sit outside, where we met a couple of scottish blokes. I definitely had some trouble understanding the scots, but accent was absolutely hilarious, legitimately making me chuckle merely because of the way they sounded at times, although I'm sure they thought it was because I thought they were funny :P It was really nice to get to talk to some people in english for the evening after having spent all day struggling to remaster my conversational italian.

Tomorrow should be really fun: Im gonna go explore the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Wish me luck :)

The Flight to Roma

Surprisingly enough, I had a particularly interesting flight over. My travel was split into two flights, one from San Diego to Newark (boringgggg) and the other from Newark to Roma.

The first flight is hardly worth mentioning as the person next to me was a boring woman who worked for the government and was on a business trip.

However, on the flight from Newark to Roma I had an awesome time. I got to sit up in first class with massive chairs, movies, and tv out the ying yang to enjoy, as well as plenty of complimentary food and drink.

The flight was especially cool because the person sitting next to me happened to be a Pilot who was on vacation to Italy with his wife, who had lived in Florence for a time. Meeting him was particularly interesting as he told me all about his life and how he became a pilot, he gave me plenty of life advice, and even shared with me an article about Chris Jeon, a UCLA student who decided to join the Libyan rebels against the Giddafi merely because he was bored with his cubicle lifestyle and wanted to really experience something.

Between the article and the conversations that I had with this Pilot I felt fairly inspired going into my 3 1/2 month foray into Italy to do whatever I could to enjoy myself and find things that are fulfilling in my life for me. It turns out that the pilot had such a good time talking to me that he left me his card with his phone number and email address. I'm not quite sure what I would do with that information, but I enjoyed the fact that he felt the urge to give it to me.

The flight was also legit because I managed to convince the waitress that I am 21 and therefore got alcoholic drinks complimentary, being as I was a first class customer. It was easy enough: she asked me if I was 21, I said yes, and she said okay here's your wine! I thoroughly enjoyed my white wine and my Glenlivet scotch on the rocks as well as my delicious short rib dinner followed by some vanilla ice cream with butterscotch, nuts, and whipped cream.

Needless to say, I had a very enjoyable flight over and feel ready to begin my Italian experience.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Day 0

Today is day 0. The most frightening part is about to come. I am spending every last minute with my wonderful girlfriend and am so sad that I have to leave her behind. By every last minute, I do in fact mean every one. Sloan and I are going to stay up all night and hold onto each other so tight that we can't forget the feeling.

14 hours from this very minute I am supposed to leave her side and embark upon an adventure all by myself for what seems like the first time in my life. Even when I went off to college at UCLA I was never truly alone because within hours I met Sloan and from that minute on always had someone there to confide in and fall back on for support.

My emotions are rather torn... I don't want to leave behind everything and everyone that I've ever known, but at the same time I know that what awaits me on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean is an experience that will change my life forever. I can't wait to go, but I also am sad to leave.

So long have I waited for this moment to come and now all I can say is: cheers to you world, let's see what you have to offer.