End of Best Week Ever: Cairo

So yesterday morning I had to wake up at 6:30am to finish packing for my very exciting trip that weekend. I needed to catch the 8:23am train to train so that I would make my 2:40pm flight. I hate that we have to start leaving for our flights at least 5 hours before the actual flight leaves because it takes at least 3 solid hours to get to the airport. I had been slightly nervous up to this point about this trip for a number of reasons: I don’t speak the language at all, I heard you needed shots which I didn’t have, and some people had told me that a visa a required. But more importantly, I just want to be at the gate in plenty of time before take off – which I am luckily. So I got on the plane and had to laugh to myself because I was on the aisle reading a book in English for my American Foreign Policy class, the guy in the middle was reading a book in Arabic, and the lady in the window seat was reading a novel in Italian. We had a very diverse row. The plane ride was about three and half hours (which very good food I might add), and then I arrived. IN CAIRO, EGYPT! I packed all my stuff in my backpack and a giant tote bag so I wouldn’t have to deal with lost luggage or trying to find the right baggage claim. I figured that I could get away with lying about getting typhoid and malaria shots, but the visa was going to hard to talk myself through. So I went up to passport control, and the guy flipped through my passport, stopped, and stared at me for a minute. “You don’t have a visa? You need a visa.” Oh no. What do I do? Look at him sadly and confused. “Go to the bank and get one.” So I figured out how easy it is to get a visa in Egypt. I went to the ‘bank’, paid them 15 euro (the sign said $15 US so I felt a little ripped off when I paid 15 euro), I was handed a sticker, and some change back. I had no idea what kind of money Egypt has, but I found out it was Egyptian pounds. So I went back to passport control, they put the sticker on my passport, stamped it and let me in. My first stop: the bathroom. I know this is not something that I really should tell everyone, but it was my first experience in the culture. When I got into the bathroom there was a lady working in there; she opened the bathroom stall door for me and ushered me in. When I was finished I washed my hands, she handed me my towel to dry my hands and then asked for money. Thankfully, I did have some money, but I had money idea what it meant. So far, the Egyptian pound was about as meaningful to me as monopoly money. So I pulled out a pound; she looked at me and said, “Only one pound?” so I gave her another, and she thanked me. I had no idea how much money I had just given the women’s bathroom attendant. The only thing left was to go through customs. I had nothing to declare so I went into the “Nothing to Declare” line. One of the security guards stopped me;

Him: You have nothing to declare?

Me: No

Him: Are you sure?

Me: Yes

Him: Where are you coming from?

Me: Rome

Him: And you want to declare nothing?

Me: Correct

Him (in a huff): Fine

And then he let me go. Honestly, I had nothing to declare. I was bringing in a package of M&Ms and a Special K granola bar – both of which I think you can legally bring into a country without declaring. I was to meet EB and Whitney, two very good family friends, in about an hour. EB was my babysitter when I was younger, and they are both the older sister’s of my best friend Jane so I have known them both for almost two decades, and have been initiated into their family formally. They were coming back from a cruise on the Nile which I was invited on but couldn’t justify skipping so many days of school so close to the end of the semester. But I was randomly searching flights one day and I found a cheap flight to Cairo for this weekend. Okay, back to story. So I plopped myself down in the large waiting area and read for about an hour – fun stuff like A Clockwork Orange. I also did a little people watching, but I wasn’t so sure how obvious I could be about it being an obvious Western woman all by myself. So I mainly kept to myself until I heard “Kate Hartman” and Whitney running towards me. It was great to see her and EB; they had 2 friends with them from the cruise so we (EB) hailed (went up to a driver) a taxi and I got my first experience driving in Cairo. 2 lanes means nothing. If you can squeeze in front of someone else or in-between 2 cars, you go. There were 3 lanes of traffic most times where only 2 cars should really fit. I saw some pretty mosques and sights on the way back to EB’s apartment. I also saw the Nile as we crossed over it in the dark. Her apartment is amazing. It’s so nice and new and spacious. I am not used to it after living with 3 other girls in something half the size. So it was a mildly joint effort by all to make dinner (nachos) and chocolate chip cookies. I don’t think I helped as much as I could have. I opened the red bean cans, ate lots of chocolate chips, taste tested the cookie batter, and watched about 2 dishes, put 5 in the dishwasher, and that’s about all. But EB and Whitney’s friend, Nate, came over and we had a mini fest of nachos and cookies. After that we ended up talking for a long time. Nate and I decided to wake up really early (7am) and go with EB and Lisa to a cemetery and some mosques before Lisa’s noon flight to Dubai. So EB got us a cab and we rode to the City of the Dead. It was quite a unique experience; I was not expecting to be walking through the slums of Cairo since people lived in the City. The City was like a subdivision. There were obvious ins and outs to the area and it was clearly divided from the rest of the city. So the poor Egyptians live in this community with these tombs that are like mausoleums. While in the City we visited 2 mosques. In both of them we went up the minarets which gave us great views of the city. One of the minarets was a little scary since it involved climbing up a metal contraption that did not seen very safe whatsoever. Like I said the views were great; one such view included a herd of goats on a roof next to a satellite. At both mosques we had a mini tour of the building had a small introduction to Islam. I really liked one of the prayers. One of the rooms in the second mosque we saw had a room with a coffin, I think, in it. The man showed us a prayer in which he took off our hijab, rubbed his hand on the wooden gate surrounding the coffin, put the dust on our heads, and put the hijab back on our heads. It had to do with the guy in the coffin being a good man, and now we are good people too. I really liked that prayer. As we were walking from mosque to mosque, like I said, we were not in the best of neighborhood. Also, for whatever reason Egyptian kids tend to throw things at foreigners. EB said that she’s been stoned before by some kids; it’s sort of a problem for Westerners. So we’re walking and come across a group of boys playing soccer; I most definitely flinched, afraid of having the ball kicked in my face. Instead of walking closer to them, we turned around and took a different route; on the other route we came across a little boy and girl with their mother. The little girl went right up to Lisa, one of EB’s friends, and punched her in the crotch. Luckily, Lisa, with her quick reactions, moved her purse into more strategic location. We finished up the mosques, put Lisa in a cab, and walked to another mosque – the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque is called that because when the Turks invaded 700 years ago, they decorated the walls with blue tiles from Turkey. From the Blue Mosque EB and I walked to the Citadel. We basically walked all the way around the Citadel before we found the entrance. The moment we walked in 4 boys starting following us, closely. I was afraid my wallet was going to be stolen so EB and I started walking faster. They finally left us alone, but 2 younger boys approached us and wanted pictures with us. 4 pictures total: one with Boy 1, EB, and me; one with Boy 2, EB, and me; one with EB and Boy 2; and one with Boy 1 and me. So here starts the picture taking. EB and I walked into the mosque at the Citadel and just wanted to sit down. We sat against a pillar and just took in the view. All of a sudden a group of boys (ages 11-15) came close to us. They pushed 2 of the boys towards us; “Do you have any water?...I am thirsty.” What? We are in a mosque; obviously we didn’t have any water on us. After the boys left we got swarmed, I’m talking swarmed, with girls. Hundreds of 15 year old girls wanted pictures with us. Hundreds. We had trouble moving from place to place because girls kept wanting their pictures taken. The mosque security finally came over and told the girls to leave us alone. But by that point, EB and I each had our own circle of girls wanting to know our names, nationality and ages. But each time I answered the questions, another girl would run up and ask the exact same questions. It got so crazy. After about 20 minutes, we made an escape to the prison section of the Citadel. There we saw a very detailed map of the area. One section included a cafeteria, gift shop, and a punishment by whipping section. After the prison section of the complex, we went to a military museum on the premise; again, we got attacked by a school group of girls who followed us as much as possible since they still had to stay with their teacher who finally stopped the girls from ‘harassing’ us. That did not work so we finally had to run through the rest of the museum to get away from them. But we did get to see the oldest cannon in the world as well as the world’s greatest warrior. If anyone knows who that is, it would be a great help since the inscription did not tell us who the man was other than the world’s greatest warrior. Once we got back out of the museum we were, once more, attacked by another group of boys. They now have pictures of us to show their friends. We hailed a cab to Zamelek, the island where EB and Whitney live to meet them at a spa. EB had said that the manicures and pedicures were pretty cheap and since my fingernails were pretty dirty, I decided to get them done. Unfortunately, I had the worst lady ever. She had a chip on her shoulder from the beginning. I’m no expert on getting my nails done since I can probably count them on my fingers, but I do know that this one was the shortest by about 30 minutes. When she finished I probably could have snagged every fingernail on a piece of cloth and there was tons of dirt and dust under every nail. It was by far the worst manicure I have ever had. So EB took me up to the front counter to show them, they called the lady back over and told her to finish the job. She basically pushed me back into the seat and made it as painful as possible, pushing all sorts of instruments under my fingernails to get the dirt out. My nails were mostly smooth by the time she was done and about ¾ of the dirt was gone. Needless to say, I can finish it up myself with about a quarter of the pain and none of the attitude. We left the spa without giving her a tip and went to get some French pastries at Fauchon. I think my family went to Fauchon when we were in NYC (did we Mom?) and it was insanely expensive. However, in Egypt, where full meals are less than $2, these pastries were 8 Egyptian pounds (remember that 5 EP = $1 US). So we took the pastries back to the apartment and had lunch and did homework: EB on her translating Arabic articles and me writing my Roman Empire paper. Since no one was done with their homework by dinnertime and since lunch was pastries, we ordered some Chinese takeout for dinner. After dinner EB turned on Jane’s breakup video, a masterpiece if I do say so myself. Wow. Oh, I forgot to mention that EB’s classmate, Christ, met us at the pastry place and was present until a little after the breakup video. He looks like a mix between David Bowie and Christopher Walken; I’m not so sure it’s such a great combo, and unfortunately, his social skills didn’t really help him either. After Mr. Walken left, EB and I got ready for bed and started to watch High School Musical 2 to which we both feel asleep to.

Sunday morning I got to sleep in. For the first time in weeks, I slept under I woke up on my own: no alarm, no nothing. It was wonderful. EB was at her first class for the day (Fridays and Saturdays are the weekends in Egypt), and Whitney was at work. So I had a nice relaxing morning and when EB got back home, we left for the pyramids. The pyramids are just outside the city; from the highway downtown you can see them; they are that close. Now, Egyptian drivers are probably the worst (or best, considering how you look at the situation) in the world. They don’t have lanes, they squeeze into whatever space they can, and they are constantly using their horns to alert other drivers where they are. They are the most aggressive drivers out there; they don’t even stop for pedestrians. However, when they near the pyramids, cab drivers have to go on the defensive. The vendors or whoever they are who try to sell tourist fake tickets or souvenirs, if the cab driver slows down enough, will latch onto the car until they are able to sell you something. The vendors were jumping in front of the car, and our driver was forced to start swerving to miss hitting all these people. On one such swerve we slowed down enough to allow a guy to somehow get into the front passenger seat. Everyone was yelling at him to get out, I think, but he stayed in until we got to the place where taxis drop their passengers. EB paid, but the cabbie wanted more money. I was told to just get out of the car and keep walking which I did, perfectly, I might add. The guy who jumped in the cab followed us for a little bit, telling us something. Italian men and gypsies have almost perfected my ability to totally tune out people which works out perfectly in Egypt as well. We first walked over to the sphinx. On the way there a group of girls wanted to take pictures with us; we obliged since we were already stopped looking at the sphinx, but we did not want that day to be all about the paparazzi again. We had our day of being famous and we just wanted to be tourists and to be left alone. From the sphinx we looked at the pyramids a little bit before getting in line to get tickets to actually go into the biggest one. It was very cool. But I do not recommend it to anyone with back problems or who is out of shape. You are bent over walking up a slippery ramp which you also have to walk down. The lady in front of me on the way up was having some serious problems with it, but regardless, it was very cool. I think we were the actual tomb room, but I’m not sure since one of EB’s friends had all the guidebooks and nothing is labeled. We didn’t have much time at the pyramids because EB had to get to her Arabic translation class. I was going to go to the Egyptian Museum while she did that. However, we were running at 10 minutes late; the traffic stopped a little bit away from the museum but in sight. EB pushed me out of the cab and said she would text me after her class. So, on the opposite side of the street during rush hour in one of the most crowded cities in the world which also does not believe in sidewalks much less crosswalks in the middle of ‘rush hour’, I had to basically frogger myself over to the other side of the road. Once at the museum I walked around for about an hour and half looking at numerous mummies, large statues, model boats, and pieces of papyrus. I don’t think I’ll have a needing to go to another museum or see another mummy for a very long time. After EB’s class she met me outside the museum, and we walked back over to where she goes to school, American University in Cairo where I got to sit in on her calligraphy class. All the grad students were working on their final projects while I was just copying random words or sentences in Arabic the best I could with the calligraphy pen. Needless to say, I was fantastic; the teacher even complimented me! After class we stopped in at a fast food Egyptian restaurant (EB, you’re going to have to help me with the name). There’s only one thing to order there, so you find a table, order a small, medium, or large portion, and a drink, and within seconds you have your food. It was delicious whatever we had; it had rice, rice-a-roni noodles, chick peas, lentils, and some strange tomato and vinegar sauce. Total of 2 small orders (they were pretty decent size) and a Fanta was less than $2 US. I don’t think I can get a Fanta in the US for less than $2. Plus, new fact of the day, the reason the Fanta in Europe and overseas tastes so much better is because they use cane sugar instead of corn fructose syrup stuff the US uses in all its sugary substances. So we finished our snack quickly since we were both very hungry and cabbed back to EB’s. One of the way to the island, the cabbie picked up this guy who turned out to speak English; we’re not sure if he was American or not, but he was born in French Canada. So EB and I were just talking about life, and the guy just butts in. He told us he was sorry about our problems and that he could commiserate with us since he was having a horrible week (it was Sunday). Apparently, Drew (that’s his name) was fired last Wednesday, but rehired on Thursday, and his boss who he hates because she is backstabbing made this huge deal about how Drew was “moving on” and is now throwing him this “moving on” party. Luckily, the cab ride did not last that much longer and he was sort of interesting but very inappropriate and lacking in normal social skills. Back at the apartment EB and I finished watching High School Musical 2; it is definitely not a masterpiece of the cinema, but it was highly entertaining. Whitney came home from work, made some amazing chicken noodle soup, and then her boyfriend Clay came over. Clay seemed very nice. After dinner, since it was Sunday, we all watched Oprah. She had Jerry Seinfeld on talking about his new movie, Bee Movie. And after Oprah, EB and Whitney’s friend Liz came over and we all watched Tori & Dean inn love? I think that’s what it’s called, at least. It’s a reality show about Tori Spelling, daughter of something Spelling who produced tons of television shows like 90210. During reality show Whitney cooked some cookies EB had made 2 nights previously; those were gone in about 5 minutes. They were delicious! I need to learn how to bake cookies and cakes!

Monday came fast. We had to wake up relatively early since I needed to catch a cab at 8am in order to ensure I’d get to the airport in time with all the traffic. On the way to get the cab, we stopped at a food vendor, and EB bought me 4 bags of Doritos. The Doritos in Egypt are different from those in the US and taste very good. We think that they’re baked instead of being fried, and it tastes like a mixture of the Cool Ranch flavor and the Cheese flavor. So I need to make these 4 bags last me a long time! So it was time to say goodbye, EB put me in a cab, and I was off to the airport. The cab driver was a little odd. The entire way there he sang. I mean, he sang with all this might. He also kept pretending to shoot cars that made him angry: both hands off the wheel, holding an invisible rifle or shotgun, and making shooting noises. After shooting the cars, shooting policemen, and making fun of the military (I caught on only because he was humming something that sounded like a national anthem and saluting), he would turn around and smile, looking for me to smile back or laugh. It was just very bizarre. We then ‘talked’ about Bush and Reagan. By that I mean he talked in Arabic, I looked at him blankly, he asked where I came from and listed countries, I said America, and then he said something about Bush and Reagan. Who knows. On the side of the road he picked up this guy near the airport who spoke some English and helped the cabbie find my terminal. I don’t think the cab driver had even been to the airport before from the way he did not understand the signs and made some wrong turns. We got to the terminal and thanked him and made my way inside the airport. It’s a very confusing airport if you are ever there. At least the first time there, I thought it was. I got on the plane fine, but I was not expecting to watch a movie on it. They turned on the newest Die Hard movie. I didn’t know other cultures would enjoy it since it’s mainly about the US and being patriotic and stuff. They did edit some of the scenes though. No kissing, but then again, that’s Egypt. Question: women aren’t supposed to allow anyone but husbands and family members to see them without a hijab or burka, if they wear them. But what happens, come wedding night, when the husband takes off the hijab and notices his new wife is bald or has ears that stick out?

Best Week Ever

Before I begin, this blog post will be updated, hopefully, at the beginning of next week, with the rest of my best week ever. There are some surprises I have in store for those of you who do not know where I am headed to this weekend and what I shall be doing.

Well, the best week ever in The Life and Times of Kate Hartman kicked off Sunday night with the hide and seek game. Although I was horrible at it and could never find a hiding spot or made lots of noise getting into a desired spot, I still had a very fun night. Monday night I went to dinner with Julie’s family: her mom, brother, and brother’s friend. We tried to go to two other restaurants before we decided on Café di Perugia. I ordered pasta stuffed with pumpkin in a meat sauce – it sounds like a very strange combination, and it was, but it was very tasty. And for dessert we had 3 different types: I had a strawberry tort, Julie had chocolate fondue, and everyone else got chocolate cake but it had layers of white chocolate and chocolate mousse in it. Her family came back to the apartment with us because Scott, her brother, had not been there yet. They left to go back to the hotel, and Julie and I went out to a karaoke bar to ring in her 21^st birthday (the next day – November 20^th). Her brother and his friend met up with us, and we all walked to this pub called Rock Castle. With our friend Becky, Julie and I got up the nerves to sing. We had an amazing time; unfortunately, we didn’t get back to the apartment until around 3am. It works out well when I have to wake up at 8am for my 9am Italian class. So, Tuesday was Julie’s birthday, and while she was out eating lunch with her family, Becky came over and we decorated the living room with Disney princess banners and toilet paper. We had gone shopping last Saturday for party decorations and found non-alcoholic Disney princess party fizz drink which we of course had to buy. We also ended up getting crowns, fairy wings, and other odds and ends. Tuesday night Becky, Julie, and I went out to dinner (Julie’s family left during the day to go to Rome for a couple days). Dinner was amazing – it was little restaurant down an alley. It was very cheap, food was amazing, and we had the nicest old man as our waiter. A couple hours prior to dinner, Becky and I tried to get a surprise party together for Julie. It was very last minute, so we had to be sneaky and borrow Julie’s phone to get phone numbers while she was in the kitchen or just out of the room. Somehow we pulled it off. Becky had an ‘emergency’ during dinner and left early. Julie suspected nothing. So Julie and I left about 30 minutes later, walked into the apartment, and everyone jumped out. It was so nice; we had basically called everyone 3 hours ago to tell them to be at our apartment at 10pm for a surprise party for Julie. They literally dropped what they were doing to surprise her. I’m sad that I just got to be friends with some of these people; they are very nice and incredibly fun to be around. At least we have about a month left to finish up the semester! So we had a nice little party for her, but, again, we didn’t get to bed until around 4am. It was hellish to get up this morning (Wednesday). I was so tired after 2 days of barely any sleep. Today we made plans with Tom and Sean to make dinner. Since they made us dinner last time, we made dinner tonight. I made steak, and Julie cooked the eggs. Needless to say, it was a good dinner. Julie also somehow convinced the boys to dress up, so we got dressed up, and it was just really fun. Dinner was followed by our favorite trashy television show, Laguna Beach. The boys had to leave relatively early by our standards this week, so we are left to catch up on homework and sleep tonight.

Yesterday, Julie and I celebrated Thanksgiving with her family. I went to my Italian class in the morning, then Julie and I caught a train to Orvieto. Her family was in Rome that morning and met us in Orvieto. Our plan was to sightsee for a little bit and then find a restaurant to eat dinner at. Unfortunately, we forgot about a little thing called La Pausa aka the time EVERYDAY when EVERYTHING in Italy shuts down. Of course this was just the time when we were planning on eating. Julie and I had to get back relatively early to do homework, pack, and get to bed since we had been going to bed very late. And this was our one time to get to sleep early. So we ate some pizza at an internet cafe, headed down to the train station, ate some more pizza at the train station, said goodbye to Julie's family, and got on a train back to Perugia. We got back to Perugia, starving, but had to do a little research before the morning, so Julie and I got bundled up to go sit outside to internet, then headed back to the apartment where we had another Thanksgiving meal of pasta, sandwich bread, milk, and Magnum ice cream bars. Delicious. We ended the night with a Laguna Beach episode and headed to bed. After about 20 minutes of trying to fall asleep we both head the church bell ring once. Confused we had to turn on all the lights and make sure it was not 1am. The bells rang strangely that night because 15 minutes later they chimed twice. But we got to sleep about 3-4 hours earlier than every other night that week which was so nice!

Since Casserole Night

Since the casserole night I have had some fun. Last Wednesday (November 14) Julie, somehow, convinced our friend Tom to come over to our apartment and cook dinner for us. Tom and Julie went shopping for food Wednesday afternoon, and later Julie and I ‘baked’ a cake aka we bought it from the pastry shop that about 30 seconds from our front door. Around 8pm Tom and his roommate Sean came over and started cooking chicken and pasta with pesto sauce. They made Julie and me appetizers of cheese, prosciutto, and some other meat first, and then refused to let us into the kitchen. So we lazed around on the couches as the boys cooked for us. And then we ate. I ate so much. It was delicious. We had chicken with some seasoning on it, grilled vegetables, the pasta with pesto sauce, and for dessert, the chocolate mousse cake. The conversation was also very interesting and included such topics as: can jellyfish sting other jellyfish, do bees sting other bees, and what exactly are daddy-long-legs if they aren’t spiders. Needless to say, they ended up staying for a long time, and we decided that this should be a weekly thing. Julie and I offered to cook steak for them this week as long as we could all get dressed up and have a mini formal party.

Friday I had to be at a bus station at 7am for my Roman Empire class. We went on a 2 day excursion to Rome. It was pouring down rain when we got there Friday late morning. And it rained for the entire day. The rain messed up our plans a little bit since our teacher, Giempiermo, did not take us to Palatine Hill since only half the class had umbrellas. But we did see the Ara Pacis, the Coliseum, and the Roman Forum. Around 4pm ‘class’ was done for the day, so 3 of my friends and I walked around to the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. We also snacked on some gelato before meeting a friend of mine from high school, Maggie. I had made plans with Maggie a couple weeks ago to hang out for the night, so we met up at the ‘Wedding Cake.’ I’m not really sure what the building is actually called since everyone in Rome refers to it as the Wedding Cake, but it’s a huge white building with a statue of Victorio Emmanuele II in front of it and its located near the Forum of Nerva. No matter. We walked to her apartment in La Travese(?) which was amazing. We all loved the apartment and I was especially jealous of her giant kitchen. Getting late and hungry we went in search of a restaurant and happened onto a very little cute restaurant. Our waiter was this little old Italian man who we ended up taking pictures with later in the evening. And, of course, the food was delicious. I had the closest thing to fettuccini alfredo I think I’ll have in Italy. After dessert at the restaurant we walked to a gelateria for a nightcap. IT was so cold, but it didn’t matter since the ice cream was amazing. I need to come up with new adjectives for the food here; I just don’t know to explain how good it really is. Night came and we had to be up early so we said bye to Maggie and headed back to our hotel. The next day our class got back into our little bus and we drove to Ostia, an old port town now in ruins. It was also bitterly cold, but the area was very pretty and the ruins were interesting. I feel like I’ve seen so many ruins in my short life that they start not to get so exciting, but the area was pretty. After a couple of hours looking at the town, the bus took us to the beach for lunch. And from there we went back to Perugia. I had a nice quiet Saturday night which was very nice. Erica, Jeanette, Andy, and I watched an episode of Flight of the Conchords, a comedy group from New Zealand. It’s hilarious in all sense of the word hilarious. Parents, we need HBO just to watch Flight of the Conchords. It’s worth it. Sadly, I was unable to sleep in because my body refuses to let me sleep past 8:30am now. Sunday went by pretty quickly with homework and such. Sunday night, however, got more interesting. Jeanette’s ‘boyfriend’ came and surprised her with a visit to Perugia for a week, so we have Andy sort of living with us this week. He’s a real nice guy, but for some reason he brought a spelunking light with him; it’s like a sweatband/headband with a light that you can turn on. So late Sunday night while Julie, Erica, and I are in procrastination mode, we found the light band thing on top of the fridge and had a game of hide and seek in the apartment. I am awful at the game. It took me so long to find spaces to hide in that Erica was done counting and I would be standing in the middle of the living room. But I have a spot that I know is good and does not take a lot of moving things to get into. I’ll tell you how it goes when I use it for our game.

Company Casserole

I successfully made dinner for my roommates last night. It was delicious. The recipe calls for sour cream. However, this country does not believe in anything mexican and therefore no sour cream. We used yogurt instead which does not taste as good but it was alright. But overall the casserole is amazing but was definately much better the second time around (this afternoon for lunch). Jeanette and I decided that we eat pretty well for college kids. For lunch we had the casserole and then homemade chocolate pie for dessert. Tonight Jeanette's half-boyfriend, at least that what she calls him, is coming to surprise visit her. She has no idea he's been planning to come for weeks which also means we all get to meet Andy! This is going to be a very interesting week. Tomorrow night Julie managed to convince one of our friends, Tom, and his roommate to cook dinner for us. So we'll be eating well this entire week! I'm so excited!

Perugia Weekend

I decided to stay in Perugia this weekend. Well, it was more like I didn't plan anything and there's a train strike all day today (Friday) so we are basically stuck here. Last night Jeanette and I had dinner and watched Hot Fuzz. I was so tired I fell asleep during the middle of it. I can't believe it! But I guess with the lack of sleep this week (I don't even know why. I barely did any of my homework. I decided instead to read and watch Laguna Beach with Julie.) I just needed to catch up. However, I woke up early and watched Full Metal Jacket. Then Jeanette and I went shopping for groceries, postcards, eyedrops, and boots. I am now the very proud owner of the most gorgeous boots in the entire world. I will definitely take pictures of them soon so you can see them, but until they are up, I will just have to describe them. They are almost knee length brown leather boots. Very plain with a buckle close to the top. They are close to being tight around the calf, but there's enough room in them that allows me to be Italian and tuck my pants into them. Basically, they are the most pulchritudinous and breathtaking boots I have ever seen. So I think the rest of the weekend is either going to involve a trip (either by myself or with my roommates if I can convince them) to one of the surrounding towns for the day or a weekend entirely devoted to Perugia...and homework, movies, and novels. That sounds like a wonderful weekend for me! But I know for sure that it will involve a stop at the Diesel store since everything in their store window is pretty! Now I know I really need to find a job.

Rome Weekend

This past week I’ve been doing pretty poorly. My cold has turned into a sinus infection, and I’ve been sleeping during most of the day and night. Friday I had a class fieldtrip to Rome. My Early Christianity class was going to look at some churches from the 4^th C – which is the time right after Christianity became legalized (313ad). Our class has about twenty-five kids in it, and our teacher, Alessandro. My friend Becky nicknamed him Indiana Jones; if you saw him you would understand why. So we had to be at the bus station at 7:30am Friday morning to get on this chartered bus taking us to Rome. So, being in Italy, the bus didn’t arrive until around 7:45am, and we hopped on. I slept for most of the trip. Oh, I also realized it was time to switch out my contacts. Bad idea since my stash of contacts for the next 2 months are wrong, and everything is blurry. Great. But we got to Rome around 10am and spent the day walking around looking at 4 different churches – including Saint John’s the cathedral of Rome. For whatever reason, I had no idea that St. Peter’s is not the pope’s main church. The pope is the bishop of Rome, and since St. John’s is the cathedral of Rome, the pope’s main church is St. John’s. My parents were in Rome for the previous week and for that weekend, so I decided to stay in Rome for rest of the weekend with them. But when my fieldtrip was over, they still at the Vatican and wouldn’t be done for a couple of hours. Luckily, there were about 3 other girls staying in Rome so I hung out with them on the Spanish Steps for about 30 minutes before I made my way to my parent’s hotel to drop my stuff and then to an internet café to register for my classes! Most of them look very interesting, and I’m taking at least 2 of them with some friends so that will be really nice, especially since both girls are rooming with me next semester. Makes studying for the tests much easier! When I was done checking email and class registration, I made my way back to the hotel where my parents had just arrived. They were tired of big crowds since this weekend was an Italian holiday, and it seems like the entire country decided to come to Rome. We powwowed in the hotel room for a little bit and then went out to dinner to a Sicilian restaurant. It was delicious! I had penne al salmone. As much as I’m looking forward to Mexican food, sushi, and a Philadelphia cheesesteak, I am also going to miss such good pasta on an everyday basis. The next day I felt miserable, but we had a tour of underground Rome which we were going to go to. At breakfast that morning sitting at the table next to us was a couple from Chevy Chase, Maryland, so of course I had to say that I went to school in DC. The man who we met actually works at GW and is teaching a class there next semester. He works for the Elliott School in the global health program and was being very helpful with trying to get me an internship with Doctors without Borders and other health related organizations which would have been all well and good if I was even remotely interested in entering that field of international development. But they were very nice, but we had to rush out of breakfast to get to our tour which was very interesting. We went under some churches and museums and saw remnants of buildings from the BC times. The tour ended just in time for lunch where I had a ham pizza. Also delicious. Across from the ristorante was a very beautiful Jesuit church, so of course we had to go in and look around. No matter where I go, somehow I also manage to run into something Jesuit. We spent the majority of the late afternoon on some of the big shopping streets looking for some boots while going to look at the Ara Pacis (Alter of Peace) and Augustus’s mausoleum. If anyone needs a guided tour of Rome, I am pretty confident in my ability to give one about anything up until the Flavian period in 81AD. Just pay for my plane ticket and I’ll tell you everything I know and even some stuff I don’t know. To no avail did we find boots that night however, but again we ate some very good food and one of the best chocolate cakes ever. I also witnessed my first thief in Italy. This youngish man was being chased by this older man. If the older guy had made a sound, my mom said, she would have tripped the guy stealing from him. The older man did manage to get his backpack back, but the thief got away with a folder/briefcase thing. This morning my mom and I went on an adventure to some markets. She thought there was a market that was only once a month, but sadly, she’s the only one that has heard of it so we instead went to a weekly market that was amazing. I found some boots, but they were too big. However, I found a great purse for cheap-ish. After the market it was time to reconvene with my dad and to head to the train station. On the way to the train station, my dad told me some good news (for me). My cousin and his wife are pregnant which we have known about for some time, but we didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl. On that side of the family I hold a very high position with my grandfather since I am the only girl granddaughter. I was especially excited to hear that they now know the sex of the baby – it’s a boy!! My parents decided to come back with me to Perugia and stay for a couple days before they fly back to the States. After putting all our stuff ‘at home’ (Perugia is almost starting to feel like home to me…almost), I got a little bit of homework done before we went out to dinner at a very good little restaurant near the Church. They had amazing pumpkin soup and zucchini pie with cheese sauce. If anyone knows how to make zucchini pie with cheese sauce please please send me the recipe. They also had some great chocolate cake and apple pie. Yum! Tonight the Colts play the Patriots which I am very sad I’ll be missing. Too much homework. Plus the bar showing the game is more than a 30 second walk outside, and it’s cold tonight! I only hope the Colts win. By the time I’m able to post this blog (I’ve found it’s easier to write in a Word document and transfer it over since the computer lab always seems to be closed when we need internet) I’ll already know the score and who lost the game. But…GO BLUE!

11/5: I don’t know if it’s hit the news in the US or not yet, but last week a British girl studying in Perugia was murdered. We were told that this is a once and a lifetime thing in Perugia; the police seem to be going crazy, especially since it was a foreigner that was murdered. They have some leads, but no one has been pulled into custody yet. Apparently, the story is all over BBC so in case it makes it to US news, just wanted to tell you I’m fine and what’s going on with the case.