FLY AWAY HOME!

     i'm finally coming full circle and returning to my home in iowa.....we trying at least.
yesterday we left rome around 11:30am and we were supposed to have a 10 hour flight to philadelphia followed by a layover and quick flight to minneapolis afterward.
     oh its funny when you try to plan things. about half way through our flight to philadelphia they informed us that we would need to land in pittsburgh instead because there were bad storms in philly and the airport was closed. we were understanding at this point. at 3:40p local time we landed in pitsburg and we were informed that we were not cleared for customs at thepPittsburgh airport so we would need to fly to charlotte, NC. okay---we can make this work right?
no. before we could go to charlotte we needed to refuel, but while they refuled the planed got covered in ice, and thus needed to be "de-iced." after the plane was "thawed" we expected to fly out and figure out flights to MN from charlotte.
     OH no no no. evidently an issue arose with the start valve on the plane so the maintenance team was called out to work on the plane. (oh and we are just sitting in the gate on the plane this whole time).  by the time that the issue was fixed, FAA regulations came into play. the flight time allowed for pilots and flight crews to operate had conveniently expired RIGHT about the time the plane was finally ready to fly. so we thought we would  just get a new pilot and flight crew, but rather they announced that customs WAS cleared for us now, and we were going to be stuck in pittsburgh for the night.
the next few hours went as follows:
2 hours waiting for our bags
2 hours for customs and a long line for hotel vouchers
30 minutes booking new flights with a new airline
1 hour waiting for a hotel shuttle
10 minutes debating if we should sleep at the airport, or wait longer for the shuttle
> we decided to stay at the airport because it was already near 1:00a and we would have to head back to the airport in about 3 hours anyway.
4 hours of worthless, restless, cold "sleep"....

     we got up around 5am and got ready in the airport bathroom. thankfully our 7:30a flight from p-burg was on time and went smoothly. however, that brings me to where i am currently, which is stuck in milwaukee, WI waiting to get on my last flight home to minneapolis....it too, is delayed. hopefully we will be boarding the plane soon. i just want to be with my family, and peter, and friends. i have slept roughly six hours in the last three days and i'm running only on anticipation to see all my loved ones. mamma mia!
okay. i should pack up my computer and pray that we get the plane soon so i can truly...finally... FLY AWAY HOME!

the final countdown....

only 6 days and 14 hours left in roma. wow.
i am very ready to go home, but i'm beginning to realize how many wonderful things i am going to miss. the final week includes finishing projects, purchasing final gifts, enjoying my favorite things.
there are a few things that i promised myself i would do before i left this week. a few weeks ago i vowed that i would have a caffe' macchiato every single day until i leave. a caffe' macchiato " simply means "marked" or "stained," and in the case of caffè macchiato, this means literally "espresso stained/marked with milk." my particular favorite place to sip one of these is at a cafe right outside my apartment called "noname." the cafe is owned by a husband and wife that are always very friendly and welcoming to us.  lucky for me, one macchiato is just 80 cents so i don't have to feel bad about giving myself this treat.
i will be visiting campo di fiori multiple time before i leave, and while i'm there i will grab my favorite piazza from forno di fiori which is a bakery that is always filled with romans because its terribly delicious.
i will be eating lots of gelato, pastrami sandwiches from bar del cappuccino, going to aperitivo a few more times, and of course eating lots of nutella.

so heres what i have been up to the last 2 weeks or so... schoolwork, homework, studio work, shopping, and doing final exploring. one exciting element of italy in december is the giant carnival that takes place in piazza navona. santa claus is a hard guy to find (which doesn't bother me a bit), but rather, its befana who is the protagonist of the christmas story. befana  is a housekeeper/witch in search of the Christ child. the full story can be read here:
http://mymerrychristmas.com/2005/befana.shtml

last night a few of my roommates and i went to piazza navona to experience the carnival at night. we had a joyful time- we got treats and rode the carousel.

kind of out of order....but my roommates and i also took family photos yesterday in our courtyard. we were a slightly dysfunctional group to photograph...but here are a few of the best. we love each other and its been a great semester!


top picture: (left to right) joelle, betsy, laura, eek, ashley, allison, tina, katie, megan, me.

hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

main entry: hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
part of speech: noun
definition: fear of long words
number of letters: 36

so all semester, and prior to my travels, i get a "word" of the day from dictionary.com. however, that is unrelated. i discovered this word when i looked up the world hippopotamus, needless to say i was absolutely amazed by this jumble of letters. just interesting.

best week ever...part one.

     unfortunately there were parts of this week that would be better described as "the worst week ever,"  but overall it was wonderful. the less exciting parts of the last two weeks include a huge project due the day before thanksgiving, and a cumulative art history final on thanksgiving day. the excitement began november 20 when peter arrived to rome. i worked religiously on my schoolwork before he arrived, although it was hard to focus with so much anticipation. peter traveled with lauri, a friend of one of my good friends in studio, and they arrived late friday night. we went out to dinner, even though peter and lauri were pretty exhausted. the following morning we began our day with coffee and a tour through rome to see my favorite sites which include the following: campo di fiori, pizza place in campo di fiori, the pantheon, trevi fountain, and my favorite gelato place, palma della roma. oh yea, we went to the argentine ruins as well, but they don't qualify as a favorite. for dinner we went to my favorite aperitivo place called Freni e Frizioni.

      sunday a we lounged around rome and relaxed, later peter and i went to get groceries so that we could finally cook together again.
on monday i had to attend class and get some work done, but peter was able to go to see some other monuments while i was busy. later that afternoon we went to see mussolini's square colosseum, EUR. the building itself is so beautiful and idealistic, however, we were not able to get great photos because it is surrounded with gates. evidently they are renovating parts of it, so its blocked off completely. later we joined some friends and hung out to celebrate one of my roommates' birthday.

     tuesday was a wonderful day spent together. peter and i went to the vatican museums and inside st. peter's basilica. we also ventured up the 551 stairs to the cupola of the enormous dome. the sight of rome from this vantage point was phenomenal and definitely worth the five euro and major leg soreness. we spent the entire day at the vatican museums and we saw amazing works  such as, the laocoon, the raphel rooms, the sistine chapel, mummies, and the belvedere torso. we were pretty worn out after a day full of history, but we cooked a great meal afterward which is always relaxing.

     wednesday was the day that my huge project was due for studio class. i finished on time, because i had worked ahead prior, but i still had to go to studio for jury and later to study for art history. i spent most of the day at studio, but it was nice to have peter drop in once in a while to say hello.
     the following morning, after i had crammed all that i could cram, i pouted for a bit because it was thanksgiving day, and took my art history final. once that was out of the way, peter and i toured the inside of the colosseum. although i would normally be at home prepping food for thanksgiving, i reminded myself that it was pretty special that i could spend this thanksgiving at the colosseum with peter. with the help of my roommates, peter and i had a memorable thanksgiving dinner as well. we cooked a ton of food and we were all super full after the meal.

     friday was great because i didn't have school to worry about, and we visited several other monuments in rome. we went to piazza navona, villa borghese gardens, piazza del popolo, the roman forum, and vittorio emanuele.

thus ends part one of best week ever....the rest is to be continued.

south of the river

view from the living room

     
        we are officially inhabitants of trastevere which is south of the tiber river in rome. the weekend of halloween was quite a weekend-moving was a bit of a hassle. after 5 taxis, a midnight trek with blankets, and another midday stroll with boxes, lamps, and drying racks...we were finally done at the montecatini apartment. we looked pretty ridiuclous-i'm not sure what natives thought of a bunch of american girls walking around town with blankets, fans, dishes, and mirrors. on our midnight trek with blankets (because the new apartment had none) we were greeted by a few with facetious statements from italians such as "good night, buona notte." oh well.
       two weeks later we are pretty much settled into the apartment. unfortunately the move has not had all the "bells & whistles" that we thought it would. our showers don't drain, which results in constant flooding. we don't have an oven, we have no blankets, and until yesterday we had no heat. oh rome.
       this post was begun after the weekend that we moved (october 30) and since then we have had lots of issues with the new apartment and very few of them have been resolved. i do love the new apartment though. the area is nice, and i particularly love the apartment in the mornings when its really sunny. it has its quriks, but far less mold and grime- oh and a great sea-foam colored kitchen.

my sleeping quarters

 

view from my window

 

my bathroom & non-functioning shower

 

sea-foam kitchen

living room

"if you should go to venice..."

north field trip

     early wednesday morning my five interior design roommates and i ventured to termini train station once again. (this time we took a bus rather than making the 45 minute walk). we arrived in milan around lunchtime so we grabbed some grub and then walked through the city. our next interior design project is to design a store window, so we walked and window shopped at all the stores that we will never be able to afford. (which is okay with me anyway).  later we visited the "triennale di milano" which is a huge exhibit of the most fabulous industrial italian design from Fiat's car the Panda to Alessi's espresso makers. oh, we also saw the duomo in milan which is the third largest cathedral in the world.

the duomo in milano

 

inside the teatro alla scala (nose-bleed view)

     wednesday night we went to the historic teatro alla scala to see the ballet "giselle." the theater was a great experience. we were in the nose-bleed section, but that was good since we were extremely under-dressed for the ballet.
     on thursday we visited the personal studio of Achille Castiglioni. He is one of Italy's  most legendary industrial designers and my current idol. Achille and his brother Pier-Giacomo designed together in their studio in Milan for the entirety of their careers. Now, Achille's daughter runs the studio and offers tours and insights on the great history within the studio walls.

gondolas in venice

     late thursday night we took a train from milan to venice thus, we arrived in the sinking city in the dark so we didn't get to see much at night. from the moment i woke up and saw the flowing water streets i couldn't stop singing the song my mom used to sing to me as a child.

"if you should go to venice, you'll find a magic town. the streets are flowing rivers and the boats go up and down..."

the next morning we visited a few major tourist areas such as the piazza san marco and doge's palace.  we also went to a large art exhibit at the arsenale which is part one of venice's "bienale". it was very interesting, but very cold since the entire museum is basically outside. we also took a boat to the nearby island of murano which is known as the the prime location for glass blowing. we went to the school of glass, Abate Zanetti where we saw amazing glass blowing demonstrations by a master glass blower. later, we had a delicious four course meal with amazing seafood such as octopus, squid, angel fish, and shrimp. desert was a bite fo cheesecake and chocolate mousse with cayenne pepper. delicious.

apetizer of octopus, squid, scallops, and shrimp. yum!

another gondola

 

saint mark's basilica

 

campanile di san marco

     on saturday we went to  the second part of the Biennale called "giardini" which is a space where there are multiple pavilions designated for different countries. inside each pavilion are art installations specifically commissioned for the Biennale. The weather was beautiful on saturday & the rest of the day we explored the city, saw leonardo da vinci's vitruvian man at the Academia museum. Our classmates departed from venice in the early afternoon, but my friend tina and i stayed an extra night to see a little more of the magical city. we stayed in a fun, character-filled hostel where we met lots of other students and twenty-somethings who were traveling italy. we had a great time conversing with people from all over such as poland, australia, london, vancouver, and michigan. rather than spending ours on a train tina and i decided to fly back to rome. unfortunately we were greeted by freezing rain when we got to rome, a great start to a busy week. i'm glad to be back in roma, and i'm looking forward to my upcoming events- a cooking class next week and peter's arrival the following weekend!

out with at bang.....?

it was a sunday afternoon, prime time to do homework, and i was settled in my usual position at the end of the living room table when suddenly my chair collapsed and put me on the ground. in the picture above i hadn't moved an inch.

with the news of another montecatini malfunction i also bring news that we are moving out! at first we were hesitant when offered a new apartment, but after visiting the new location and dealing with the continuous decline of our current apartment we decided to go ahead and accept the offer. it was just last week that the housing office informed us that they had just finished refurbishing a new apartment building in trestevere. they were also interested in dropping the contract with the landlord who owns our apartment and another apartment where isu students are living. there are 16 students in all that will be moving tomorrow afternoon to our new apartment santa maria in cappella. the area is very safe and its occupied by more locals than tourists which will be a nice break for us since all we see are tourists near the pantheon. we will have a porter at the new apartment so i will be able to receive mail there, when i know the address i will let everyone know.

ciao!

pumpkin wumpkin

this year at iowa state the 3rd annual pumkin carving contest for the interior design student association went worldwide! last week the rome students, including myself, carried out our own pumking carving contest on the terrace of the rome studio. our fellow interior design students back home with compete today, october 29 back in ames. the results from our carving contest will compete against those from iowa state because we emailed all of our photos after our event. since pumpkin carving pumpkins here cost 18 euro we decided to carve in pairs. my friend tina and i were pretty happy with our results and overall we had a great time.

firenze (florence)

a weekend in firenze.
early sunday morning a group of about 15 students (mainly my apartment) made another early morning hike to termini station. we had to be there even earlier this time- 7:00a which mean we left our apartment about 6:20a. we took a cozy fast train to florence so it only took about and hour and a half. when we arrived in florence it was still just as cold as rome, but it was a pleasant sunny day. we viewed the duomo which is a huge church with very ornate exterior decoration.

after an expensive cappuccino to wake us all up we headed to the uffizi.  since we went in a group with a couple professors, we were able to get into the uffizi museum as a group (rather than waiting in line forever). the uffizi was amazing and i spent lots of time just absorbing what i was seeing and soaking up everything. among my favorite work that we saw were: the birth of venus by botticelli,  we saw work by peter paul rubens, rembrandt, and carrvaggio.

after the rest of the group went back to rome, my roommates joelle, betsy and i stayed the night in florence so that we could see a little more of the area.
the other main gallery in florence is called academia and this is where the famous statue of david by michelangelo is located. the museum was great and there was a fascinating photography exhibit by robert mapplethorpe.  after gawking at the statue of david with every other tourist in the building we went to visit one of the many leather markets in florence. thankfully we betsy has a friend who is studying in florence so we were able to stay with her we planned to meet betsy's friend lauren around 9:00p so we perused around the city and nearly froze. i'm surprised that i didn't "buckle" and buy a winter coat.
on monday morning lauren, being accustomed to florence, brought us to her favorite kabab place in town- doner kabab. it was the best kabab i've ever had, although i can't say i've had many quite like this one. we made a hike up to the piazza del michaelangelo where we saw a magical view of the entire city of florence. we also went to see the pitti palace which was the home of the medici family who were the merchants and bankers at the time of the founding of florence. there was a costume exhibit at the palace so we saw a lots of interesting clothing designs from renaissance ballgowns to high fashion gucci.
after, we went to catch a train back to rome.

overall the weekend in florence was wonderful.
unfortunately our week began in more of a somber way. we were notified by our professors that terry kirk, beloved art history professor, chose to take his own life. although he was not my professor, he was a close friend to many of my professors and it was difficult to see them in such pain. his students were impacted greatly by his spirit and vibrancy. last night we attended a memorial and it was nice to hear stories and memories from people who knew him best.

this too shall pass?

although italy is still very exciting and fantastic there are moods to be had and due to a load of school-work and a sudden drop in temperature have forced  me to convince myself that this is just a lull that shall pass.

i have been traveling about eight weeks now and one of my most prized possessions was a last minute gift from my mom. (thanks mom). what could this magical gift be? yup. ear plugs. i have worn them to bed almost every single night that i have been away from home. in paris, my friend gina decided to draw on my ear plugs: one is a happy face ear plug, and the other is a sad face ear plug.

on monday morning i woke up to find that my "happy face" ear plug had gone missing and the "sad face" was the only one present to greet me in the morning. this gave me a bad omen for the day.
(observe the photo above). but.....this too shall pass right?

on the bright side of things!!!
-i got a great letter from my mom!
-i got an awesome package from my mom!
-i bought boots.

 

[nasty] naples.sorrento.hurculaneum.capri

south field trip. (meaning the portion of the trip supervised by our professors)
NASTY NAPLES
we left from termini station in rome early thursday morning of october 1st. yup-this meant that my roommates and i made a very early morning trek to termini station. it was quite interesting to see rome at 6:30am. things were very calm and we saw the sunrise. we took a 2 hour train ride to naples (which has now been "dubbed"- "nasty naples.") we visited the archeological museum in naples, had lunch, and then trekked through the rough part of town to get to napoli centrale so that we could head to the next destination.
before we could get to the train station we experienced even more naples "wrath."  we ended up finally getting on a bus to the train station because our professors finally figured out that we might miss our train if we didn't hurry. on the bus: various students had their "personal bubble's" popped, their pockets invaded, and their bags crushed because we were like sardines on that silly bus. the next issue we had in naples was because of the ticket system in europe. when you get on the bus there are machines where you must "validate" your ticket to prove that you paid for it and you have every right to be on that bus or train. well, because there were almost 40 design students on the bus plus 100 naples civilians there was no room to breathe, let alone get to a machine to validate out tickets. lots of people had validated their tickets, and its rare that policemen come on the bus to check, but on this day one decided to hop on and make some trouble. anyway- more things occurred, but to shorten the story my professor chris ended up paying a hefty fine. ouch. OH and we missed our train (but caught the next one).

first covered shopping center in naples

piglet: archeological museum naples

SORRENTO
once we finally arrived in sorrento we were pleasantly surprised by our hotel accommodations.  the entrance was a canopy of kiwi and there were plants such as lemon and lime trees, and wild orchids growing right outside. our room was called margarita because all the rooms were named after flowers and our room even smelled like the flower. pretty cute. it was lovely to sleep in a clean bed and use nice clean towels. the breakfast was amazing as well!
ok- back to sorrento. our professors planned a great dinner for us a "the lemon tree" in sorrento on thursday evening. the entire restaurant was like a garden and the food was amazing. we had four lovely courses from antipasti to pasta, and sea-bass to lemon desert.
after dinner my professor pia surprised us by convincing a local discotheque to open its doors just for us. we were all very full from dinner but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go dancing....with my professor! strobe lights and all- we enjoyed a night of grooving at the  ironically named "hollywood in sorrento" discotheque.

HERUCULANEUM
early friday morning despite the rain we ventured to herculaneum. this city is near pompeii and was also covered by ash in 79 A.D. when mt. vesuvius erupted. there are acres of civilization that have been recovered. most of the remains are well preserved and we could see frescoes on the walls and brightly colored mosaics that are hundreds of years old. we also saw the remains of bodies that were struggling to escape. overall it was a fascinating but sad place to see.
 

SORRENTO.CAPRI (the portion of the trip on our own)
after herculaneum my five interior design roomates (laura, megan, tina, eek, and allison) and i headed back to sorrento for dinner. friday and saturday night we stayed at campeggio villaggio in a cabin for 9 euro a night. cheap, cold and damp!

the highlight of my travels so far is our day trip to the island of capri on saturday october 3rd. we took the ferry from sorrento to capri and  had a day full of relaxation. right when we got off the ferry we were approached a nice italian fellow who offered us a day on his boat to float around the island, and he promised that we would be able to  jump out and swim. after deliberation we decided to go with raffi and it was a splendid day. we saw multiple grattos, or caves that surround the island and we were able to swim and bask in the sun. the main gratto, the "blue gratto" was closed because the water was too rough, but since we were on a smaller boat we were able to go into some of the smaller caves instead. 
later that night we lounged around our cabins and enjoyed more of sorrento. we trained back to rome on sunday and it was good to be back in our "rome home."

laura, megan, raffi, tina, allison, eek, and me.