Roaming Rome

After the fun evening of Finals-Victory celebrations on Wednesday, I had a difficult time falling asleep. My eyes were heavy with fatigue, but my mind was racing. A not unfamiliar mixture of excitement, sadness, and stress at the prospect of returning scared away any hope of sleep. So I stayed up until 3AM packing up my belongings and making thank you cards to friends and brethren.

My last full day in Rome, was a hectic experience. I checked in for my flight, updated my blog, and had a pleasant farewell lunch in Piazza Navona with Carol, Alex, Shell, and Susie. We laughed, reminisced, shared our grievances, and had an overall good time - a great goodbye to my favorite people in my favorite piazza. But lunch ran a little long and the rest of the afternoon was spent running around buying last minute souvenirs, helping Shell drag her luggage across town, then booking it back to my apartment to get ready for my last night with Rome locale.

I was running super late for church, and to top it off there was crazy traffic when I was on the bus - I almost was late for performance. Thankfully I made it just in time, and was able to sing praises and give thanks to God, who so mercifully brought me here and guided me for the entirety of my time abroad. I’ll surely miss singing in Italian.. and all of the wonderful brethren too. Words cannot express what their support has meant to me. God sent them as angels to help me when I was struggling all alone.

After service was a blur. So many kisses and hugs from everyone! haha. It was a lot of giving and receiving.

The KADIWAs were thoughtful to treat me out for dinner after service. We drove to an all-you-can-eat restaurant near Ostiense and the thirteen of us chowed down on some good asian food! It was fun :] yet as the night progressed, the sadness of leaving weighed more and more on my mind. I think they noticed, since they kept asking if I was ok. I really had a wonderful time but maybe I clammed up a bit out of weariness from the hectic day and little sleep I had, and the dread of the prospect of leaving them all. They gave me some great memories (and took pictures! haha).

Today was a whole different type of crazy than the day before. I got up at 5:30 to finish packing up my belongings. I had a light last breakfast with my signora, Adriana, and got a visit from Leslie, a sister from Rome who was kind enough to see me off.

My flight was at 12:15 and I was pushing it a little arriving around 10:15AM. The shuttle bus driver gawked at me as I dragged my two humongous overweight luggages with my “hand-carry” rolly (filled with 20lbs of books), stuffed backpack, and plastic bag with my ladybug Charlotte in hand - without a cart!

But all was not well. I walk up to see a group of approximately 22 people, over half of them students from the program, waiting around gloomily in front of the British Airways desk. Apparently our flight from Rome to Heathrow was running late by over an hour, meaning we were going to miss our connecting flight from Heathrow to LAX. British Air’s solution to their 22 misplaced passengers was to write us all off to a different airline - Lufthansa - where we would fly from Rome to Munich then Munich to Rome.

We herded over to the Lufthansa desk and after around 20 minutes they broke to us some dreadful news: they said they could accommodate guarantee the group a flight to Munich but only 11 of the 22 passengers would be assured a spot for the LAX connection since the flight was already overbooked.

Lucky me, I was in the unfortunate group without a ticket. The tellers cancelled our tickets and sent us all the way back to the British Air desk. All of us were frustrated and starving, but we managed to keep our tempers as we discussed our options with the BA reps.

They gave us two options. The first wasn’t really an option but they pitched it anyways - to fly to Heathrow, attempt to make an impossible 30min layover jump to a Chicago flight, then Chicago to LAX. The second, and only other option they gave us was to take our original flight to Heathrow, the one that was an hour late) then spend the night to be on standby for the first flight to LAX the next morning. We might have gone with the second option but for the fact they said BA would not reimburse us for lodging expenses since the delay was due to weather and not technical faults of British Air. [BS!] Our other, I guess third option would have been to stay one more night in Rome, then face the same uncertainty of seat availability the next day. That too was out of the question since all of us were strapped for cash and it would cost taxi back to Rome, hotel, then taxi again in the morning - all non-refundable.
DOUBLE BS.

So, stressed and unhappy, we reflected on these 3 lose-lose options. Then miraculously, the Lufthansa desk called the BA desk. Somehow, they were suddenly able to accommodate the rest of us! So we rushed for the second time to the Lufthansa desk to be checked in!

And, yet, things still weren’t right. For whatever reason, one of the slips of paper they gave us as our temp-ticket to Lufthansa the first time was missing - fault of the teller who was now conveniently missing. I was on that ticket, so lucky, lucky me, they threatened us with not checking in our baggage until we located the old slip. [Italy is so efficient.... >.<] More craziness, and I was finally able to check in my bags, both of which SHOULD have been overweight (i thought they were) but I had no issues with them whatsoever (SCORE!!!). It was now 12:15 - the time our original flight should have left, and we still had to get through security for our boarding time -according to the ticket - at 12:40.

We hurried as fast as we could to get through security. I was the first one of the last batch to get through, so I jammed out in what I thought was the right direction. How very wrong I was. Of Gates A-H, I powered my way all the way to H, only to realize at the gate that I had been looking at the ticket for the Munich-LAX connection!!! My real gate was D... all the way on the other side.

I turned around and sprinted to Gate D. My heart racing, bags jostling, and perspiration beading down my face, I got there right at 12:40... only to find the entire group of them sitting around, relaxed, munching away on snacks they had so calmly had the time to purchase. THEY WEREN’T EVEN BOARDING YET!!

Womp womp. I was, in comparison, out of breath and flustered. At that point I was so OVER this whole ordeal. I had kept my cool and tried to stay positive but my not-the-end-of-the-world mentality was starting to crack. I stalked off to buy some water and to give a quick heads up to mom about the whole ordeal.

We boarded, and this flight too, was running behind schedule. I spent the brief two hour flight nodding between sleep and thoughts of those I’ve left behind in Rome.

In keeping with the day’s trend the crew had only good news for us as we began our descent. The flight’s tardiness triggered, guess what, MORE issues with our connecting flight (yay >__< ). We landed in Munich at the same time that our connecting flight began boarding. I was so afraid we were going to be stranded in Munich for the night! But God is merciful, and when we got off the plane an attendant was waiting. She lead us to bypass the second security check, which normally we would have had to go through, and we went straight to the Passport check then to the departure gate. The German passport check guy, I felt, was unnaturally suspicious of me - i think he did a triple take between me and my passport... weird.

We made it to the gate, and I was now only a 12 hour flight away from finally being HOME. BUT WAIT! Of COURSE one last thing had not go our way. The tellers in front of the gate again bombarded us with demands for this or that slip we should have received from the British Air desk back in Rome. I half wanted to laugh, half wanted to scream. While two tellers were questioning the other students, my teller handed me my ticket and seat assignment. Maybe an act of selfishness, but I looked at my ticket and just jammed down the walkway into the plane without a second glance. Hell, I HAD my ticket, and if they wanted to keep me off the plane for not having that silly paper, they were going to have to come on and drag me off themselves - I SWORE I wouldn’t go WILLINGLY!

HAHA. Looking back now, I think the frustration finally got to me, and in the end it wasn’t a big deal. When the other students came on, I asked them what happened and they said one of the last people in the group had it so we were all good.

Thus ended, I hope, the unbelievably stressful trip home. I’m now a good... 7 hours into this 12 hour flight. Five more to go. Comp batt is dying. We’ll see how this all pans out

A presto!

---
Midnight (LA time)

The rest of the flight was pleasant and uneventful. I had a great conversation with the girl next to me, also on her study abroad, but coming back for winter festivities. We arrived on time, and after waiting in a long line for passport check, we waited a good 20 minutes for our luggage to come down. Then came the super long customs line! Finally, I walked out to see the smiling face of my wonderful mom. A hug, a kiss, and a tear, I was finally home.

The past four months seem so surreal. Walking into my house - it’s like I never left. Already it feels so easy to slip back into the life I had before leaving, and yet, I’m not sure if I’m the same person. Trust me, nothing drastic has changed, except maybe I’ve filled out a bit around the waistline ;P (what do you expect after living on pasta, pizza, and gelato for four months?!). Still, I think it will take time for me to really see what has changed in me, and around me.

The time I spent in Rome was truly the best experience of my life, thus far. I want to thank every one of you who helped me, whether it was webcaming/chatting when I was lonely or taking the time to read this blog. I want to thank all the brethren in Rome who opened up their lives (and cars!) to me - you all have really touched my life. I’ll miss you dearly, take care, and please never forget me, for I won’t forget you. If not in this life, ci vediamo nella vita nel cielo <3

For those who have yet to go to Rome, I exhort you to go. It’s so amazing, and it’s somewhere you must visit at least once in your life. If you need company or a tour guide, let me know!! :D

Ah, bella Roma, grazie per la belissima esperienza. Mi mancherai moltissimo!!

IL FINE

Friday, December 4, I woke up to a gloomy rainy day. My spur of the moment plans to visit Siena by myself slipped down the drain. I was ambivalent about going “da sola” in the first place, but the thought of being alone, four hours outside of Rome in a city I didn’t know just didn’t have the same appeal at five in the morning on a rainy day. So I turned over and went back to sleep. I spent the day, instead, cleaning and packing. I made cards out of the photos I took with the brethren from Rome, so that they’ll never forget me :]

Pretty much did the same thing on Saturday, but in the afternoon I went to choir practice then slept over at Dianne’s place. Her family was away visiting the locales in Naples and Catania, so she invited me to spend the night. We had fun ;P

Sunday I woke up at 7:30, half an hour after I would have had to leave from my apartment to take public transit to the chaps. That was awesome. Worshiped, then spent a chill afternoon with the brethren. It was my friend Mark’s birthday and my last Sunday in Rome - the brethren were kind enough to throw us a mini not-so-surprise party haha. It was cute and very sweet of them.
I got home LATE on Sunday night, my unfinished rewrite for Ancient Roman Civ and tons of unstudied notes were hanging on my conscience. But I was so exhausted. So I slept at 9PM, woke up at 3AM and cranked out the rewrite. I crashed at 6:30 for another hour, then forced myself to wake up to study for the final at 10AM.

Three hours of nonstop scribbling later, I was one final down, two to go! Studying for the next exam for Gender in 20thC Italy was not very enticing, so instead “ho fatto un giro” - I took a bit of a walk about. :]

I got an excellent roast pork sandwich (MMM) from Campo Dei Fiori, and walked in search of the turtle fountain. Found it! Took some pictures, then headed across town to the church of San Pietro in Vincolli (sp?) to see the tomb of Pope Julius II della Rovere, major patron of Renaissance art. There I admired the gleaming, polished masterpiece that is Michelangelo’s Moses. The sculpture was so beautiful.

I then wandered around to a couple of disappointing churches, but was very impressed with San Giovanni in Laterno. That one was pretty cool. There were gargantuan sculptures of different saints and prophets lining the central nave. Across the street, I got a glimpse at the Santa Scala, or Holy Stairs. Penitents are only allowed to climb the stairs slowly on their knees. [Crazy, huh]

It was around 4:30PM and I had been wandering around the edges of the city center for a solid afternoon. There was just one more site I was eager to see before I headed home. I made my way to Piazza Porta Maggiore to see the remains of the ancient city walls and the Tomb of the Baker. In antiquity, slaves who were freed were called freedmen. Often these freedmen were no better off financially than they were as slaves. This particular freedman, appears to have made a small fortune for himself as a baker. His burial monument stands as a testament to the wealth he attained during his life. It was quite an interesting sight.

I headed home to try to study for my Gender final, but I ended up watching How I Met Your Mother on my Mac, Michelangelo :]

I woke up Tuesday morning, and power-studied the morning away. Final lasted from 2:30 to 4:30PM. I did my best...hopefully it was enough to get the A. I did get an A- on my 10-page paper on Filipina Domestic Workers in Italy [KAZZAAHH!] ... the paper I wrote the night before/morning of... :D God is GREAT! hangout

My friend Yates called me up and invited me to the chaps to celebrate brotha TJ’s birthday. I had a great time talking, laughing, and, oh Yes, teaching the Rome Binhi NINJA!!! Yes, Oxnard, Ninja is officially alive and kicking in Italy ;D

Got back late, again. Slept in and headed to school at 10AM today to get a good 4 1/2 hours of Renaissance Art studying in. GAH. So much to know, but I think I did alright. I KNOW my essay was kick A** so hopefully I passed the class.

Met up with the Binhi for a VICTORY hangout at.. guess where, Burger King! HAHA. ‘T’s all good :] We took tons of pictures and played a few rounds of Ninja in Piazza del Popolo. But we ended early ‘cause, y’know, they have parents and school tomorrow. LOLz. So I returned home at a reasonable 8PM tonight.

HOORAY! Fall Academic semester 2009 is officially OVER!! By far the least stressful finals I’ve had yet. The awful draw back is that I only have one full day left before I say goodbye to the beautiful city and wonderful friends that have hosted me for the past four months. Has it really been four months? Have I really lived outside the States independently in a country which I don’t speak the language (at least not well)?

It has truly been a dream come true to have passed this semester abroad in, I can honestly say, the most beautiful city in the world.

One more day.
:__;

Monday, the 30th of November through Thursday, December 3rd. Four days of site visits. Monday I visited the Roman Forum for the fourth time in four months. I was a cold rainy day, and I think everyone was not in the mood to stand in the shelterless forum amid ruins. The class lasted a little less than an hour, instead of the usual two. Despite the gloom I went souvenir shopping down Via Nazionale, near my old apartment, then down Via del Corso and walked all the way home. By 5PM I was looking out my window at the black night sky as lightning flashed above my building. It was awesome.

Tuesday was another gloomy day. I had a site visit with Gender to La Casa Internazionale delle Donne - or The International House of Women. It was.. interesting. Afterwards I had another walkabout through Trastevere to a few random churches with interesting martyr/saint stories. I strolled the Aventine Hill (CRAP! I just realized I got that wrong on my final!!! >__< and Circus Maximus.

I hopped on the metro and met up with Dianne at Piazza Barberini and we checked out the crypt of the Capuchin Monks (sp?). It was so morbid. The series of 5-6 chambers were decorated with the bones of hundreds of people - complete with tailbone hourglass designs, vertebrae chandeliers, and a bone wall clock. I must admit they were very creative, but seriously, it was creepy. Those poor dismembered corpses. The crypts were to honor a few people, most likely the most important monks - I’m not sure. These bodies were clothed in hooded robes, skin still rotting away on their propped up skeletons. Macabre.

Wednesday, December 2, I had a site visit at Campidoglio at the Capitoline Museum with Ancient Roman Civ. This museum is a MUST if you come to Rome. It houses the original bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelias, along with the remains of the podium of the Temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Best and Greatest) - the most important temple in all the Roman Empire in antiquity. It’s really a great collection of ancient sculpture, AND it has the famous statue of the Lupa with the suckling Romulus and Remus!

I spent the afternoon with Shell and Carol. We got 1euro Chinese buns (siao pao!) and 0.75 centesimi gelato (it was half price at this gelato factory!). We revisited the church of Santa Maria Maggiore then they took me on Baroque-basics tour. We visited a church by architect Boromini, then one by Bernini, and I walked past the Quatro Fontane - very similar to the one in Palermo. We walked to Piazza Quirinale, then strolled over to the Pantheon, always a great night spot.

Thursday, December 3 I had my last site visit. I returned to Campidoglio for the second day in a row, though this time I studied its significance from the Renaissance perspective (WOW studying abroad in Rome is SO AMAZING!!). After I learned to appreciate the ingenious design of the piazza by Michelangelo, Paolo led us up to the top of the Vittorio Emanuele Monument to take in the rooftop view of this beautiful city. It struck a soft chord in my heart. This was my last lecture for fall 2009, and it ended at the spot where two months earlier I had first truly understood how much I had grown to love Rome. *Awwww moment* Yeup. The end is in sight.

Mom left early Monday morning November 16, 2009. My signora was nice enough to call an airport shuttle for her which only cost 20 euros (~$30)! Better than a 40 euro taxi (~$60) and definitely better than hauling all her luggage through 3 trains on public transportation for 12 euros ;P

I was half relieved, half regretting seeing her go. Relief sounds harsh, but try to understand - it is a bit difficult to have another person, ESPECIALLY a mom, come in and judge with outside American eyes the city and way of living that took me three months to learn to love. Italy itself is a good cause for culture shock, but I felt our experiences in Naples and Palermo unfairly posed skewed impressions of the Roman/Northern Italy I’ve fallen in love with. And yet, as I waved goodbye to her, walked back up stairs, and opened the door to my tiny ransacked room that housed us for two weeks, I was overcome with grief. It was truly a dream to have hosted her here with me, and the sadness of being left alone here to face my last, most difficult month scared me to my core.

I cried, obviously. Then on my way to school she called me from the airport - I cried two more times. By the time I got to school I was a mopey mess. My friends offered as much comfort as they could, and I felt a little better.

My emotions then took a back seat to the Everest of school work waiting for me. After three weeks frolicking around southern Italy and Rome, reality was ready to bite back with a vengeance.

My first paper was for Ancient Roman Civilization - 5 pages about the Great Fire of Rome in 64AD and it’s affect on Emperor Nero’s rule. I managed to crank it out in two days and by Wednesday (Nov. 18) I had jumped the first hurtle.

Then came a very stressful and unsettling weekend. Thursday I was in school from 10 - 4pm then church in the evening. Friday (Nov. 20) I spent the morning drafting the majority of my second essay, this one for Renaissance Art - 8 pages on Raphael’s 1504/1505 oil painting Vision of a Knight, aka An Allegory, aka The Dream of Scipio, due that Tuesday.

In the afternoon I went to a viewing, to support a choir member whose mother had passed away unexpectedly. I think going there exacerbated my already stressed state of mind. That night and the three subsequent nights (Fri, Sat, Sun and Monday) I couldn’t sleep. My body and mind, worn out by school and my internal battle of homesickness against sadness at the thought of leaving my life here in Rome, would not and could not rest. An uneventful Sunday afternoon brought my emotional instability and weariness full circle - the only thing I wanted was to escape the pressures of the week in the company of a few friends. But even that didn’t happen.

I’ve forgotten to mention - I had another paper due that same Tuesday as my Renaissance Art paper: a 12 pager for Gender in 20th Century Italy on Filipino immigration in Italy with an emphasis on Filipinas in domestic helper work. That Sunday night and Monday (Nov 22 & 23) I was a zombie. So much so that I even worried my friend Alex - she’s such a sweetheart!

But I managed to make it through. By 6pm on Tuesday (Nov. 24) I got the sweet taste of freedom! - and celebratory gelato! ;D Tuesday was a turning point for the better. It marked the end of a week of harsh reality after the surreality of second break. Wednesday (Nov. 25) was a chill day. I had a site visit to a 12th century church built on top of a 4th century Christian church built on top of a cult meeting place for the Cult of Mithras. Awesome stuff. Only in Rome!

I went for a short run in the afternoon to shake off the strains of the past week, and at night I went to watch New Moon with my friend Lyndon from church. It was... interesting. I never really was and still am not a fan of the Twilight Series. -Apologies girls, I’m Team Stephanie-Meyer-is-an-awful-writer. xP

Thursday, Nov. 26 - Happy Thanksgiving, America! Sadly, there was no turkey dinner in store for me. Instead, I had a pleasant lunch with Alex and Shell at this homey Italian restaurant to celebrate. Buonissimo!

Finally, on to yesterday, Friday, Nov. 27. I had a 6 hour site visit to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel with Renaissance Art. Tons of Raphael, tons of Michelangelo - I thought we’d never get through it all. I’m not even an art history major, but it was awesome to see face to face the paintings we had studied in class. It reminds me how lucky I am to have this opportunity to study here in Rome - the home of these magnificent works of art!

Afterwards I called up Alex and we ate dinner together at the same restaurant where we had our first official Italian meal. il Fico is the name, and we ate there in August with all 124 of the students on the program. We had fun talking and laughing and eating - it was a good meal. Later we got gelato and ended up talking until 11:15PM on a random bench by the Vatican. Hahaha. I love Rome!

AND NOW, my dear readers, I am OFFICIALLY caught up on this blog! :D yay! Thanks your patience, and thanks for reading!

School started early Tuesday morning, and mom came along with me. I showed her my normal home-to-school route. We strolled past the Castel di St. Angelo and soaked in the view of St. Peters Square from the bridge decorated with statues of angels. We had some extra time before class started so I took her for a quick tour of my favorite piazza - Piazza Navona.

After class we had an inexpensive traditional four-course Italian meal at a good restaurant in Trastevere. Spaghetti carbonara, house penne, fresh bruschetta, and rotisserie chicken were among the dishes we had. Well fed and happy we toured the Piazza della Bocca Della Verita where a Greek temple and Roman temple still stand (the same piazza I discovered after dropping of my friend Charles at the train station). It started to get chilly so we walked down the Circus Maximus and we took the metro back to the apartment to change.


I’m ashamed to say I had forgotten to charge my camera the night before so I don’t have any pictures of mom for the first half of the day. We charged my camera at the apartment, then headed out for a night on the Town.

We walked to Piazza del Popolo, down Via del Corso, and then to the Spanish Steps. I was surprised to find a tribute to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall decorating the Spanish Steps, awesome to see, but also a bit disappointing since that’s the only way Mom saw the Steps. We sat down and watched a rolling tribute film on the big screen, then we made our way to the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon. Despite the cold, I treated mom to her first Roman gelato from the best gelateria in Rome. It was a spectacular night, and I think mom began to understand why I love living here!

Wednesday 11.11.2009: Mom found St. Peters square all by herself while I was at class - I was so proud of her! hahaha. After I was done we ate at the Jewish Ghetto and strolled by the theater of Marcellus and Campo d’Oglio. I had originally intended to take her to the Roman Forum and the Colisseum that afternoon, but it was closing in an hour. So instead we went to Trajan’s forum - a first for me too. We headed back to Pantheon for a bit and then to Piazza Navona at night. We got pastries from the same paneria where I had gotten my 19th birthday cake, then headed home. My signora, Adriana, prepared dinner for us and we ate with her daughter Angela and her granddaughter Margherita. I really think mom got along very well with Adriana and the family, because Adriana took it upon herself to cook a delicious meal for her every night! I love my signora, and I think now Mom does too ;D

Thursday (12.11.2009) I had school all day long and Mom spent the day resting at the apartment. We went to church at night, and had dinner again with Adriana, Angela and three of Adriana’s oldlady friends. =)

Friday 13.11.2009 - We finally toured the Colisseum and the Roman Forum. We had an okay lunch by the Pantheon, and we walked all the same sites as Tuesday night so Mom could see it by day. I had a two hour site visit, during which Mom was off by herself. Apparently she got hit on several times by Italian men, so much so that she ended up taking refuge on a bench next to a college student, with whom she had a delightful conversation. My mama - the hot MILF. xD

Saturday and Sunday were pretty chill, mostly spent at church, but with a bit more touring sprinkled in. Mom got to see me perform in choir in Rome, and it was a special feeling to be able to worship together again. We did some last minute souvenir shopping, and packed her up to head back to the U.S. We ate dinner out to treat Adriana and Angela for being such great hosts. We went to their friend's seafood restaurant and ate some spectacular seafood pastas. The owner of the restaurant is actually the fresh fish vendor for the area too. So we were really eating the best Rome had to offer. It was a delicious meal, and not bad at all for the price we paid (apparently Adriana's son is the fish-market-restaurant-owner's lawyer... VIP!!) hahaha.

I think Mom enjoyed her three-leg vacation in Italy, and I loved having her here to share my experience with. From our Bay of Naples tour, to Sicily experiences, and culminating with a week in wonderful Rome, we had so much fun and saw so much together that I never thought was possible. It was a dream to have her with me, making my experience here in Rome feel all the more unreal. But I’m thankful to have shared it with her, because when I come home, she’ll be the one person that can assure me that the past four months actually happened!