yet another lizzie's blog flake-out

hi guys.  

I'm kind of embarrassed to delay catching up yet again, but it's now final week in more ways than one: we are taking final exams, and it's my final week in London.  

This means:

-my fingernails have been bitten completely off and my poor hands are a mess

-I've done lots of productive things like laundry and packing, but not studying

-I've once again perfected the art of online shopping

-my average time to complete a game of free-cell solitaire has been cut in half

-I'm feeling overconfident with absolutely no basis in reality about how easy these finals will be

-the need to dress up every day and fight the finals-week dress-like-a-slob trend has utterly taken over.

Lots to write about...LOTS.  

1. Brighton

2. Hampton Court

3. Thames cruise 

4. last few days at BBDO

5. Intro To London Theatre

6. PARIS...right.  I went there once upon a time.  

7. wine-tasting

8. Isaac's birthday party and the Migration Issues play

9. impromptu dinner parties

10. last thoughts on London in general

It's coming up eventually.  I'll probably just write endless amounts of blogs on the plane home and publish them all as soon as I'm back in the 612...Minnesota!  

In the meantime, I have to go read about innumerable criminal court cases and the various philosophies connected with them.  And maybe give myself a manicure in the process.  

Love you all!  :)

on sunshine and warmth and days in the park

Another short little catch-up blog because I'm in writing mode now and need a break from academic work.

On the fine and beautiful Friday before our Saturday Oxford trip, Nicolle, Kayla, Felicia and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and go have a picnic lunch in Hyde Park.  For those of you who are totally clueless about London geography, Hyde Park is London's version of Central Park...huge and beautiful and open and full of room and green space.  I love it.

We journeyed home from our Images class's trip to tour the National Theatre and put together our own little picnic...I brought a baguette with jam, Nutella, brie, Boursin, hummus and honey.  Exactly the lunch I ate every day in Paris...not that you would know that since I still haven't finished blogging about Paris...

the day went something like this:

pretty striped chairs

us girls in bright-colored tights

watching the world floating by on the Serpentine

and enjoying daffodils and blooming trees.

all in all, an absolutely perfect day :)

a day in the City of Dreaming Spires

Wikipedia on Oxford:

Oxford (pronounced /ˈɒksfərd/) is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in Southeast England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre. For a distance of some 10 miles (16 km) along the river, in the vicinity of Oxford, the Thames is known as The Isis.

Buildings in Oxford demonstrate an example of every British architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons, including the iconic, mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera. Oxford is known as the "city of dreaming spires", a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold in reference to the harmonious architecture of Oxford's university buildings. The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.

Lovely London Ladies @ Christ Church College

My thoughts on Oxford: 

We visited the city for a day trip with the Program in connection to the Archaeology and Ethics class.  Which I am not in.  The students in the class were expected to visit two different museums, the Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers, and evaluate lots of archaeological and ethical things.  I clearly did not have the knowledge base or inclination to do that.  Nor did the majority of our group.  

When we arrived at the Ashmolean at around 10:30 am, we quickly realized that we were going to get next-to-nothing out of the trip when we saw copies of various marble statues and busts we had just seen the originals of in Rome.  Yup.  We booked it straight to the Ashmolean Café, where we gobbled down croissants and chugged cappuccinos before ditching that museum like a bad prom date.  

Instead of lingering at the Museum of Bad Copies of Awesome Art We Saw In Rome, a big group of us headed to Christ Church College, which is really famous for a lot of reasons, but most importantly (for this blog anyway) for being used in the filming of the Harry Potter movies.  We all nerded out pretty intensely over things like Harry's dining hall, the staircase ascended by the first-years before they're Sorted, various campus locations we recognized as sites of Harry-Ron-Hermione interactions, and other more obscure but exciting Harry-related locales.  Kayla and I also had a wand-fight in the dining hall.  Because we're cool like that...

Expelliarmus!  Dueling in the dining hall.

After playing and having endless fun at Christ Church, we headed through their beautiful cathedral...burial place of John Locke, famous philosopher, and home to a lot of pretty beautiful architecture.  I loved it, and decided to challenge myself by reading the cathedral guide in French instead of English.  It was kinda fun...I love that this semester has enabled me to use so much more French.  Then...we went shopping.  

Outside the cathedral.  Isaac=pimpin'

We hit up the Alice in Wonderland store (Lewis Carroll was an inhabitant of Oxford!), then grabbed some traditional Cornish pasties for lunch at the Botanic Gardens.  This was the best best best part of the day because...

MY FAVORITE!

The entire gardens' ground was BRIMMING with DAFFODILS.  I went postal.  I was in heaven.  I went completely kindergarten on everybody and started jumping around like a little child.  It was a beautiful 65 degree day in England with abundant sunshine and I was having a picnic in a FIELD of my favorite flowers.  It was, in a word, perfect.  

That's the face of Lizzie Schwegman in BLISS.

I may or may not have even made a crown of daffodils as the world floated by in punts and paddle-boats along the river.  (We all did.  It wasn't just psycho me.  I promise!)

"And if you wrap yourself in daffodils..." -Counting Crows

We turned on some Beatles music and read some books and talked among great friends.  It was a pretty beautiful way to spend an afternoon.  After watching (and laughing with, and talking to) punters and passersby for nearly two and a half hours, we headed back to the buses to return to London.  It was, all in all, the best way to escape from the hectic crush of the city.  Oxford is so picturesque, quaint and incredibly beautiful.  I had the best day ever!!  

PS: if anybody from the Botanic Gardens ever asks, those daffodils were just lying on the ground, and we definitely would never have picked them.  Ever.  :)  

just like in Angels and Demons, Dad!

Okay.  Rome.  Easter Monday.  Enter the Four Musketeers: Phil, Mike, Courtney and Lizzie (that's me).

It's a bright and beautiful Easter Monday morning after all the nasty rain of Easter Sunday, and so the four of us rendezvous-ed at the Piazza di Risorgimento (the Piazza of My Misery, from Good Friday) to squeeze every last drop of touristing out of our time together before Courtney, then I, then Phil left Mike for our respective journeys either home or around Europe.  Since Courtney and I had shared our hostel that night, we had a nice, easy morning of packing up and getting ready to go before dropping our bags at the front desk and heading out to meet Mike, then Phil (late as usual, but what else is new!?)  :)

Since Courtney needed to depart for the airport much earlier than either Phil or myself, we decided that a quick espresso-and-pastry breakfast was in order before sending her off to Fiumicino Airport.  After attempting to hit up Mike's favorite Roman bakery (closed for Easter Monday) and his other second-favorite Roman bakery (also closed for Easter Monday), we headed to MY favorite tourist-trap "Roman" bakery, the Blues Café, right near the hostel.  This is where I bought six croissants and brought them to Easter Mass so we wouldn't starve.  The women who run the place, needless to say, were excited to see me back.

A quick ode to espresso:

Italian espresso, how do I love thee? 

Let me count the ways.

I love thee as an Americano watered down with lots of sugar.

I love thee as a frothy-delicious cappuccino with chocolate powder on top.

I love thee as a latté, though I can't tell the difference between a latté and cappuccino.

But I don't particularly love thee as a straight shot of pure espresso.

A bit too much horsepower for me.

Still, hopefully our love will grow.  

You're perfect and have gotten me off my "chick-coffee" ways.

Hooray!

Right, now that that embarrassment is over and I've appropriately celebrated the yumminess and caffeinated goodness of Italian coffee, let's continue onto the part where Courtney bids us farewell to return safely to Toledo.  Mike, Phil and I had decided that we wanted to go see the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Pope's castle, fortress and...well, that's pretty much it.  As my beloved, very literary (bahaha) father knows, the Castel Sant'Angelo played a pivotal role in Dan Brown's masterpiece of meritorious American literature, "Angels and Demons."  (That was sarcasm for any of you too thick to see that.  Dan Brown, while fun to read, is not in any way meritorious.)  

The Castel Sant'Angelo on our approach

We took a brisk walk through St. Peter's Square and along the Tiber until we reached the castle, which was beautifully devoid of lines.  Note: the beating of lines has been a theme of my time in Rome, a theme I much appreciated.  Win.  We waltzed right in and immediately started up the big wide cool ramp that the Pope's soldiers apparently used to ride their horses up and down in times of military unrest.  The castle was very dim and stony and cool, with lots of little trapdoors and chutes you could probably drop bodies down and dungeons that the Pope probably stuck his infidels in.  Clearly we were seeking knowledge, and not at all being immature, silly, or giddy with ridiculousness.  Because Phil, Mike and I take ourselves very seriously at all times.  Of course.  

My favorite guys being paragons of virtue and decorum, as always

On the first level of the castle was a series of rooms decorated by a Barberini pope, or, as I termed them, the Bumblebinis.  Mike can appreciate my adoration.  Very few others can.  We got to see some very nice reliquaries, chalices, thingies used in religious affairs, and various other artifacts of Papal awesomeness.  We also got to see some bad-ass armor.  And the Pope's treasure room.  I enjoyed it but was at this point a little sightseeing'ed-out, and was having way more fun just goofing around with two of my best friends.  Mike, as usual, did an amazing job of explaining the significance of anything he could identify and knew things about, which made me feel like I wasn't being a total waste of oxygen and religious appreciation...and Phil just made me laugh a lot, which is always nice.  

Mike and Phil with the Pope's balls.  We had a fun, off-color joke-making time with that one.

We continued to make our way up the castle, which basically keeps spiraling up until you reach the top, crowned by the Archangel Michael.  On the way, we learned about the restoration of the Papal apartments through an interactive touch-screen computer display that was intended for the ten-and-under crowd, and therefore (of course) amused me way more than it should have.  We finally emerged on the top of the castle to an absolutely awesome view:

Overlooking the Vatican City with Phil and Mike.  The Popes of old had a great view!

We spent a good amount of time up there in the windy wind enjoying the view and the company.  You could see for miles, and I had fun trying to pick out the various monuments we'd visited and explored over the past few days...I could see the Coliseum, Pantheon, National Monument, part of the Forum, and the Royal Palace of Justice.  It was nice to be able to spend a little time just hanging out and having fun with a few of my bff's, and it made me even more ready to be back on campus with ALL my favorite people, as much as I love the friends I've made in the London Program.  

"okay guys, now SMOOSH!"

While the exploring of the castle was reallyreally fun, we decided to head out (laughing at how ridiculously long the line had gotten in the meantime) and go get some authentic Roman pizza and, of course, gelato before I had to head out.  On our way out of the castle, we found this guy, who looked startlingly familiar...

Avada Kedavra!

Who knew Voldemort liked to hang out with the Popes?!  We had a laugh at that one, then rocked and rolled off to a pizzeria Mike knew and liked.  

In Rome, pizzas are cut with a scissors...pardon me, Phil, with a PAIR of scissors...and then served folded in half.  I love it.  I had super good four-cheese and tomato pizza and it was cheap, filling and delicious.  Best part?  I still had room for a triple-cone of Nutella, tiramisu and dark chocolate gelato at Millenium Gelato (best gelato in Rome, Old Bridge can suck it!) before saying goodbye to my favorite guys.  I was more than a little sad to go.  I may or may not have almost cried on the Metro.  I may or may not have definitely cried a little bit on the Metro.  

Okay, fine.  I cried on the Metro.  

Met up with Nicolle, Martin, Joey, Anne, and a few other Londoners to catch our bus to Ciampino, where it felt like we encountered about 1/3 of the London Program waiting to board our flight.  I re-read "The Blind Side" for the fourth time this semester while we waited, and then we took our dinky little bus out to the plane and boarded.  Flight was uneventful and beautiful...awesome scenery out the window.

somewhere over the French Alps.  

All things said and done, Rome was the most perfect vacation I could possibly have contemplated.  I would be hard-pressed to say that it was better than my spring break, but being with my best friends, enjoying amazing weather, drinking and eating great wine and food, celebrating Easter with the Pope, and having a general blast gave SB2010 a run for its money.  The two trips are definitely tied :)  

If we want to get to talking about favorite cities, now that's a different story.  You can't tell Paris, because Paris always will have a special place in my heart, but Rome may have been my favorite.  In fact, I'm pretty sure it is.  

That's all for now.  Time to go get another cup of tea and a Früsli bar before I keep catch-up going strong!

what to expect: coming up shortly

Well, blog-followers (if there are any of you left),
Last time we met I was stressing out over papers and schoolwork.  What a change of tune from the semester, which has often felt like all play and no work!  It's weird to be stressed or worried about something as trivial as school when I'm in London and the world is my playground.  At any rate, I now have major blog catch-ups to do, so you can expect updates on:
1. the rest of Easter in Rome
2. my day in Brighton yesterday
3. London Theatre
4. BBDO shenanigans
5. my day-trip to Oxford
6. playtime in Hyde Park
7. the Bibendum Bordeaux wine-tasting last Wednesday
8. Isaac's birthday dinner and the "Children of the Migrant Moon" play
9. my foray into the dangerous world of the London Anthropologie
10. that one time over spring break when I went to Paris almost a month and a half ago and never finished blogging about it...yeah, remember that?

So.  Now it's time to get cracking.  I've got my cup of Waitrose-blend tea, the sweet tunes of Michael Bublé crooning in the background, and a nice clean room to write in.  For all you loyal readers (haha) waiting for updates on my life thus far, peel your eyes and stay close to your computer monitor.  I've got a lot of free time in the next nine hours to write bloggity blogs and you better brace yourselves!

Dear World,

I haven't died, just fallen down the rabbit hole for the time being into an alternate universe where all I do is write papers.  And edit papers.  And write more papers.  And edit more papers.  And then sometimes go intern and screw up work I should be doing with both eyes closed and then generally make a fool out of myself.  And then go to useless review sessions.  And then write more papers.  

I'm still breathing and mostly sane, and I will be back from Paperland around this time tomorrow.  I hope.  Til then, as the Brits say, "keep calm and carry on!"

Love,

Lizzie in Paperland

an epic day of London Tourism

So as the entire WORLD has heard, there's this little volcano in Iceland that nobody can pronounce...and that little volcano decided to be awful and erupt at the most inopportune possible time.  As a direct result of Mr. Icelandic Volcano, all UK airspace has been shut down since Thursday...17,000 flights in, around, and to/from Europe have been disrupted so far...and I missed my weekend trip to Austria to go see one of my bffs, Phil.  I know that was such a minor disruption compared to other people's situations but I was super bummed.  To make up for the disappointment of missing a weekend in the Alps and all the fun that would have entailed, Coleen, Isaac and I went epic London-touristing yesterday.

We started off at Portobello Road Market again because it was possibly the nicest day we've had yet in London...the high temp was 66 for the day and the buckets of sunshine pouring over London actually made me a little bit tanned.  All my freckles popped out again for the summer, which is always fun.  Nicolle, who joined us for the market, had never been and she and Isaac had a great first time.  Coleen and I in the meantime knew exactly where and what we wanted to hit up...vintage, antiques, jewelry, and the clothes.  Then we stopped for a crepe at one of the Portobello Crepe stands (mmm) and met up with Isaac to continue to the next leg of our day: the Tower of London!

The Tower of London is a hugely multi-faceted complex: royal palace, prison, treasure repository, history museum, and barracks for the Yeoman Warders, the guardians and tour guides of the Tower.  I LOVE the Tower of London.  When I was in London senior year of HS, it was one of my favorite parts of the trip because I am just such a nerd.  With architecture dating back as far as 1080, the Tower has played host to some of the most dramatic moments and dastardly prisoners in English history.  The princes in the tower?  That was there.  Henry VIII's wives' executions?  The Tower.  Guy Fawkes?  Tower.  Sir Walter Raleigh?  Tower.  Every public execution from the 1400s-1700s (and there were a LOT)?...that's right.  The Tower of London hosted them all.  I am such a super-geek that I knew all the stories almost as well as our awesome tour guide.

If you ever do go to the Tower of London, take the Yeoman Warder Tour! It's free with the price of admission and these guys are seriously amazing.  To be a Yeoman Warder you have to serve at least 20 years of distinguished military service in Her Majesty's Army and receive certain accolades and awards for bravery and courage and exemplary performance of duty.  The Yeoman Warders are hilariously funny, incredibly knowledgeable and incredibly historic.  Our tour was so much fun.

We spent our time at the Tower learning about its history from our Yeoman Warder, then went to see the Crown Jewels.  Wow.  Holy BLING is all I can say.  Even though I had seen them before, it never fails to blow your mind.  We read all about the different jewels, then went around looking at them three separate times on the moving walkway.  Yup.  After the Crown Jewels we explored the White Tower, home of the 5-century collection of royal armor, and the tower in which the two princes' bones were uncovered.  Rumor has it that they still haunt the tower and you can hear their laughter sometimes...so of course the Tower tourism people played that up and piped a track of children laughing into the area where you can see the bones were hidden.  I jumped about a MILE when it first played, no joke.  The Royal Armor was really cool but I got bored after a while...there's only so much you can say about how fat Henry VIII was and how hard it was to make him good armor because of it.  So we went to the Bloody Tower, overlooking Traitor's Gate, and saw where Sir Walter Raleigh lived in his time imprisoned in the Tower.  Pretty cool stuff.

After the Tower of London, we headed over to Kensington for Mass at the Brompton Oratory, one of the biggest and most beautiful Catholic churches in London.  I really enjoyed the environment of the church but the homily really rubbed me the wrong way as it was more of a political adjunction (Vote for people who will restrict gay rights and make it impossible to get an abortion!) than an illumination of the significance of any of the readings...and the Gospel today was one of my favorites, about Jesus filling Peter's fishing nets after the Resurrection.  So I was a bit disappointed but the church was still absolutely beautiful.  My awesome dad (who had hurt feelings because I don't talk enough about him here!) made a comment last night about how it sounded like I am really loving the church-going here...and that's very true.  I've been spoiled for beautiful churches, choirs, and Masses, and I really love it over here in that sense.  It's unbelievable to see how their religion has inspired so many people to make such incredible monuments to faith and worship.  Not to mention it's way more fun to attend Mass in a beautiful and historic church than some dull modernist hole (cough All Saints cough).

Mass was ended and we went in peace to love and serve the Lord...and fill our stomachs.  Kate (of SB2010 fame) had made some AMAZING Mexican food for dinner...homemade guacamole, fajitas, and tequila sunrises, with the English interpretation of flan for dessert.  Oh my gosh.  Yumness to the nth degree.  Tequila sunrise may be my new favorite chick drink.  After gorging ourselves, everybody else was ready to head out but I was ready to drop dead...especially as I have two papers to write today.  I went back to my flat, talked to my parents for a LONG time (love you both!) and went to bed nice and early.  I still can't wait for my home mattress though...ahhh anticipatory thoughts.

Long blog short:  Iceland, you suck.  England, you make up for it.  Mexico, your food is great.  Austria, it would've been real.  America, see you in 20 days...if Iceland stops sucking.

the golden days

I only have three weeks left in Europe.  Cue sad face.  

I'm very excited to go home.  Don't get me wrong, there are so many things I love and miss about America, and so many things I have come to dislike about London (cost of living, homicidal drivers, constant rain, to name a few).  But those things I dislike about London pale in comparison to the magic of being young and living in Europe and having absolutely not a care in the world beyond finishing a super-easy paper or finding a cheap flight to the next weekend destination.  I'm going to be so sad to leave London, as excited as I am to see my family and friends.  Looking back on this semester, I realize just how lucky I've been to have this experience, and have it the way I have had it...interning, making some amazing new friends (both in the program and among Europeans!), using my French, visiting my best friends all over Europe, seeing the world on a shoestring budget and loving it anyway.  

I've drunk cheap wine, dined on the most innovatively cheap meals possible, and cut costs wherever I can, and it has been so worth it.  I've seen amazing plays and musicals.  I've visited museums I'd only read about in books and seen innumerable works of art, artifacts, and relics.  I've pub-hopped, clubbed and socialized in bars like a real grown-up.  I've mastered public transportation and traveling alone.  I've heard Mass in some of the most famous churches in Christendom.  I've learned to budget and watch money more effectively than ever.  I've gained work experience I couldn't possibly have gotten in the States that will look amazing on a résumé.  I've created memories and stories that will last a lifetime.  

I know I'm getting really sentimental but I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with my mom (who turns 50 today! Happy birthday Mom!) talking about life in general and it made me realize just how fortunate I've been.  I have the best family.  I have the best friends.  I have the best life.  I only hope everything continues to be as golden and wonderful as it has thus far.  

Anecdotes from an amazing week:

1. On Monday at BBDO I put together the budget for a 100-person worldwide company conference in Madrid this July...and my supervisor told me it was "phenomenal." On Tuesday Steph and I worked together all day to totally redesign the system for expense claims and automate it.  Again, we got a great review on our work, and being able to speak up about why we'd done what we'd done made me feel like a huge contributor to a project that will actually have long-term impacts for the company.  I love my job!!

2. On Tuesday night we saw an absolutely amazing play called "London Assurance" at the National Theatre for my London Theatre class, with two of the best comic actors in the UK, Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw (who played Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter movies).  It was absolutely beyond critique...perfect acting, a beautiful set, great costume design, a plot that kept you riveted and laughing the whole way through.  Our professor called it "a show of glee incarnate" and I agree 100%.  One of the best plays I've ever seen.  I smiled the entire rest of the night!

3. On Wednesday I received flowers at the London Centre from somebody special :) and they were gorgeous and made me happy.  I also discovered Monmouth Coffee Company, the "best coffee in London," and found out that the reputation is true.  Best cappuccino I've ever had...and second-best croissant (the first best being in Paris, of course).  If you are ever going to find yourself in London, ESPECIALLY if you are in the London Program, go to Monmouth Coffee Co.  It's right on the way to class from K-M and it's to-die-for.

4. "Glee" is back and I love it.  Peter, Colin and I watched it Wednesday night and it was so great.  So so great.  :)

5. Today after London Theatre class, a bunch of girls went to Bea's of Bloomsbury for tea and cupcakes.  Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  And black-vanilla tea.  Oh my goodness, my taste buds died and went to heaven.  I also made a new friend, Laura, who will live right down the hall from me next year.  I'm so excited now for a year that sounds like it will be full of amazing ladies and lots of good times.  

I just feel happy all the way through right now.  I can't wait to see how much I can get out of these next three weeks...hopefully everything continues to be as great as it's been so far.  Sending lots of love radiating out around the world...because happiness like this should be contagious :)

ECIII: Buona Pasqua!

Okay now I'm caught up through to Easter Sunday, when I arose at the buttcrack of dawn (6:30am!) to get ready to go to Easter Mass at the Vatican, presided over by my new favorite guy ever, Il Papa...The Pope!  :)  We set out around 7:30 to stop for espresso and croissants at a little café across from our hostel, then joined the hordes of people waiting to get into St. Peter's Square.  Think airport security, only more religious...

Once inside the square, Phil, Mike, Courtney and I proceeded to our seats, obtained courtesy of Notre Dame (our group had a block of tickets, yeeeah!).  Almost as soon as we sat down it started obnoxiously on-and-off raining, drizzling, misting...call it what you will, but I left London to get away from it, not to sit through four hours of Mass and blessings in it.  We soon figured out that all our umbrellas open at once in a row just meant we all got dripped on by each other...so Phil and I pioneered a very innovative system where his umbrella covered our heads and mine covered his knees...Mike and Courtney shared on my other side, and we all stayed moderately dry for the Mass.

Again, Mass felt more like a giant circus than a holy service, especially with crazy Asians with golf umbrellas standing on their chairs to snap pictures of the Pope.  (I was guilty of mucho photo-taking too, but I didn't stand on my chair to do it.  So there, Asia.)  The square was absolutely filled with people, which was a really fantastic sight.  Poetically, the rain stopped just in time for Communion, and it was a mad rush to get the Eucharist...I ended up being one of the last people in our group who did before they ran out.  That's right, the Vatican ran out of Communion.  So much for planning ahead?...

After Mass, the Pope did the "Urbis et Orbis," blessing the crowd in about 30 different languages and proclaiming that Christ has risen.  It was a beautiful thing to witness, even though I couldn't understand his English at all in the crowd...everybody got really excited when they heard their language called, and Benedict was pretty impressive on his fancy balcony.  All in all, my Easter Sunday experience made me glad to be Catholic, and was just overall really humbling/staggering/mindblowing.  I felt so lucky to be there...celebrating the holiday that our religion is founded upon, in the center of that religion, under the eye of the leader of that religion.  So amazing. :)

After Mass, some of the lovely Rome band girls offered to make Easter Brunch at their apartment, so we headed back there to dry off, warm up and have an Easter feast!  The food was simple, delicious and filling, the company was wonderful, and the time to catch up was much appreciated.  As weird as it was to spend an Easter away from my family, spending it with my band family was the next best thing, as cheesy as that sounds.  Mike also taught us a really fun Italian card game called "scuppa."  I kicked ass.  

After brunch and a bit of cleanup, the Fabulous Foursome (Phil, Mike, Courtney and myself) headed to the Coliseum for a damp afternoon of gladiator-style fun!  Pictures really don't do the sheer size of the Coliseum justice...mostly because you can't get the whole Coliseum IN a picture.  It was really cool.  I nerded out pretty hardcore over the exhibits of gladiatorial armor and weaponry with the guys, then we went out into the main amphitheater where we walked around a lot, took A LOT of touristy pictures, and may or may not have staged an epic gladiator battle, where Mike redeemed himself after his loss in the Circus Maximus.  Then we also may or may not have climbed all over ruined statue pedestals.  The Coliseum, in short, was a really good time had by all.  :)

Post-Coliseum, we got Courtney's hostel situation sorted out and moved her into mine...because any hostel, no matter the price, is better than a sketchy night sleeping in an airport.  Then we started having epic dinner adventures, trying to find a place to go that was a: open on Easter evening, b: reasonably priced, and c: not a total tourist trap.  We succeeded on all counts, finally stumbling onto a cute little restaurant near the Campio di Fiori, a big bar district.  Dinner was awesome because:

1. it was really, really good.  I had seafood ravioli in pink sauce that was a revelation and the menfolk had really great lamb.

2. the wine was really, really good.  

3. the waiter was really, really drunk. No, not kidding.  Like really drunk.  He poured the wine so haphazardly that I was afraid it would spill...and he DID spill our after-dinner grappa.  And he kept hitting on Courtney.  Hilariously so.

4. Grappa.  Oh wow.  He recommended the strongest version of this super-distilled after-dinner wine, calling it "grappa for the men...and power women," indicating me.  Great.  Now I'm a power-woman, and can drink like a man.  Baha.  Anyway, it was about as pleasant as drinking straight rubbing alcohol...not to mention you're supposed to get about a shot's worth and he gave us entire champagne flutes full.  We lingered over our grappa for a VERY long time...and my sniffly, stuffy nose was completely cleared by the end of my drink.  Bahaha.  Such fun.

After a thoroughly excellent dinner full of laughter, drunkenness (on others' parts) and catching up, I had just been reaffirmed in the belief that I have the best friends in the world, and that I miss all my campus friends like nobody's business.  Can't wait to see all of you this Senior Week.  :D  We were very full and very tired at this point so we wandered through Campio di Fiori for a little while then headed home, agreeing to rendezvous for our last day together at a decent hour of the morning...more sleep, MMM.  

10 Morals of my Easter Sunday:

1. Always be prepared for the elements.  That umbrella saved my LIFE.

2. If you want to be Pope, you better be fluent in a bunch of languages, and able to pretend to know a bunch more.

3. Asian tourists.  Grrrrr.

4. Grappa is better used as cold medicine than as alcohol drunk for pleasure.

5. Gladiator fights and statue pictures are ALWAYS a good idea.

6. Brunch is an under-appreciated meal.

7. Drunk waiters are better than sober waiters.

8. ND can get whatever it wants.

9. The Coliseum is really really big.  Huge, in fact.

10. I have the best friends ever.

ECII: Uscita lato…destro?

Saturday in Rome dawned bright and beautiful…I have never been so excited about nice weather before in my whole entire life!  (That’s a lie.  I’m always excited about nice weather.)  Still, this was particularly novel after months of London fog, rain and cloud-cover.  Sun! 

Since we had toured the Vatican Museums on Friday, Phil, Mike, Courtney and I were all able to sleep in a bit more than the rest of the ND “pilgrims,” who had an 8am entry time for the Vatican Museum tour.  GROSS!  Instead, we met up at 10am at Cipro, Mike’s Metro stop, to adventure to the top of the cupola (dome) of St. Peter’s!

That's right.  We were going up there.  Yup.

We got there, and the line was massive…wrapped all the way around St. Peter’s Square.  So we did what every self-respecting American college-student/tourist would do…cut in line. Very subtly, very neatly and not drawing any attention to ourselves.  Still, some stinky tour guide took it upon herself to harangue us for cutting the line…after we’d been in line about 10 minutes.  Needless to say I was NOT going to the back of the queue, so I firmly explained that we had been in line just as long as she had…and that she had just missed seeing us because we were on the other side of the (very wide) queue from her.  She shut up and left us alone…haha.  I was proud of myself for sticking to my guns, even if we were sort of kind of maybe in the wrong. 

Anyway, we waited an hour and a half in all to begin the climb up the Cupola.  It was a fun wait in which we talked a lot, caught up, got squished a whole bunch against other pushy-shovy tourists, and discovered the Italian Jay Leno.  Much fun.  We finally started the ascent, which actually freaked me out a bit…you are REALLY high up even when you’re only like…halfway up.  We climbed some annoying spiraly ramp stairs, then came out on the roof of the Basilica which was really cool.  Then we went inside the Dome…Cupola…whatever the technical name is…and had a fantastic birds-eye view of the interior of St. Peter’s…

We were SO high up!

Then it was time to climb inside the actual dome itself.  I was a tiny bit freaking.  A lot, actually.  Thanks Mike, for talking to met he whole time…you kept me sane, buddy :)  The weirdest part was when the walls and stairs started to slant to the side following the curve of the dome…it was so bizarre and felt like something kooky out of Alice in Wonderland, haha!  At any rate, we finally got to the top…and oh, my god…was it ever worth it. 

Yours truly with St. Peter's Square and Rome in the background!

We spent a long time atop the Cupola appreciating the beautiful views of the Vatican and Rome spread out underneath us, then started the trek DOWN the cupola…which was actually harder (I fell.  Boo.)…then we toured the actual Basilica.  SO huge.  SO remarkable.  SO incredibly gorgeous.  We saw Michelangelo’s “Pieta,” which was staggeringly beautiful, and the tombs of many popes, and just the general architecture and atmosphere of the church.  I loved it!  After we finished the interior of the Basilica di San Pietro, we went DOWN into the Papal Tombs, which are under the Basilica itself.  I saw John Paul II’s tomb and words can’t describe.  Not to mention the even cooler experience of seeing the entry to St. Peter’s tomb, which is down in the Scavi even further beneath the Basilica.  It was such a trip walking over the rock upon which the Catholic Church is built…aaaagh. 

the interior of St. Peter's...pretty unbelievable, huh?

Now for my imbecile moment…being the sleep-deprived traveler I was, I elected to give up breakfast for the more important benefit of an extra 20 minutes of sleep.  As we had eaten an early-ish dinner at Mike’s, and as the Cupola/St. Peter’s/Popes’ tombs took a REALLY, REALLY long time, it was approaching 2:30 by the time we even got out of the Vatican.  I was absolutely famished…almost 20 hours without eating is a REALLY poor life choice.  Phil is doing the McDonald’s Challenge (eating Mickey D’s in every country), so we took some lovely public transit (uscita lado…d’estro? is the Italian equivalent of “mind the gap!”) over to the first McDonald’s in Italy, conveniently located near the Spanish Steps, another destination I had to hit.  By the time we had navigated the public transit and absolutely insane lines at McD’s, it was 3:30 and I was getting really hungry, bitchy and insufferable…needless to say, my friends were really happy when I finally had some food in me and was nicer.  :)

After McD’s, we blitzed through the following essential tourist destinations:

1. Spanish Steps: super super crowded, super beautiful, lots of flowers and sun and fountains. 

"Those damn Spanish Steps!" -Grandma Lois 

2. Designer District: I saw a woman wearing the same Valentino ensemble that Valentino was currently displaying in their window.  Then I laughed.

3. Trevi Fountain: We threw our coins in!  One for Roma, two for love.  :)  I hope they both come true!

Fontana di Trevi!  

4. The Pantheon: It’s huge.  And there’s a hole in top.  And it was so crowded we couldn’t even get to the other side.  I still thought it was awesome, though.

The Pantheon!  An architectural miracle!

5. The Circus Maximus: Home to ancient Rome’s foot races and chariot races (I think) and stuff, Mike and Phil had their own spring race.  Phil won, which means Mike gets fed to the lions later.  Kidding…

After all this touristy running around Rome, we booked it to the Roman Forum and Palatine, which is where ancient Roman emperors and politicians lived, played and worshiped.  IT WAS SO COOL.  I was being such a total dork over the awesomeness of the ruins.  One of the emperors, Nero, had a private indoor island, moat and made a 35-foot statue to himself.  The whole imperial house complex was gigantic and made me reconsider my desire to be a French princess at Versailles…or marry into the house of Windsor…maybe I should go back in time and be an empress in the Roman Empire ;) 

Ruins of the Imperial Forum.  Pretty bad-ass!

The big part of the Forum, the old ruined temples, was my favorite.  Mike knew a ton about the ruins and who each temple was dedicated to, and we had a really good time playing in ruins and making generally touristy fools of ourselves. 

The Forum ruins at sunset.  Amazing.

By the time we finished the Forum, we were starving again (surprise, surprise) so Mike took us to Trastevere (what he called “real Rome”) for a great, great 3-hour Italian dinner at Tony’s…yes that is the real name of the restaurant, haha!  I had chicken parmigiana that was seriously the best chicken parm I’ve ever had ever.  Mmmm I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.  After we killed a bottle of the house wine, we also got limoncello on the house…really yum.  I was a fan.  Our waiter recommended a gelato place 30 feet up the road, so we got gelato (another theme of my time in Rome) and walked down to the Tiber Island.

The gang's all here...dinner at Tony's!

 After finishing our gelato on the banks of the Tiber watching the world go by, we headed out to the island itself.  Had some fun exploring the island, accidentally interrupting romantic trysts, and making “Angels and Demons” jokes…the island is the one that Robert Langdon “washed up on” at the end of the book.  I was thinking about my papa bear all weekend :)  We ended up all grabbing some ground on a pretty little hill and just spending an hour talking and talking and talking (and stargazing!  It’s been so long since I’ve seen real stars!)…I can’t even explain how much it felt like coming home to be spending time with some of my favorite people in the world.  We actually talked a ton about all the people back on campus and how much we miss them…so if you’re on campus and you’re reading this, we missed you then and miss you now.  Then we headed back home again, and I passed out in bed sleeping like a BABY.  Early Easter morning awaited us!

Epic catchup part 1: Roma Reunion!

WOW, so I haven’t written for over a week…call it a combination of blogger’s block, extreme exhaustion, and a week that was particularly hectic and stressful for a multitude of reasons.  Suffice it to say you can expect an absolute blitz of bloggy catch-up here, so stay tuned for the next few days before I head off for Austrian adventures!

Two weekends ago (geez, time flies) as I mentioned, I was in Venice and ROMA for Easter weekend.  To get to Rome, I had to take the night train from Venice…departed at 11:30 pm, arrived at 6:30 am.  I was supposed to have a private 4-person sleeper car with three other women…instead I got stuck in with three drunk, crazy Greek guys who kept trying to get me drunk off Limoncello.  Needless to say, I didn’t exactly sleep much.  Haha.  At the time it wasn’t funny but the further I get from the situation the more humorous it seems :)

I got to Rome absolutely exhausted at 6:30am and took the Metro (I love public transit!) to Ottaviano, my stop.  As I was completely worn out, tired of being alone, and a little frazzled, I went to try to go find my hostel…and couldn’t find it.  I found the building it was in, but it was not listed on the buzzer panel on the left side of the door.  I flipped out and went to sit in the Piazza di Risorgimento, right across the street.  So I spent the next half hour there on a bench under a big statue of a horse, looking at the Vatican (I could see St. Peter’s from my hostel, nbd) and trying to decide if I wanted to burst into tears or not.  I texted everybody I could think of who was in Rome and was like “HELP!  I am tired and alone and lost and I WANT TO GO TO BED!” but at 7am, of course nobody responded.  So I went to find a little café where I had a 1-euro espresso and cried/whined to the proprietor, an awesome old man, for like an hour.  I was all, “Sono solo, sono perduto, sono triste” and he was all, “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay,” before he finally told me that my hostel was in the building I thought it was in, but the buzzer was on the right side of the door.  I was effusively grateful, found the hostel, grabbed a bed and absolutely CRASHED until noon.  Mmmmmm sleep. 

I can’t even begin to describe the happiness of going to the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which is the real seat of the Pope, and being reunited with Mike and Phil…it was absolutely the best feeling ever, especially after 36 hours of total solitude.  We (along with Courtney) decided we were way too cool for the guided ND tour, complete with hordes of London-Programers and a giant ND flag, so Mike took us on our own guided tour!  We saw St. John Lateran, where the skulls of St. Peter and Paul are, then walked over to the Scala Sancta, or Holy Steps…the stairs that Jesus ascended on the way to be judged and condemned by Pilate.  Most pilgrims go up them on their knees, but as it was Holy Week we walked up the side staircase on foot instead of waiting in the insanely long line.  Then we headed over to another church whose name I am forgetting at the moment, to see the Passion Relics…only it was closed for Mass.  Boo. 

Basilica of St. John Lateran--so beautiful!

Instead of doing that, we took the Metro in the general direction of the Vatican, and got the BEST. GELATO. EVER. at Millennium Gelato, Mike’s favorite place, and decided to try to see the Vatican Museum.  Usually, the line to get in to the museum (which includes the “School of Athens,” “Laocoon and Sons,” my sister’s favorite sculpture ever, and the Sistine Chapel) wraps around two or three sides of the Vatican walls…so it was absolutely amazing that we literally walked up to the door around 3pm and walked right into the museum.  YES win #1 for Team Bandies. 

Coconut and mango gelato at Millennium Gelato.  YUM.

The Vatican Museum was absolutely unbelievable…we’re talking phenomenal ceilings in every room (I think I have a thing for ceilings, judging by the number of pictures of them that I take)…mindblowingly large collections of sculpture just lined up in these amazing rooms…baptismal fonts, Papal rings, chalices, reliquaries and other Catholic equipment…and the artwork.  Aaaaah.  The only thing I disliked is that you literally HAVE to go through a million-and-two different galleries before you can get to the Sistine Chapel…and some of those galleries were really odd, like “Modern Art of the Church” which was NOT my cup of tea.  It was so worth it in the end though. 

The four bandies outside the Vatican Museums.  St. Peter's in the background...

The Sistine Chapel was indescribable.  I know the ceiling gets all the credit, but the walls and the window vaults are similarly incredible.  One side of window vaults tells the story of Moses, and the other tells the Passion, while the wall at the end shows the Final Judgment, with Jesus surrounded by every saint at the time it was painted…utterly mind-blowing.  It was insanely crowded with tourists, and the guards kept yelling “Silence!! NO PHOTOS!” which sort of detracted from the reverent, respectful atmosphere they were trying to create.  Oh, Italians.  :)  I still snuck a few photos….shh, don’t turn me in to the Swiss Guard!

The Sistine Chapel...illegally taken.  Look at that crowd!

After the Vatican Museum, we bought some pasta sauce and noodles at a supermarket and went back to Mike’s apartment to cook up some dinner before Stations of the Cross at the Coliseum that night.  It was great to just catch up with Mike, Phil and Courtney…bandies, I miss you ALL so much.  We then headed over to the Coliseum, obscenely late to meet the giant ND group.  So we didn’t.  :) This quickly became a theme of the weekend!  Instead we took a brief whirlwind walk-past of the Roman Forum and the National Monument on our way over to the Coliseum.

The crush of humanity at the Coliseum was overwhelming…there were SO many people there, waiting to see the Pope and hear Stations.  We jammed in behind some really funny German tourists and settled in to wait for about an hour and a half.  It was so worth it though, as I got to see the Pope!!!

Pope Benedict XVI leading Stations of the Cross 

Benedict XVI in the flesh!  I know it probably sounds sacrilegious but he is utterly adorable in the cutest old-man way.  I just want to hug him, except that’s probably a sin.  He presided over Stations (if that’s what you call it) and the crowd went wild for him.  Stations, overall, felt more like a circus than a reverent pageant, which was kind of odd…but I enjoyed it, especially picking up fragments of the Our Father in Latin and remembering it in French.  Mike also really enhanced the experience for me by translating bits of each station, which were read in Italian. 

After it ended, we all split off to head home…leaving Phil at Largo d’Argentina to catch his tram, Mike, Courtney and I walked to a Metro stop, stopping at the Trevi Fountain along the way!!  It was just as gorgeous as it is in every movie I’ve ever seen it in…although much more crowded.  We skipped tossing coins in for the time being…

Soon I was home, tucked in bed and absolutely zonked out.  It felt soooo good to sleep.  Happily, our Roman adventures had just begun!  

one short day...in the watery city!

My Easter Break started off in a somewhat unorthodox manner…I had decided way back at the beginning of the semester to go to Venice and ended up going there alone last Thursday for the day before taking a night train to Rome that evening.  Needless to say, being the worrywart I am and having the travel record I’ve racked up over this semester, I was more than a little apprehensive about traveling alone.  Add to that the fact that I had booked a 6:30 am flight out of Stansted Airport (an hour at least out of London) and you’re looking at a very sleepless Wednesday night…

I left the flats around 2am, caught a bus to Victoria Station, and the madness started right away.  Nobody could tell me where to catch the National Express bus to Stansted, and I mean NO ONE.  Not the station officials, not the policemen roving the street, not the National Express bus drivers themselves (who were utterly unhelpful and rude, boo)…I ended up wandering around the Victoria area at 2:45am completely lost, flipping out, until I finally found the bus stop…across the street and down a block.  BOO, Victoria Station.  You’re now 2 for 2 in screwing me over.

Got to Stansted, then to Venice, uneventfully…caught a bus to the central train station, bought my night rail ticket right away, and wiped out on the very first bridge I tried to cross.  Leave it to the most uncoordinated girl in the universe to embarrass herself by falling down on a pedestrian bridge in Venice…gah!  After I dusted myself off I decided that the day needed to start off on a better foot…with gelato.  At this point it was about 11:30 so it was the perfect time for a sugar cone of fragola (strawberry) gelato and some people watching right on the train station’s main piazza.  It was so crowded, so sunny, so warm and beautiful that everybody was out…what a wonderful start to a day!

After I finished the first of many Easter weekend gelatos, I bought myself a Venice map, which turned out to be utterly useless, and set off for the Rialto Bridge and Piazza di San Marco…St. Mark’s Square.  Venice, built on water, was not designed to be navigated on foot, not even by the most intrepid map reader…which I am not.  I was lost within about ten minutes, but luckily the gelato sugar-high had me thinking that it was a great adventure and not a great reason to panic.  Instead I wound through picturesque, narrow streets with pastel buildings and wrought-iron balconies, crossed side canals on beautiful little bridges, listened to the sound of seagulls and gondoliers and enjoyed the sunshine.  I

I totally fell in love with Venice while I wandered around…every new turn in a street was a new and picturesque church, piazza, or canal, and before I knew it I must have stumbled into the shopping district…suddenly every narrow street housed a market or was lined with shop windows.  Authentic Venetian masks…cashmere-lined leather gloves…handmade lace…Murano glass…it was so much fun to window-shop and look at everything…and I confess, I may have been really really tempted to make a purchase…but I held out, thankfully!

Finally I emerged from central Venice’s labyrinth of super-confusing streets and found myself staring head-on at the Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal.  What a gorgeous sight!  Open air restaurants lined both sides of the canal, there were dozens of gondoliers and vaporettos (water taxis) filling the canal, and hundreds of people out and about.  I headed toward the peak of the Rialto and joined the cluster of tourists snapping the stereotypical Venice picture…well, like twenty stereotypical Venice pictures.  No shame here.  Eventually I got a little too claustrophobic to enjoy the view though and headed onto St. Mark’s. 

Again…I got lost about two seconds after I left the main canals.  Oops.  It took me about half an hour to find St. Mark’s where it would have taken about five minutes had I known where I was going.  By this point, it was about 2:00pm as well, so I was a bit stressed thinking I was under a “time crunch.”  Haha, the concept of a time crunch is so anti-Italian it makes me laugh now!  Anyway, St. Mark’s was finally found, and I spent another half-hour sitting there watching people, feeding the birds (so cliché, so tourist, so much FUN anyway) and trying to get somebody to successfully take my picture with the Basilica of St. Mark’s. 

Funny story about Venetians and tourists in Venice: when you ask for a picture in front of a huge historical monument, they don’t seem to understand that you want the monument IN the picture with you.  So now I have some lovely pictures of me against a nondescript background in St. Mark’s Square.  Oh well! 

St. Mark’s on the inside is very, very beautiful and very, very ornate, but also looked like it could use a very, very thorough cleaning.  I really enjoyed taking my time going through the basilica, which apparently contains over 4.1 km of fresco and mosaic work…the whole interior was absolutely breaktaking.  It took me ages to get through because it was completely mobbed with tourists, was enormous, and also required a lot of attention to detail…so I took my time.  It was a really gorgeous church, but couldn’t replace my favorite, Sainte-Chappelle, from Paris.  Headed back outside to pouring rain and took a vaporetto back to the train station to lock my bag in a locker before heading to Murano, the island.

Genius that I am, I locked my camera in that locker as well, so I have no photos of Murano, the island famous for its artisan glass.  In my handy Venice guidebook it said that no visit to Venice was complete without a trip out to see glassblowers in action and “peruse the assortment of authentic Murano glass,” so I took the water bus across the harbor-type area to the island around 4pm.  It was absolutely indescribable…every shop was full of gorgeous, colorful glass.  Ornaments, frames, clocks, stained-glass window decorations, chandeliers, sculptures…I was blown away. 

Unfortunately, the actual glassblowing tour was way too expensive and took way too long for me to actually take it, but in my wandering around (lost, of course) I stumbled on a smaller factory that was letting tourists in for free to take a look.  I jumped ALL over it.  It smelled really weird, but it was so completely insanely cool to see how it all happened.  The glassblower we watched was making a yellow vase swirled through with red and white, and watching it take shape was one of the prettiest, most impressive displays of craftsmanship I’ve ever seen. After the “tour” was over, I headed to the adjoining shop and bought a few souvenirs…and gifts…then rushed back to the water bus stop to catch the late bus back to the train station.  Thank GOD I left when I did…I caught the last water bus back, and I still shudder to think what a catastrophe it would have been to be stranded on the outer island with a train to catch back in the main part! 

About 8:30 I arrived back at the train station and settled in for the three-hour wait for the Trenitalia night train to Rome.  By now, I was not only completely wiped out and really feeling the effect of a sleepless night before Venice, but I was getting really sick of spending so much time by myself.  Traveling is such a social activity that it was really weird and sort of un-fun to spend a whole day on my own…nobody to share my excitement with or to keep me from spazzing when I got lost for the fourth or fifth time, haha!  I spent those three tired, cold, sort of lonely hours in the Trenitalia waiting room and eventually got on my night train…where another story starts.  This blog is getting way too long though so that’ll be saved for another day!  Arrivederci and much love!