Roma: Part I

Buon giorno! Maureen and I have finally arrived in Italia, and so far our first half a day has been great. But of course, I have to finish up with what happened yesterday, as the first half of my Paris adventure concluded! I can't believe it's already been a week since I left.

Maureen and I woke up early to head to a café to get hot drinks with her European Judicial System class. We both had chocolate chaud and spoke with two of the boys in her class, a Canadian named Nick and an Austrian whose name I never caught. The topic once again turned to the differences in the way French citizens and American citizens view their nationality; any citizen in France is French, their family is French and they have always been French. Yet any citizen in America does not have direct ties to the country, unless they are Native American. Therefore, Americans must assert their heritage, by stating whether they are 20% Irish or 50% Italian, or a complete European mutt, like I am (British, Irish, Dutch, French, German). Nick has apparently found it convenient to sometimes be American and sometimes be Canadian, since his accent does not give away his location. I'll have to remember to try that in the future.

We went straight from the café to Sciences-Po for the actual class on the European Justice System, where I zoned out and worked on the UGBC Communication department budget for the 2009-2010 academic year. When that ended at 12:30 we had to go to a different Sciences-Po building for her French class, which was a language class so I could understand it. Grades were handed out, and then 3 students still have to give exposés to the class. The first was on l'alphabet Coreén (the Korean alphabet), and even though the entire point of the class was to enjoy French food, since every student had brought in cheese or crackers or fruit or a baguette or wine (yes, wine), the presenter decided it would be rude if people were eating while he was presenting. He had a good presentation though, and I learned my name in Hangul: ㅅㅏㅁ. He did not seem to have a problem eating and drinking while the next two exposés were given, on baseball and universal allocation.

After a stop to the computer lab to print information for our trip to Italy, we headed back to Maureen's apartment. She wrote out a postcard, and we headed to the post office to mail her one and my four! If you requested a postcard, it is on its way. If you have not requested a postcard yet and would like one, please donate $1 or 0.85€ to my Paypal account (link is on the right) and comment with your address ;)

I still had to pack for Italy, so after filling the other half of Maureen's suitcase, taking a shower, and eating a delicious dinner cooked by Mo (<3) we headed back into the city for another happy hour with Kim. We stopped at a place called Student Bar on Rue Mouffetard and had a great time with Sex on the Beach, a marguerita, a Pink Lady, something with banana and a B52 which was lit on fire. Before getting a table some random guy invited us to the downstairs, but we played it safe and got our own place to sit. The only things missing were glow sticks.

The night ended pretty much right after happy hour, since we had to leave the apartment by 5:30 this morning. It was hell. However, we made the 5:39 Métro, enjoyed endured the singing of drunken girls from clubs on the Champs Elysses, and were safe on our shuttle to Beauvais at 6:00. Everything was going according to plan until we actually got to BVA and our flight was delayed half an hour. What was even better was waiting in line behind a group of 5 or 6 people arguing with the girl at the desk, only to be told during our turn that we had to go to the Visa Check line. Eventually our bag was checked and we'd made it through security (the razor has still not been confiscated!), leaving us an hour to sit around in the terminal and wait for our gate to be announced. Maureen and I wandered through the duty free store, enjoyed the Calvin Klein summer fragrance, discussed the merits of Swatch watches, ate a muffin, played games, etc etc etc.

It was a long hour, but eventually our plane arrived and we moved outside to climb the stairs to our seats. I pretty much slept through the entire flight, missing the Alps that we apparently flew over, and landed in Rome Ciampino to weather that was about 10 degrees warmer. It was gorgeous. They packed everyone on the plane onto two shuttles buses, let us grab our bags from baggage claim, and then released us to the city without even checking our passports. It was super lame; I wanted a pretty stamp to prove I'd been to Rome!

We were luckily able to catch the 12:40 bus to the citta centro at Rome Termini (a bus station in the city center), and sat in traffic for about half an hour before we could head to our hotel. After a half hour walk wearing jeans and long sleeved shirts, we melted our way to Domus Caracalla. Maureen had us buzzed in, where we had to walk through the building, across the courtyard, and take the elevator in the second building to the top floor. The room is adorable, and we have both decided we will never come to Rome without staying here. There's a double bed, marble-esque floors, a cute bathroom with a shower head that rains down vertically, free WiFi, a TV, a wardrobe and a balcony with a table and two chairs for when they bring us breakfast in the door! It could not be better if we tried. Venice will be a step down, but at least we can take a few amazing showers in Rome before we have to share a common bathroom on Monday.

After a quick change and a call to Bank of America, we went off in search of a Deutsche Bank so I could withdraw money. Unfortunately, my debit card number has been compromised, so there's a hold on my account until I return to the States. Since I'm still in Europe, they gave me a number to call every time I want to use an ATM, and I had done so to give the instruction that I would be at an ATM in 20 minutes and the hold should be lifted momentarily then. When we finally found the Deutsche Bank, however, the ATM was "instructed" to return my card to me and tell me to call my bank. We had no idea what to do. We tried to use a pay phone at a Métro station to call Bank of America back, but the collect operator kept saying that all of the numbers we provided could not be reached. This is despite the fact that every time I call the number, an automated voice says twice that collect calls are accepted. We were both annoyed and upset, so we decided we had to head back to the hotel and call Bank of America again. Luckily, we decided to check the ATM one more time before we made the trek, and lo and behold Bank of America had just been ridiculously slow. Crisis averted.

We had the rest of the afternoon to wander and find a place for dinner, so we headed to the Coliseum and the Arco di Costantino. The Coliseum was fantastic, but it was too expensive to go inside. The Palatino, an archaeological site, is nearby, so we walked around the perimeter of that to see the forum before walking back to the hotel the long way in search of a good restaurant. We were back at Domus Caracalla before we found one, so we continued to walk back the way we'd come in from Termini earlier to stop at any good place we found. We ended up at Hostaria del Buongustaio, or the house of the connoisseur. We shared fried calamari and shrimp, and I got spaghetti with clams while Maureen got veal and potatoes. Thank god for carbs! With the bread and the wine, Italy definitely has the best food so far. We were even given some dessert wine that tasted delicious, but our real dessert was of course gelato. I may not be Italian, but I sure enjoy the food.

We made it back to the hotel for showers and relaxation; one of the owners asked why girls as young as ourselves were back so early! Hopefully tomorrow we'll be out later, since we have so much to see: the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, Palazzo Chigi, Piazzo del Popolo, Piazza Navona, Castel San Angelo, and anything else along the way. We're taking a hop-on, hop-off bus tour all day, which should get us everywhere, and when it ends around 20:00 we'll get dinner and call it a night! Sunday we head to Venice in the afternoon, but we have to check out of the guest house around noon and we don't know what we'll have time for in the morning. We shall have to see! I'm hoping for more gelato.

Something we get to look forward to at the Vatican: strict dress code! No cell phones, no smoking, no hats, no shirts with profanity, no shoulders or cleavage or even knees. In this heat, it might be difficult.

It's time to post pictures and this entry, since we have breakfast coming at 9:30 and our bus to catch!

Arrivederci per il momento,
Sam

Paris: Part I

I made it! I am now in Paris, and I am pretty much exhausted from all the walking I've been doing in the past few days. The Million Dollar Stairs seem like a step stool now.

Maureen met me at the Gare de L'est, and we managed to get myself a Métro ticket for the day. Apparently a 3-day pass is more than 3 times the price of a day pass, which is funny, but not useful to my budget. We waited in line behind this guy who bought about 6 Navigo passes (like a Charlie Card), and then some ladies cut in front of us because they "thought we were with him." A likely story.

Fun things about the French Métro:

• in a 6-foot-long area, there might be 2 seats, set up as individual chairs; the French like their personal space
• the doors open before the train stops moving
• there are signs with the time of the next train!
• the advertisements are funny, like ones for a movie Les Beaux Grosses, which seems like the French version of Superbad (but more awkward and less crude), and a Hannah Montana poster where Miley Cyrus' eyes are clearly Photoshopped green
• it's still better than the T

On our way to Maureen's apartment, we went to the Longchamps store so Maureen could buy a tote-bag sized purse. They are so much cheaper here than they are in the US! I want to try to buy an orange one before I leave, but we'll see. Maybe at a duty free area in the airport. As we were crossing near the Tuilieries and seeing la Tour Eiffel in the background, we met a few of the BC girls who are also studying at Sciences-Po, including Sarah, from my Greek Philosophy class! It was crazy to see them in such a large city.

When we got to Maureen's apartment, I was able to shower and wash a few of my clothes, including my sweater! The apartment is really cute; apparently the family that lived here is sort of heading to the US, but it's completely furnished and all of the girls have their own rooms. I met Noelle first, then Cathy, then Nicole. I took French with Nicole back in freshman year, which is funny. Clearly she went further with it than I did.

I went to class at Sciences-Po with Maureen after, called Minorities, Politics and Society. It focuses on those issues in Great Britain, France and America, and I got to listen to a student presentation (in English; the whole class was, thank goodness), on Ali-G and what his ability to make fun of certain cultures might mean. It was really interesting, as was the discussion after, and I definitely didn't regret those two hours.

We headed back to the apartment afterward to change, because the same class we'd just gone to was going out for drinks at 18:30. We got crêpes (oeuf et fromage!) at a little Greek place on Rue Mouffetard, and ate them on the way to the Metro so we could get to DeLaVille on time. I got a Kir fraise (wine and a bit of champagne and some strawberry flavoring) and talked with Maureen and her class. They all seemed pretty nice, and had interesting things to say about the dynamic between French students and American students, and about racist mortgage scams that were going on recently, and where we were all from and the like. Love classy conversations with classy drinks.

Maureen had been texting her friend Kim because we were in her neighborhood and she wanted to go to happy hour. While Maureen and I go to Italy, Kim has finals, and while Maureen has finals, Kim goes to Greece, so clearly Maureen had to see her. We went to this little bar and sat outside ordering drinks with American names, like Tequila Sunrise (me) and Blue Lagoon (Maureen) and Long Island Iced Tea (Kim), then more Kir. The bartender made fun of our ability to say the names of the drinks, and kissed us all on the cheek before we left to go to the next bar, where the rest of the girls were!

The next bar was called The Frog, and since it was student night, I had to show my BC ID, explain that I'm from the United States, and get my hand stamped with a little frog. As I'm typing this, I keep thinking there's a spider on my hand and freaking out. Before we could go in, we watched the bouncer catch a guy who was trying to leave with a beer in his pocket. Awesome. We saw Sarah again, and Maureen's friends Katie and Jen, plus some other girls and a friend of theirs, Matt. Maureen and I didn't drink, and instead left after a bit to catch the Métro with Kim. I am now in sweatpants and my Street Team T-shirt, thanking the heavens that my semester is done as I listen to Maureen's roommates freak out over exams and papers due.

Tomorrow Maureen has class at 10:00, and I have to call Bank of America as soon as I wake up so they don't place a hold on my card, and then later I guess we'll window shop, hunt for postcards and go to a photography museum. Thursday we have to get ready for Rome (and hopefully send those postcards; comment with your address if you want one, but I might ask you for 0.50€ later!), and then wake up EARLY Friday morning to catch a bus to Beauvais Airport before our flight leaves at 9:00 for Rome Ciampino. We spend 2.5 days there, 2.5 days in Venice with Walter and the rest of the Practicing Mortality class, and then come back to Paris for final museum trips, shopping days, a scaling of la Tour Eiffel and lots of crepes and Kir.

Bonsoir mes amis,
Sam(bam)