Buona Serata!
This weekend was such a whirlwind for all of us I’m sure. Some of my ROME mates were traveling around Europe, Some of us made it to Tuscany (woot woot), and some of us made it to the beach!
This kicks Ocean City’s ass.
We went on Saturday morning (not by choice), my roomies and I were fast asleep when we heard our doorbell ring at 10:30 am (don’t judge us, it’s been a tiring week!). We all responded with a unanimous grunt. Then the bell rang again and again and again. Finally we answered to find our friend Adriana bright eyed, bushy tailed, and beach ready standing at our door. “Get up!” She says, “It’s time for the beach!”. My first thought was “Ain’t gonna happen.”… But Andriana is a convincing little Greek. We all got ready and headed out. It’s two or three train rides (I was so tired I don’t remember), about an hour, and you’re there! Our student activities coordinator told us that Italians don’t get in the water at this beach because the water is not clear enough… he’s obviously never been to Ocean City, MD. My friends and I were swimming like fishes all day, the water was beautiful, warm, and translucent.
There were SOOO many cool shells!
Check out those beach babes ;P
And now I can finally introduce Kenny! (Kencyclopedia)
Now, I made two major oops this weekend. The first one happened at the beach, and I don’t really know how. The only available sunblock I could find anywhere didn’t go above SPF 6 (ummm… I’m a red head? Ain’t gonna happen) so I wound up getting the baby formula because it was SPF 50. My Dad would have been so proud of me I reapplied 3 times! Unfortunately when I got home I realized… I got burnt. Bad. Maybe lying in the sand reading for hours on end wasn’t the wisest decision. The entire back of my body looks like I rolled around in pepto bismol. AND IT REALLY REALLY HURTS. Someone should probably call the waaambulance.
The second major whoops I made this weekend happened in the most typical of places: the subway station. I was coming home from a long night of painting in the studio and was waiting at the Flaminio subway stop when something peculiar happened. An extremely chubby man walked into the stop smoking a cigarette, coughing up a lung, wearing just a button up shirt and underpants… Maybe I’m immature but this really caught me off guard. Then (OF COURSE) he sat on the bench next to me, extremely close, stared directly at me, then blew his cigarette smoke in my face. Clearly creeped out I stood up and walked away. Unfortunately I failed to notice that I had set my wallet next to me on the bench and forgot it in my awkward confusion. And of course no-pants-man was not going to remind me I forgot it. I got the entire way home before I realized it was gone. My room mates and I went back to try and find it but of course it was gone. A few Euros, credit cards, I.Ds, room keys, my monthly metro pass, and my FAVORITE lipstick gone. But that’s not the worst part, I could not for the life of my figure out how to work my phone and call my Mommy (what I do in any crisis). Eventually I got a hold of her, got all the cards cancelled, got a copy of my key made, but it’s still ridiculously inconvenient. So take it from me, be extremely careful and always on your guard, and don’t let anything distract you… not even old, fat men in underpants.
Now that this crisis is over and dealt with, I was able to focus on the task at hand today, the WALL WALK. That’s right, today was the 45th wall walk where brave souls get up super early to trek the entire 13 miles of the Aurelian Wall which marks the antiquated borders of Rome. We all started out strong led by Professor Jan Gadeyne, who seriously knows everything about everything. We took two breaks along the way but the last hour and a half was quite treacherous. The sun was beating and I’m pretty sure my sun burn turned into sun poisoning… But it was all worth it in the end! We all managed to walk a half marathon and see parts of Rome some Romans never see! Not many people can say they did that! I can say that I did that and I will most definitely never do it again 🙂 But anyone who has the opportunity should do it sometime in their lives, it’s worth it.
A lot of the original brick work from the 3rd century A.D is still in tact! Imagine 13 miles of this wall… Yea we did that.
The view from one of our look out points. I swear I have seen the Vatican so many times but I haven’t made it inside. My mom told me to go there and say a prayer to find my wallet… sorry mom, even St. Anthony can’t help me now.
Um we live here?
Well, after this eventful weekend I am ready to get back to the class room where the sun can’t get me! First critique in my painting class tomorrow, wish me luck!
Buona Note!
Jen
You’re an excellent writer!!!!
Thanks Uncle Joe!