Ciao!
I felt like this week was bigger in the U.S than Rome, because we elected a new President! It was a surprisingly big deal in Italy, I was sitting on the subway watching Barack Obama and Mit Romney ads. I mean, I’m not going to lie, I’ve been enjoying not dealing with election propaganda across the globe. But I would like to remain somewhat politically aware!
So it’s lucky I have a political science major for a room mate!
Cecily convinced me to go to an all night election party at the John Cabbot Univeristy Rome Campus! For some reason anything all nighter always sounds like a good idea to me. Which is one of the reasons I always agree to go Black Friday every year with my dear friend Cecilia even though I never buy anything. It’s more about the experience and the story of watching crazy people trample each other in Sears rather than actually participating. So, even though I’m really not involved in any sort of politics, and I’ve been living in my little artist’s world ever since I got to Rome, I thought I’d have fun! Plus I was promised pancakes…. and that’s worth anything.
So Tuesday night we set out, knowing it was going to be a long night. Cecily, Kenny, and I arrived at John Cabbot and didn’t know a soul. And, I’m not going to lie, by the end of the night I still had not made any John Cabbot friends. This was a little surprising to me. I mean the people were perfectly nice, but there was a clear political divide. I won’t say who was whom, but it led to some awkward political jeopardy.
We made Kenny participate, of course.
This night dragged like no other, I had a very fun time but it was AALLLLLL night. Luckily I had some great entertainment!
A lot of which came from Max!
The fella was VERY EXCITED about this election. He came prepared with his map of the electoral college which he was totally ready to color code with whichever candidate’s winnings. While everyone spent the night debating which states would go what color, I doodled. Go figure. But I was glad to be surrounded by such intelligent conversation! However, I was all on my own when I was asked to be on Italian news!
Can you see the fear in my eyes?
Now, I am not one to get stage fright thanks to 18 years of dancing. But (usually) that doesn’t involve speaking in a foreign language on local television. So I mustered all of my Italian I knowledge and took a leap of faith! The reporter was asking us why we voted for which candidate. Now, I won’t use this blog to promote my own political convictions (I’m sure everyone has had enough of that this week) so I won’t say who I voted for. However, you’ll probably be able to guess! So everyone had already mentioned his political and foreign policies… And I am not as informed on such things as my friends. So I spoke on something I know about!
JEN: “Uh… Mi piace sue moglie per che e multo bella e simpatica come sue marito!”
Rough Translation: “Uh… I like his wife because she is very pretty and is smart like her husband!”
… OK. I PROMISE I would have had something more intelligent to say if I was able to speak English! If they asked me in Italian what I like to eat for dinner or if I like shoes I would have nailed it! From this point things got progressively more strange as we crept into the wee hours of the morning….
3 AM… Can you guess his political party?!
4 AM…
5 AM… WE HAVE A PRESIDENT!
BUT! More importantly! 5 AM meant we finally got the reason that I even came… AMERICAN BREAKFAST. Yep, that’s right people: pancakes and bacon. This may sound silly, but I’m totally serious. I have not seen a pancake since August.
After sufficiently stocking up on pancakes for the long cold winter, Kenny, Coco, and I headed home… at 6 AM. Did I mention I had class that morning? At 10 AM!?! Don’t worry I made it!… Only a little late 🙂
This weekend didn’t involve a whole lot sleep for me. Because Saturday the gang had a mission… Well more like I had a mission and I dragged everyone along. Luckily I have such great friends! James gave me the idea to go to the Trevi Fountain late at night when there were less tourists and make some small on site paintings. At first I was not about it… Until I figured out if would work as a project for one of my classes… So then I was on board! So Saturday night we set out, with my pink tool box full of paints! We posted up at the fountain and I started mixing paint. We were there for a good 10 minutes until some cops showed up and (very rudely) told us to go to go away. Apparently there is a new law that people can’t eat sandwiches within a certain distance of national monuments… apparently that includes painting? Whatever. I was very upset. So we took a detour and walked over to Piazza Navona… and I got gelato which made it a little better.
Look how artsy we are!!!
This coming week probably won’t involve that much much more sleep than last week. I have lots of work to do before Thanksgiving break because I have a very special visitor coming!!!!!!
Ciao!
Jen