Back to the USA

Hey thought I would do a final note to end this thing. I came back two days early and surprised Lindz. Luke, my parents and I had this whole plan cooked up and it ended up working out perfect. My flights were long and boring as to be expected. I had a great time in Spain before returning to Rome for 2 days before I left. Now I am readjuested to Iowa time and enjoying break. For a couple mornings I was waking up at 6 am and falling asleep no matter where I was at about 9:30. It feels good to be back home and the trip seems unreal that I spent 4 months on the other side of the World. Maybe I will come back and edit this short post but for now this is it.

The Countdown

Well it has been a while since I have wrote one of these things. So a little update I have been crazy busy with school work I have a ton of projects to get finished before leaving this place. I have been at my computer a lot lately, not that I don't take a few ebay breaks now and then and slowtwitch ofcourse. I pretty much know what I will miss about here, the cappacino, 90 cents and a couple minutes and your out of there. The ACE juice it is amazing we need to get HYVEE to start selling that stuff. The other thing I will miss are Kabops, pretty much like a boritto with lamb I think I don't know exactly what is in it but it tastes good. I will also miss Pastromi sandwhiches. Well I am pretty used to living the big city life, public transportation, eating habbits, preparing for stuff to go wrong and take way longet then it should. Now that I am used to it I am about done with it. I am excited to see everyone, that is maybe the worst part, not the shower, not the kitchen, not the roomates, but missing people from home. Wow this blog is getting to deep haha. Well to continue the update I am leaving Friday to go to Barcelona, Spain until Monday we are staying in an apartment there I am going with 5 other people so I think it will be a good time. I count down how many more times I have to sleep in a sleeping bag, take a crappy shower, cook, do laundry, amoung other things in the good old apt. I have become quite the cook over here, not that I want that to continue but sometimes it is nice. I am sure I will loose my ability to do dishes as soon as a get back to the states, jk (sort of). It is kinda cold here its like 52 during the day (who am I kidding I'm going to freeze at home). They just are putting up their Christmas stuff here, they wait until December I guess I we start in what like beginning of October, I guess they are laid back about it or just lazy. There is a huge Christmas tree in front of the Colisseum That is all lit up, doesnt even compare to say the tree Jordan Creek usually has but it is there and lit. We also have one at the entrance of out building. We have our "SHOW" of our work next Thursday when we invite the public we will see how many people come. So anyone who reads this your invited Thursday from 6-8 Piazza de Cinci, Roma Italy, haha yeah right. Well maybe I write one more when I get down with projects then another when I get back from Spain.

No shower yet today...

Well our shower drain is not only plugged up with thick, long hair but is not also blocked up with what the see to think is Drain-O over here. It looked like rock salt when dumping it into the drain and then we were supposed to run hot water on it for 2-3 min so we did nothing happen except for the water that we ran filled up the bath tub and took all night to drain. I emailed about it 3 days ago and continue to email supposidly it is going to get takin care of today. There is a picture on the box of this stuff with a hand melting so with it in the drain still no one water their feet to get acid burns while taking a shower. The people who have visited (parents, Travis and Lindz) all know how great of a shower it is to begin with. I am ready to come back to my shower quick haha. I have tons of school work to do in the next 3 weeks and have to finish up all kinds of projects in the next 2 weeks, hopefully there will be time to have a little more fun in there somewhere. Well thats it for now about complaining about not being able to take a shower this morning. Later.

Lindz and Me in London and Rome

Well I took Lindz to the airport this morning, another very hard goodbye. It was the an awesome week. We had so much fun it couldn't have been better. We met up in London fine and ended up meeting at like 10:30 in the morning, we had gotten about the same amount of sleep maybe like 3 hours, but she had been traveling so she was worse off. But we were off to do all the sites we went straight to Buckingham and the guards then westminster and some other stuff. We went and checked in to our hotel it turned out to be a good place with a view of Saint pauls right out the window. Then we left again right away to our parlament tour with Steph's class. That was pretty cool. Then we went out to eat in the Picadeli Circus area, it was a good chicken sandwich and the best London food I had had. (London food is known to be bad) The next day we got off to a early start and saw a lot more of the city and even found a bike shop that was cool that night we did the london eye. I have a ton of pics from the trip I will upload a few.

Then it was time for Rome. We got to the airport in Rome and I thought it would be a good idea to take a bus to a train then a train to the train station in central rome then a subway it was a total of 3 euro verses 30 euro. Bad idea. We ended up getting on the wrong train went about 10 min the wrong way got off and waited 20 min to go the right way but its a longer story then to type but in the end it worked out we got to our hotel went and got some pizza and called it a night.

For the next couple days we saw all the sites of Rome and really got all the tourist stuff out of the way. Then we were off boot shopping you see all the women in Rome where boots so Lindz needed some after many stores and two days of looking we found some she liked and at half the price she was willing to spend. After all that we went to dinner at hard rock BBQ it was awesome.

We basically got to do whatever we felt like doing the next couple days walked where we wanted to walk and didnt really worry about what time it was or anything else we just kinda did what we felt like doing and it was great. We had so much fun together and it was definatly one of the best times we have had together. I am probably boring anyone reading this so you can here other stories first hand.

Soccer Game....maybe not

So we were all going to go to one of these Roma soccer games so we could see what all the hype was about in this country. Yes believe it or not I was going to a soccer game. We set out for the game about 5:30 on Sunday night, the game was going to start at 8:30 but we had a bus, subway, another subway, then a tram to get there so we left early. I was with a group of about 10 or 12 another group was going a head of us and 2 or 3 following a half hour later. So we are on the tram a couple stops away when my phone rings and it is Katie telling me that the game has been canceled and everyone is leaving the stadium, a little bummed out I tell everyone, 30 seconds later my phone rings again it is Katie again and she says that it got canceled because there was a shooting so the polise called it off. Still not knowing what was going on, so I spread the news to everyone and my phone rings again, It is Katie again and shes like get off your tram dont come here it is scarey and not safe at all. So we got off went the other way and when we saw the other groups and told them what was going on some believed us others didnt so they went. Well turns out it made national news because the riots were so bad the girls saw people getting beat up with vespa helmets and people rioting and throwing rocks at police amoung other things. The shooting happened in Tuscany and police office fired a warning shot to break up a fight and it ended up killing a Roman man, that caused the riot. In the end I went and had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and it was like being in the USA free refills and a lot of food and Heinz 57 ketchup. That was the night. Later.

Good Thing I Don't Speak Italian...

It is a very good thing I don't speak much Italian. I think if I did I would really let some people here have it. Every day I am presented with the oppurtunity that sets itself up for me to really unleash on someone... but we don't speak the same language so it stops me, it's a good thing haha I would really get myself into trouble. Maybe it is just a big city lesson to keep my mouth shut. Maybe it with all the control I have here it could carry over when I go back to Iowa (doubt it) No really I am really just joking around on here, it is fun to say the comments in my head that I would love to say to other people but really in most cases you would have to be there I always try to remember for my blog stories but the things happen so often I forget the better ones sometimes. I do have a good story about waiting at the bus stop the other night but it is much better told in person. I really have been wondering how different this experience would have been if I did speak the language but I think it makes it interesting everyday. I am definatly laughing off a lot more now then ever, and I think I have become more laid back in a stressful situation not to say laid back but better then I ever had been. I think I am getting a comfortor on my bed today so I might not sleep in the sleeping bag anymore I washed it yesterday for the 3rd or 4th time and it wasnt quite dry so i used a sheet and light blanket last night and slept in clothes and still was cold but it is getting taken care of after an email. I also told on the lady that is supposed to clean once a week she has been coming every couple weeks so probably got her in a little trouble but shes getting paid to do it and shes not doing it, big surprise in Italy haha. Well this is getting long and it is one that I typed directly into blogger so when these things have typos sorry but I am not the best writer, and I know Lindz is to busy to rewrite these things formaly for me like some of my other papers and use proper sentences and use better wording, but this is it. Later.

Happy Halloween

Yep not really a holiday over here but they just informed us that tomorrow is a national holiday here so nothing will be open. Not for us though we don't get U.S. holidays or the Italian holidays I am wondering if my history teacher knows about this for our walking class tomorrow (might be a short class, he's British). There is a Halloween party tonight at one of the larger apartments, not sure what I am going to dress up as yet I am sure I will come up with something.

Last night I gave myself a much needed haircut. Lindz said the other day on skype "Have you look into getting a haircut?" haha I did look into and decided I would have the easiest time buying a 10 euro kit and doing it myself. It was tough had to start with scissors and was a little scared where it was going but it turned out ok way to short but ok, I think I will be good until I can have Christy cut it when I get back. After seeing the haircuts guys have over here I feel pretty good about it. I should have takin in progress pics sorry my hands were pretty busy I could have made a wig with what I cut off.

Thats it for now. Later