http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/carlascardino/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from carlascardino en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:32:11 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:32:11 +0000 I've been back in Rome for a month and this is my first blog update...mostly because I don't really have anything new to report. If you can possibly imagine Rome has simply become more routine and commonplace to me now. Sometimes it saddens me to think that I've become so disillusioned to the fact that I'm living in a beautiful European city with over 2500 years of history. The monuments churc http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-444395.html Ok so it's been a really long time since I've written a blog. I apologize for this. It's been so busy here over the past few months that I really didn't have much spare time. I hope that I can remember most of what happened and recount the events from this time.Let's start with the most recent shall we Right now it's early morning and I'm just relaxing for a bit before starting the day. Vacatio http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-429301.html Hi everyone. I just want to let you know that I'm working on a blog that will encompass most of what has been going on here in Rome since I've last written. There has been a lot happening and I want to try to include as much as possible. I just want you to know that everything is going ok and I'll be in touch soon. I hope you're all doing well. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-411794.html It's been quite a long and difficult stressful week for me. I've been thinking a lot about stuff and trying to make decisions all in the 15 spare minutes I had the entire week...no joke. I worked my 22 hoursweek allotment for EDSHP in the first 3 days of the week. And all this while still working for the school here. It felt like this weekend took forever to get here. And of course I'm still n http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-385498.html Ok let's talk about my week shall we Where should I start Let's begin with Saturday. I worked all day at school and somehow managed to not have have any children in lab or in a lesson. I wonder how I was so lucky to escape that. After we were starving. Since we had plans for Sunday afternoon lunch with our old TEFL friends we decided to switch things up and our Sunday ritual of going to McD http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-381875.html 11 mullets in 30 minutes...I'll explain more about this later. First a recap.I know many of you have been sending me messages wondering what I've been up to and why I haven't posted a new blog lately. Well here it is. I'll try my best to remember everything but I have to admit that it's been more and more difficult for me to remember things recently. I think it's old age setting in. I am less t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-378212.html It's been quite some time since I've written a blog...I know and I'm sorry. It's been such a crazy month or so. I was sick for a full week and really didn't get to do as much as I would have liked. I was actually sleeping before midnight on New Year's Eve because I was sick. Oh well there's always next year Now I'm back at my second home in Rome. I really did miss being here while I was home in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-366640.html Sitting in the airport...Well I'm on my way home. Barring any passport issues in London or when I arrive in Philly I should be back home in my real home in about 15 hours. Sometimes I love being American. When I went through passport control here in Rome's airport the guy didn't even look at my passport photo. He saw that it was an American passport and it probably helped that I greeted him http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-366632.html Well it's now the Christmas season. I must say Rome isn't quite what I expected during Christmas. I guess they still see this as an actual Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. They still focus on family friends and being thankful for all the good things in life even though some things here are very difficult. Hmm where did they ever get the idea that this is what Christmas is a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-355264.html First to answer all the questions we had Thanksgiving dinner here in Rome on Sunday. Yes it was a few days before Thanksgiving in America but since it's not a holiday here we needed to do it on a weekend when we were all off from work.Now let's begin this story with how you go about getting a turkey in this country. In Italy they don't eat very much poultry and definitely not turkey. So w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-348724.html I have to admit that I've been slacking quite a bit on the blog. I've been fairly busy and it's been fairly uneventful here. The craziness of the summer is long gone and we've now resigned to the fact that this is more like real life now with long hours at work and we get tired often.It's actually been raining quite a bit lately. It's a huge change from the 3 month drought we had this summer. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-345680.html Philly you are everything and everything is you. That was the quote of the day on Sports Center after a weekend full of wins for Philly. Thankfully we now have the Slingbox working and I can watch games and highlights. I forgot how much I like watching Sports Center in the morning. It's bringing back memories of having breakfast at Penn State in the East Halls commons at the Big Onion and wat http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-338829.html It's been quite some time since I've last written. It has been really busy here lately and quite a bit has been happening here. I'll try and give a brief recap here. To start with we went to Saturnia in Toscana a few weeks ago. Our friend Dario drove Heather Christina Debbie and myself to the hot springs there. It was probably about 65 degrees or so outside we were wearing long pants and sweat http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-333672.html As you all know by now I decided that I just wasnrsquot satisfied with a 5 month stay in Italy. It just didnrsquot feel like enough time to do everything I wanted to do. Besides I feel like the place and my friends in Rome are now a part of me. It was just too hard to leave just yet. The summer was so hot that we really didnrsquot do much at all besides hang out indoors next to our fan or http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-323140.html ...do as the Romans do. Here in August that means leave the city and go on holiday. Since Jackie and Rob were visiting and we all have limited funds we stayed in the country. That's what most Italians do anyway unless you're Davide. In that case you head to Turkey and Cuba. So my travels in August included Cinque Terre Positano Florence and of course the beaches of Ostia.But over the past w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-316911.html I really don't understand why Rome is so hot. Jackie and Rob have been visiting for the past week and we've been dealing with near 100 degree temps here in Rome. We've had to make at least one gelato stop a day and sit in the shade to cool down. We pretend to be interested in what people are selling so we can hang out in the airconditioned shops for a few minutes. On Friday we went to the beach http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-313069.html Well Laurenrsquos last weekend here in Roma has come and gone. Wersquore sad. I canrsquot believe itrsquos been more than 4 months since we came here. It seems like just yesterday Lauren and I were anxiously awaiting for our plan to take off and leave Philly for our dream of living in bella Roma if even just for a few months. But looking back on our experience it feels like it was ages a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-308737.html Well overall it was a fairly nice birthday. The only downer of the weekend is that I had to work on Saturday morning. But everyone at work was really nice and gave me chocolates and gifts from the vending machine haha. On Friday night all us girls got together and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Yes I know we're in Italy surrounded by amazing food but when you eat Italian food 3 times a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-305702.html Last night we did one of the coolest things literally to do in Rome. We went to an ice bar. The bar is called Ice Club Roma and it's made entirely of ice the seats the bar the walls even the glasses are made of ice. It was really a very interesting experience. There was a 15 euro entrance fee and you get a drink and use of the capes and gloves. The drinks were top shelf liquor and it was http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-302266.html So another week has come and gone. I can't believe how quickly time has been passing here. It feels like I only just left the cold weather in Philly and now it's regularly 90 degrees and sunny. It rained today for the first time in over a month. Ok by rain I mean a quick 2 minute shower and now it's once again 90 degrees and sunny and humid.This week was rather nice actually. On Wednesday night http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-299193.html