First day of classes in Rome

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Hi all,
Today is the first day of classes in Rome, and there is a chill in the air expecially at camp OSU-KSA!!!!  3rd year Campo people are snakes and the 4th year Campo people are seeing this.   3rd year sat by themselves and were sulking while 4th year glared in their direction.   The mixture of who live at the Vatican apartments are the mature of the group and we do not party nearly as much.  But we are getting proficent at card games (Uno being one of them) and weare cooking meals together and basically getting along.  Brain is in denial they he was shafted, so he has not totally moved in yet.  He kinda of is living in the communal living room, which is going to get fixed shortly.  It is never appatizing to watch a kid putting on his pants as you are trying to finish your breakfast.  Not to mention the clothes drying everywhere, he is a little messy.  So we are going to encourage him in the nicest way possible to put his things away in a bed room and settle in for the long haul.  See tommorrow for the juicy details as to why he believes he is not staying.  The campo 3rd & 4th year students are no longer breaking bread or wine together depending on how you look at.   I would like to say I feel sorry for them but that would be a lie - sometime your own medicine is the worst tasting when it is aimed in your own direction.  I have learned should I ever take another trip like this again, keep it shorter and make sure you are aware of the maturity of those that travel with you.  And if some of them belong to a sorority and you know they drive you nuts, it might challenge you sanity to stay in a group with them for such a long time.  But the saving grace it that seperate apartment 20 minutes apart should clear the allergic reaction they cause to your system when you seem them.  And on weekend you have a two day reprive from their presence.  So they are good points in my time. 
We meet today 10:30 am at the Campidoglio which had the Forum ruins behind it.  It was breath taking.  Did you know that a few days ago that Rome celebrated 3,000 yrs of being inhabited.  That is quite remarkable, most cities do not thrive for this long - they will have cycles where the prosper and decline.  But Roma had seen a steady growth with its start of two founding people so long ago.  The maps decieve you once again  - things are closer than they appear, same is the case for mirrors ... lol.  Which makes things very nice.  I have walked past the vatican breifly and not been able to go in yet.  I am thinking early next week.  We are all getting settled in, doing laundry and getting accoustomed to cooking again. 
I had picked up some Orvietta Classico wine 3 bottles, two of which were suppose to be for Mom & Dad.  I will have to find some more they are not going to make it that long.  We tried a bottle last night for dinner and it was really nice wine.  We will be making another trip to Tuscany when Brandi comes to town so I will pick up some more.  You would also like the Chianti (Kiante) which is one of the nicest red wines I have ever  had.  One intresting thing I have found wine comes in two colors White and Red.  America seems to like more variety.  I have found now that we are in appartments that our way of life is that of a very spoiled county.  So many things I expected to be in apartments and when I asked Betreace (our instructor) she said they have no need for certain things - America is a very very rich contry, even though the $ is  not as strong as the €.  Our quality of life is so far diffrent than what most people know.  Let me list the the things I do not have; coffee maker, dishwasher, dryer, garbage disposal and many many more.  But  that is all I can think of right now.  I have had to learn to make coffe the old fashioned way (water on bottom, little filter with coffe ground, pressure forces water through the filter and to the top of the two chamber pot and vola coffee)  Have been making the sauses for my pastas by hand with fresh tomatoes and other fresh veggies.  I have grown found of a primi (appatizer)  it is olive oil with sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzerella with seasonings.  That is a meal in itself.  Als have found that pesto here is not as nasty as back in the states - I asked around it is not my imagination.  The only thing we can come up with is the soil / process used for growing the ingredients.  It is also sold fresh at the market we shop at.  You have gotta love that.  We also have a bakery right around the corner and we buy our chicken, etc from a butcher.  NO prepack vacum seal.  I am not sure they know what it is.  The best way I can describe the diffrence in the historical areas we have are staying in is it is very in the moment or for they day.  You do not have a fridgorator that can hold tone of food.  Ours is located under the counter and is about the size of a cabinet.  Two shelves max and a small one shelf freezer.  So we east a lot of things fresh.  Or the frozen stuff is ussualy gelato, which is also best fresh.  I do not know if i have descrived it before but the running joke is Air Entrenched Ice Cream is the equivelient of gelato.  This was because our last construction class we learned about air-entrenched concrete, more pliable easy to work with etc etc.  Well here if you buy you gelato in a dish (of course I do - i belive that the calories saved from the cone means you can eat twice as much ...lol - those cones contain all of the added calories.  SO in the end it is a FAIR TRADE).  But the cups of gelato you get a spoon but the spoon looks more like a minature shovel rather than the baby spoon you ussually get back home and this is appopriate.  I thought everyone was kidding about gellato - they were not I have never tasted anything like it and will mourn it when I must leave it behind.  But I have been good.  I have only had this maybee seven times since I have gotten to italy and considering the number of weeks we have been here I deserve a metal.  I will not mention how many of my classmates use gellato as a between meal filler, their schedules are breakfast gellato lunch gellato  gellato and dinner and maybe more gellato.   I will not say their clothes are getting a little tight but may those low rise jeans were not the best choice to bring on the trip.  I am having the revese problem my clothes are all getting bigger!!!  
I started a book called 'Beautifull Bodies' if you see this book run from it.  It is pretty much like a train reck you have to watch it happen since I started to look.  So I will finish it and see how it ends but I am hoping some of the other books in our book collection is much better.  It had potential five best friend getting together and facing the truth about one another - kinda reminds of the FAB FOUR in our group.  There are four girls that are a little shallow and they are the ones that lead the pack of lamb because we must all do things in groups and if the FAB FOUR decide you cannot play they you are bannished form the social club - the social club is the group I would not be allowed in.  But we are thinking positive, they have four flights of stairs to climb I only have one in my apartment.  😊   Cannot get more positive than that.
Well talk to you later.
 

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