Just like on TV, but a bit bigger ;)

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Ciao!

Well again, lots has happened since my last post. Me, Nicolas (now have correct sp but is pronounced 'Nicola'), Marianne & Sibille deciding that we don't like Luigi & Lucia is one. They aren't very friendly, they are a bit weird and you feel like they are watching you all the time or else like you are intruding. Like if they're in the kitchen you don't want to go in etc. They barely speak to us and when they do it's normally Luigi going "don't shut the microwave door so loudly" (to me the other day) "don't shut the front door so loudly" (to Nicolas) or some other crap. AND today they told us that we have to pay line rental even if we are just receiving calls! They are getting so much money from us and we have to pay for every little thing. Luckily they are going away again till Sunday so that will be good at least.

In school news I asked to go to level four, and it's SO much better. Level 5 was do-able, but really hard and also not much fun. You are normally in each level for 2 weeks anyway so I will be back there soon with a much stronger grounding and no doubt more confidence. But level 5 was really boring, not because it was easy but because it wasn't fun! For example, yesterday in level 4 (we are doing future tenses at the moment) we had to pretend to be fortune-tellers and predict the future with fake tarot cards and stuff, it was heaps of fun! Today we were talking about superstitions (again to practice future tense) and had to play this game with a kind of musical chairs element! And the people are cool too. Nicolas is in my class too now that I've moved. I also get on well wit this German guy Martin, except he smells like pee!!! A lot. Pros & cons lol.

Last night the school organised dinner at a pizzeria in another area of Rome, not too far away from our flat by tram, which all four of us went to. It was quite fun but the food was actually not that great!!! Roman pizza is traditionally a very thin base, whereas pizza from Naples is a lot thicker. So keep in mind that it was a v thin base, but diameter-wise every person got a pizza which was the equivalent of eg. a Pizza Hut family size!! All the edges were hanging off the plate! The other interesting thing was that all the ingredients were separate, for example I ordered a pizza with eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms and capsicum. So on one part was bits of capsicum, another was mushrooms, then there was one full slice of roasted eggplant and on the last quarter 2 long (whole) slices of roasted zucchini! Interesting. Oh also at one point part of the air conditioning unit fell on Nicolas' head which was rather amusing, then he asked for free wine as compensation but they said no. Tight!

After the pizzeria everyone wanted to go for a drink at a bar 'nearby', so we walked for ages then they (they being teachers/office ppl from the school) were like "oh it's closed" so we walk somewhere else "oh hang on where is it again?" Finally we came to some pseudo-Latin bar but by this point the German girls (+ another German girl...they are taking over the world one language school at a time!) and I wanted to go home anyway but we had no idea where we were! So this Israeli guy whose flat is nearby told us how to get to the stop (just walk 3 minutes straight and it's right there). Yeah right!!! God we were so lost, and I was busting and I didn't have the best shoes for walking either! We had a map but it was no help (even though we could actually see where we were on it lol). We just kept walking and walking and walking. Finally we came to a stop, and then a tram even came!! Turns out we had walked so far we had unintentionally got back to about 2 stops before our flat anyway!!

Guess where else I went yesterday? The Forum, the Colloseum, and the Vittorio Emmanuele monument! Was so cool. The Italians hate the V.E. monument, I thought it was awesome though, and so massive! It's for Italy's independence so it's all special n stuff, so there are guards everywhere making sure you respect it by not eating or drinking or sitting down on it's (many) steps in the hot hot heat. (There is a huge statue of a guy (prob V.E.?) on a giant horse, which is v. realistic complete with 'little lady horse testiclees' (lol I crack myself up) which I of course found quite amusing and took photos of from below. We (I was with Nicolas) didn't get to go inside the Colloseo because we didn't have time but it's still amazing from the outside. Can't wait to go back and see it properly. The Forum was great but also surreal, after studying Roman history for so long it was kind of crazy actually being there, and also thinking who walked here a few thousand years ago! After all this exertion we wanted gelato, so I finally had my first Italian gelato!! We sat at a cafe on a street that leads onto Piazza di Spagna (where the Spanish Steps are) and I got rich rich chocolate (you all know I don't like chocolate much hey), straciatella (vanilla & choc chips) and mura (blackberries). So good! We went to the steps for a little bit, I took a couple of photos but it just looks like a picture of people, you can't see anything else. Plus there is all scaffolding at the top of the steps so you can't see what's there. Then we took the metro back home (argh metro is not nice, give me an action bus any day!) just in time for the pizzeria.

Tonight me, Marianne & Sibille are going to the church I was talking about the other day, Santa Maria del Popolo, and then apparently (Nicolas already went on Tuesday so he told me) we also go to the Ara Pacis and the mausoleum of Augustus which is good cos I wanted to go there anyway. The Ara Pacis (an Augustan monument - of propaganda - to commemorate peace in Augustus' reign) has been well-studied thanks to my favourite lecturer Ben - say hi for me, Alicia! (Also I will await the rod of Augustus HAHA). So I'm looking forward to that.

But before that I need to get back home and go to the supermarket as I've run out of food, so I'd better go. As always, thanks for all the comments, emails etc, they're the best! I am reading (and loving) your emails but it's hard to reply to them, so to those of you that have emailed thankyou, and I still do love you!

And now, a very quick

Lesson from Italia!

The Italian for horn (for your car, as opposed to any Kath/Kim hornbag horn) is 'il clacson'! It just sounds funny. Also funny but not really a lesson, was a Spanish guy in my class today trying to talk about throwing rice at weddings for good luck, but he was saying 'risotto' instead of 'rice' so it made for quite an amusing visual (hope the bride's dress wasn't too expensive, or she had the number for a good drycleaner)!

Hope all is going well back home, thinking of you all! (Yes, even YOU) 😉
Baci,
tess

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Comments

[Mum]

What a fun read
Martin probably flew Alitalia too and is still waiting on his luggage/undies!