Piacere!

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Rome is amazing. Seriously. If you have never been here, come here. NOW! I'll take you to my favorite pizza place (more on that later!)

We've been doing a lot of the touristy things lately... all those were amazing, of course, but I have found in my travels that the more interesting stories are the ones that are unusual.

Yesterday was my ideal day. I woke up to tons of emails from advisers and profs who were trying to figure out details of my graduation plan. I don't really feel like explaining the problem, it's just a huge headache that would have been avoided if I hadn't gone on this trip. BUT! I think I either worked it out or it will be worked out soon. It's a huge weight off my shoulders, but I still have a lot to do.

Then, Shannon and I decided to go to a cafe to read and drink cappuccino. On the way, we found this great full length mirror on the curb next to a dumpster... and decided to take it home. It was gigantic and so heavy!! We lugged it back all the way to our place (we were pretty far, too). So we're walking down the streets of Rome with this huge mirror and people kept talking to us and smiling and laughing... we loved every minute of it. It was so ridiculous. It's great though because they were talking about going to Ikea to get a mirror! Now they have one for free.

Then we finally went back to the cafe and had our cappuccino and read. It was great; it felt like such a genuine thing to do. It felt like we're not just tourists, we live in Rome! On the way home, we passed a tailor and decided to see how much it would cost to get my pants hemmed. Of course, he spoke about as much English as I do Italian. He was so nice though, he kept calling in people as they passed on the street to see if they could translate. Eventually through our broken conversation, we communicated.

I feel as though the people who don't speak English are much more receptive and kind to us than the people who do speak English. It seems as though they really appreciate it when we try to speak Italian, while the people who speak English are just annoyed by us. How curious.

Today was pretty great, too. There's this amazing pizza place downstairs. The owner, Amadeus, is so funny! He's really energetic and says "Mamma Mia!!" like a stereotypical pizza maker. It seems as though he enjoys having us as customers... we're entertaining. We taught him the art of the high five, and now he won't stop giving up high fives. His English is decent, but there are still a few moments that are lost in translation. Now that he found out that I know some Italian, he's been speaking to me in Italian really quickly.

The other night, we were down there, he was making our pizza, and he motions to the dough and says jokingly, "You want make?" I was like "SI! SI!!" He apparently wasn't expecting me to want to make pizza, and he laughed and laughed... He was like "ok, domani, you make the pizza!" We came back today, he went into the back, and came out with an apron and gloves, and opened the door to the back for me. So I made a calzone! (By made, I mean he would show me how to make it, I would do it, and then he would do it over. Fail.) It was delicious... but we didn't bring our cameras! Hopefully next time he'll let me make it and we'll bring our cameras.

Good times. And it's only been a week!

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