Roma:visual travelogue

AS ROMA vs SS LAZIO

2006-12-11T23:14:00.000-08:00

sorry that i haven't been updating this blog much. school has been consuming my life. although i've been taking breaks only to watch ROMA/VALENCIA (champions league), and ROMA/LAZIO (derby) game. i've been waiting for the ROMA/LAZIO game for the entire semester. when i picked up my ticket for the valencia game, alec and i saw that the tickets for the ROMA/LAZIO game were on sale. we soon found out the it was impossible to go to the game. only fans who were members could get tickets to the game. he suggested we go to the LAZIO ticket station, although he never told us where one was. ha. good thing i remembered that earlier in the semester i had stumbled across one in search for a skate shop. so later that day niki and i got tickets to the game. we went to the lazio stop and asked for seats with the ROMA fans. after getting the tickets it was back to work. flash to the end of the week. we made it to the stadium and it was going insane an hour before the game. when we entered the grounds someone had lit a M80 (an M80 is about a third of a stick of dynamite). we stared at it as we walked passed, the BBBBOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!! niki yelled i peed a little bit, and i yelled back oh my heart!!! what a nice welcome. we found our gate and went through the large security system that was in place for the game. one of the security guards yelled NAKATA!!! yeah... anyway we found our seats and the stadium was already going insane. ROMA was on the curva sud and LAZIO was on the curva nord and both sides where we were sitting. the game was a let down LAZIO crushed ROMA 3-0. after the game we headed back to my apartment and got back to work.

DANCING, DISCOTECAS, AND DANGER!!!

2006-11-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

so last night (friday) trevor, scottie, and i went to meet the girls (angel, katelin, niki, amy, renita, jessica, melissa, sharron, ashley, laura, and katie) for a night of dancing. yes dancing. we decided to go beyond our normal bar/dance hall to a part of the city unfamiliar to all but some of the girls. testaccio is a part of town is known for their clubs. so we headed out from angel, katelin, niki, amy, and renita's apartment. we had to take the metro which means no walking home. from the metro we went to ashley's apartment and looked at the latest elle magazine while eating hot tamales. after making a mess of the apartment we headed out for a night full of dancing. we walked down to testaccio where all the clubs were located, there we met up with trevor, angel, and katelin. there we walked around until we found a club that didn't look ridiculous. these clubs have a absurd cover charge of ten dollars for guys, although we didn't have to pay them because of the ladies. the first club was all alright, they played nothing but gangster rap. it was pretty funny because we were the only people dancing in the club. the italians just watched as we all cut the rug to shreds. after about an hour it was time to find a club that had more people who wanted to dance. we then went to a place called coyote. after we got in we dance on the veranda to kylie minogue. this is where the night turn interesting. scottie and i were taking a break on a railing when some guy came and sat down ext to us. i got up and went back out on the dance floor and trevor took my place on the railing. all of a sudden trevor was pushed into the crowded dance floor. he then quickly turned around and headed back towards the guy who was sitting next to him (the guy wouldn't move over even when he had a foot of room on the other side of him). by this time the guy was theratning trevor ready to throw fists. trevor told him what he did was uncalled for and he was retarded for resorting to pushing (i was really impressed with the way trevor held his composure and was so calm in that situation). scottie was next to trevor, niki was in between the guy and trevor and i was trying to calm down the guy who was flipping out. all of a sudden i was shoved into the railing by his friend. so i confronted him and told him with colorful language that we were trying to resolve the situation. after everyone calmed down they left. i really hate this american male tough guy attitude, i thought i left that stuff back in ames. this kind of stuff makes americans look horrible to everyone else who is observing. so out of a packed club the americans are the ones causing trouble. wow.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE

2006-11-06T05:54:00.000-08:00

last weekend (november 2 to 5) our class went on our northern field trip to zurich and venice. we spent about 18 hours on trains this weekend. my roommates and i left for termini around 6:30 a.m. we then had a four hour train ride to the milano centrale where we a quick transferred to our next train which took us the rest of the way to zurich. on the train we went through the swiss alps also on the train people started to get crazy. zak started throwing bree rines at trevor while he was sleeping (maybe it would be funnier if you were there and trapped on a train for eight hours straight). when we finally arrived at the zurich bahnhof around 5:00 p.m. by the way zurich was COLD... Very, very, cold. it was nice though it actually felt like november should feel. i exchanged some of my euros into swiss francs and got on tram number 7 and headed towards the youth hostel near morgenthal. the hostel was amazing. it was very clean and nice. it had an fantastic common room with a fusball table, pingpong table, etc. i roomed with reid, scottie, and brenton in room 312. after getting settled we head back into the city and found something to eat that wasn't made entirely out of sugar. we found a nice mexican restraunt, it was pretty good. after that we headed back to the hostel and played some fusball. i went to bed early because the train wore me out and i needed to get pretty early the next day.

after waking up and getting ready for the i ate a nice breakfast buffet which consisted of a hard roll, yogurt, cereal, juice, and a cup of coffee. it was nice to finally have a decent breakfast. after the hearty breakfast scottie and i went and explored our neighborhood. we then headed back to the hostel to go to the plakatraum (poster gallery). there we saw some fantastic 40's and 50's italian/swiss style posters. they were absolutely amazing and i felt inspired to design for the first time in quiet a while. i bought a book on hand made posters which blew my mind. after the poster gallery we went across the street to the museum fur gestaltung, at the museum we viewed the swiss federal design prize and japanese poster today exibits. both were amazing. after the museum i ate lunch in the bahnhof which included a brat and roasted chestnuts. then i went to siegfried odermatt and rosmarie tissi's studio, their studio was filled with original famous posters that i've only seen in text books. i then helped them setup for their lecture to our class at the hulls school. after the presentation i went back to their studio and bought a siegfried's book which he signed for me. i went back to the hostel and met up with the guys and went out to dinner at a chinese resturaunt. after dinner i went to bed, i was still tired.

we had to get up early the next day and head to venice. the train ride was LONG. during the ride niki and amy put salad on me while i was out cold. they called me an oriental salad. i also heard that italians passengers where even taking pictures of me. after arriving at the train station we took a vaporetto to guidecca island (the zitelle stop) where our youth hostel was located. the hostel was nothing like the one in zurich. we shared a room with random travelers. some put his crap all over and left his beer cans on the floor of our room (thanks). we then went to piazza san marco and had a quick lecture from paula and cheri. the piazza was empty. after the lecture we had some free time in venice to have dinner and explore the island. most of our group at a sitdown restaurant, but scottie and i didn't feel like spending ten euros on a coke and a fruit cup. so we went to mcdonalds. i know but would you want to spend ten euros on a fruit cup and a coke? the answer is NO. exactly. after two hamburgers for two euros we explored the island. we made it back to the hostel around 10:30 and sat in the common room and played cards with leah and hana. did i ever tell anyone how bad i suck ate card games? i'm horrible at card games. around midnight the employees turned out the lights and told us to go to bed. so i did, but not because they told me to, but because i was tired. after a nights sleep i got up and decided to stay in venice with the group for the day. i was planning on coming home for the AS ROMA game against FLORENTINA, but when is the next time i'm going to be in venice. i spent the day walking through the streets of venice where we finally found our way to piazza san marco. the piazza was packed with people and pigeons. after spending an hour in the piazza we made our way back to the train station to pick up our bags and catch our trains back to rome. we made it back to rome around 12:30 p.m. so by this time the metro and buses had stopped running so i spent the night at niki's apartment. on monday afternoon i got back to the apartment. end of story.

so this trip has solidified that swizterland is one if not my favorite counrty that i've ever visited. hostels can be nice or a complete dive. and that mcdonalds is always there when you need it to be. also on monday night i saw the DEPARTED, it was the best film i've seen this year. warning it is violent...very violent.

HOOKAHS, HALLOWEEN & HAIRCUTS

2006-10-30T01:01:00.000-08:00

on friday alec and i went out to find some more chisha (sp) for the hookah. by the way it's a three hose hookah. anyway the chisha we first got was absolutely terrible dry and harsh. so we were told about a place closer to the studio. it was a nice shop that sold middle eastern rugs, beads, etc. alec asked if they sold chisha and he brought out some double apple. he then asked if he carried any other flavors, the man reach into a secret compartment in the seat he was sitting on and pulled out a box of some of the most potent double cherry chisha that i've ever seen. alec thought that we didn't have enough so the shop owner said if you don't have the money in 15 minutes he wouldn't sell it to us, because we were to much of a hastle. we actually had enough on us at the time. alec then asked if we ever needed anymore if he would sell us some more. the answer was no he said, "if you go through this entire box before two months your worst than the turks." we had a chuckle and were on our way.

yesterday the guys threw a halloween party. lets just say it was nothing short of amazing. given the lack of resources people came up with good costumes. out of the entire group of 70 designers about 40 made an appearance. the guys costumes were hilarious; zach was a terrorist, zak was the late steve irwin, alec was paula, nick was tom cruise, trevor was a pan handling gypsy, frank was a italian, reid was borat, scott was a turd, tony was static cling, and i was a panda. pictures courtesy of niki brown and the facebook.

i got a hair cut, and finally we got an appointment for last friday at nine for our permessos. they asked about tatoos, then the hand printed me. yes, you heard it correctly hand printed me. so finally i got my permesso of stay. if i hurt my self i can actually go to the hospital. also i'm heading out of the country on thursday for our northern fieldtrip. we are going to zurich and venice. but don't worry i'll be back in time for the florentina game on sunday.

AS ROMA vs CHIEVO VERONA

2006-10-25T00:08:00.001-07:00

on sunday twenty two designers went to the AS ROMA vs CHIEVO VERONA match. although days before the match trevor and i went to the ROMA store to purchase our tickets. we accidentily bought tickets for the curva sud (south side) instead of or regular curva nord. this means we were with the hardcore season ticket holder ROMA fans. everyone else got tickets for the curva nord. the game was really intense. ROMA had so many chances to put the ball in the goal but could never capitalize. there was an offsides and a hand ball in the box causing the goals to be withdrawn. VERONA scored first when the keeper rushed to the 18 but misses the tackle as well as a defender, this left the striker wide open. ROMA answered back with a string of fabulous passes leaving totti to slot it home. the south side went insane screaming TOTTI. the game ended in a draw. another great game. i think ROMA is at the top of the table in the SEIRE A. i might be going to a champions league match next tuesday. we'll see though.

MIDTERM

2006-10-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

i didn't get a midterm. so mom you don't have to worry. although i did get a ticket to the AS ROMA game. school is starting to pick up, we had a in class crit on our packaging prototypes. cheri and paula liked my idea of the broken bridge package. i've been working on my symbol and type journal as well. the topic is graffiti in centeral rome. i have to find as many non-crappy stencils and a wide variety of type and then analysis them. i've also started on working on an identity system for tiber island. i need a hair cut.

we started playing soccer at a park last monday. it feels great running around again. the pitch is absolutely horrible, i think everyone fell at least once. it was hilarious when the italians would stop to watch a bunch of americans look absolutely ridiculous trying to play soccer. although a lot of them wanted to play with us. i think this is going to be a weekly activity.

because of the amount of work that has come down on me this month and mom and jessie visiting in november niki and i are think about moving our trip to germany to late november/early december.

FIRST ALL NIGHTER

2006-10-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

i had to go back to my sight which was tiber island, because i heard that the bottom half of the island was open to the public. so niki and i decided to check it out. when we got there the stairs were being cleaned so niki climbed over the railing by the church (it was a less of a drop). she then started her way down the hillside made of cobblestone. i then hopped the fence and started down the hill. i saw her sitting and scooting down the side of the hill and asked myself why she was sitting. i then slipped on pine needles and fell on my tailbone, both hands, my right elbow, and my camera. i then proceeded to slide down the ten foot hill and got up quickly and tried to walk it off. niki burst out laughing and so did the doctors that were on their smoking break. note to self use the damn steps. after taking one of the hardest spills in a while i took some pictures of my sight and made some observations of the people visiting the island. then i decided to do some freestyle walking, because that's what all the cool kids do. ha. after going back to the studio i worked on my sketchbook until i had to go to art history. we went to the vatican where there were 1,500 german pilgrims. they were really loud and excited. they wore light blue shirts that read ROM. most of them were pretty nice and spoke english pretty well. the parents on the other hand were not cool, they would cut in line, push, and breath really hard on me. it was like they didn't know what a personal bubble was. this was weird because germans that i've met are so much more hospitable. one parent pinned me against a barrier and wouldn't let me pass trying to block me in so his kids could cut in front of me. so i said he should calm down, we're all going to the same place. he then pushed me hard into the barrier, so i push him back and got back with the rest of my class. after finally getting into st. peter's we were told we couldn't be there because of the size of our group and our professor wasn't supposed to be taking. so i guess he was the only one that couldn't talk, because everyone in the entire church was allowed to. so we had our leture on the steps. after class i worked until four in the morning. i then had to listen to a lecture on illuminated manuscripts. i love how they stress sketches and research when in the real world we might get a couple of hours instead of a month and a half of not doing anything productive. i 'm glad i'm paying a lot of money to do absolutely nothing. i just want a project that applies to graphic design not arts and craft. for adrianna's birthday niki and i bought her a 5 kg industrial size jug of nutella. she was happy.

SOUTHERN TRIP

2006-10-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

I’m really tired and I'’m at the studio because our Internet went out at the apartment. our trip started out by getting up at 5:1a.m.m. and making it to termini by 6:45. After getting our tickets and boarding the train I slept all the way Napoli. All I can say about Napoli is wow. I would describe Napoli as Detroit and Mexico City rolled into one. After arriving at stazione Napoli centerale we boarded charter bus that went to the museo archeologico. Everyone had a chance to see amazing sculptures from ancient Rome, this also included Pompeii erotica. After the museum Scottie, Alec, and I ventured out to find some lunch. Although the "food" we found was cheap. It was the greasiest thing in the world. Scottie had some pizza, Alec also had pizza but it had some white sauce on it and he only took one bite before having to get another piece. I had a sandwich, which had hot dogs and French fries that were on two pieces of what tasted like corn dog bread. It was gross, I felt horrible after eating this thing. It was the most greasy any of us had consumed in the last six months. Except for Scottie. After consuming the inconsumable we got back on the bus and headed to the museo capodimonte. I enjoyed the capodimonte much more due to the variety of the pieces. From a window in the museum I looked out across the urban sprawl and that was the only time Napoli looked decent. I wish we had more time at the museo capodimonte but we had to make our train to Sorrento. The train rid to Sorrento was hot and long. The only reason it felt so long was because I was standing for about 3/4 of the ride. After reaching Sorrento we divided up into groups based on the hotels we where staying. Tony, Trevor, and I were rooming together in another room was Zak, Zach, and Nick. Cheri also stayed at the hotel as well. We stayed at the Hotel Villa Elisa, which is a five minute walk from the train station. The hotel was beautiful. There was more vegetation in the courtyard than any place I'’ve seen so far in Rome. After getting settled in we had a cafe on the terrace and talked about what were ours plans after graduation, and if we had ever had any surgery. I know this was a very strange conversation. I then got ready for dinner at La Favorita O'Parrucchiano. I highly recommend La Favorita O'Parrucchiano it was absolutely beautiful and the food was amazing. After dinner some of went down to the coast and sat and drank a bottle of wine while admirring the sea. On the way back to the hotel Tony and I saw some pomigrantes and tried to pick some. I gave Tony a boost and held him while he tried to pick two from the tree. he got some but on the way down he dropped them. They weren't ripe, although they were quite sticky.

The next day i woke up around eight in the morning. I ate our FREE breakfast, the breakfast included a crossiant and a glass of oranage juice. after breakfast i found gel shaving cream at a tabacchi stand. this is the first time in italy that i've seen gel. i personally like gel because it gives me a closer cut. so i had gel finally but i forgot my razor, this knid of stuff only happens to me. as i was going back to the hotel i was cat called by ten year old girls from a third story window. there are so many things wrong with that situation. ha. when i got back to the hostel we packed and went to the train station. we then headed to pompeii for a full day of touring. after arriving in pompeii we ate lunch and bought our tickets. we then proceeded to try to check our bags, but they luggage station was to small and had to walk around the outside of the ruins to another station. after checking our bags we had to walk another 15 minutes to meet our tour guide. after meeting her she wanted to discuss how she was going to get paid and how she wanted it up front. she wasted 20 minutes with this crap. she new she was going to get paid, this totally set a bad mood of the group. also she was a horrible tour group leader, she knew where everyone wanted to go but never really took us there (everyone wanted to see the bodies). what a waste of time. after wasting the day in pompeii i headed to amalfi with the girls. we took the train back to sorrento and took a ferry to amalfi. i didn't get sick on the ferry. after getting to amalfi angel realized that she had forgot her camera on the ferry that was pulling a way. after that horrible situation we started walking to our hostel which was the next little town over. it was about a five minute walk from amalfi. after getting to the hostel we were given our room assignments. katie, jessica, melissa, and hana shared a room. amy, angel, katelin, adrianna, niki, renita, shared another. ashley, kasey, joey, joe, and kelly shared the third. wait where was i sleeping? i was given a closet. literally a closet that had a bed. the only thing protecting my bag was a luggage lock. seriously. after getting settled in my closet we got something to drink and sat on the rocks by the coast. on the rocks we met a girl named ola from australia. she has been travelling by herself for the last three months. this is her winter break, you know that whole messed up southern hemisphere thing. anyway i was tackled by niki and had to wrestle her on the beach. it was fun. after getting all sandy i went to bed. the next day we went to the beach. after eatting our FREE breakfast. amy, niki, and i head to amalfi because we heard that the beaches were a little nicer. the water felt nice, but the mixture of salt water and tropical twist trident gum was absolutely terrible. after the beach we walked back to ... and ate at a local cafe. i had a "hamburger" which ended up to be more like a steak burger. it was still fantastic. after lunch i met up with adrianna and we sat on a bench which over looked the beach and the sea. after we walked back to amalfi with amy and niki and saw the tail end of a wedding and bought some limoncello and wow it packed a punch. after doing a little shopping adrianna and i went to ravello. the ride to ravello was scary, it was a 20 minute ride up a mountain which looked to be only a lane and a half. everytime we would turn the driver would blare the horn to let everyone know we were coming. after that horrible ride we finally reached ravello. the town was surreal, it felt like i was standing in the sqaure and the town was floating. we didn't spend much time in ravello, but we did have enough time to buy gelato. then it was time for another hellish ride down the mountain. after getting back adrianna, niki, ola, and i went to dinner. we then discussed bizzare topics. after dinner we met up with the rest of our group who had already started the night of fun. although someone was being quite the ass so i decidedd to go to bed early. that night was crazy. if you really want to know what happened just ask. i didn't get much sleep that night and the conversation over breakfast was an interesting one. after breakfast niki, adrianna, melissa, renita, amy, and i decide to head back to rome. we decided to take a bus to solarno( which is an hour south of amalfi) because the girl at the ferry stand told us it would be easier. so to make a long story short the bus rie made me sick and the train was a long one. we made it back to rome around 6:30 p.m. i made it back to my apartment around seven.

GOING SOUTH

2006-09-28T02:09:00.000-07:00

after two days a week for three weeks italian is finally over. for the amount of time i learned quite a lot. enough to squeak by for three months. not much is happening school wise, this seems to be an underlining theme for the semester. ha. this weekend (september 29th to– october 2nd) is our southern field trip. we're going to naples, sorrento, pompei, and the almalfi coast. after the 30th i'm going to go with some friends to the almalfi coast. they've found a hostel and rented a five and six person(s) room. it should be an expierence, ten girls and james. after i get back from the southern field trip i was looking into going to germany. i found some cheap tickets that would fly us to dusseldorf on the 13th of october. we would then be in germany until the 16th. well, that's all i have for know.

RANDOMNESS

2006-09-23T03:27:00.000-07:00

over the last two days i've been doing really tourist things. my art history class visited the paletine hill, the coliseum, and i made it to st. peter's basilica. all were breath taking and i'm glad i revisited them. the pieta was beautiful it still gave me goosebumps looking at that statue. this is a little off track but if you're ever in taking pictures turn your flash off, seriously your picture will turn out horrible and it's really annoying to everyone around you (in st. peter's a group of americans were talking rather loud and taking pictures with their flashes). the days are finally starting to pick up and that's a good thing. also i'm not sleeping until noon anymore (ha...sorry bad joke, i never slept til noon mom).

RANDOMNESS:
i've notice that people in rome walk around in the middle of the day shopping not working. another thing people HATE giving change. simona my italian professora says give crap right back, or just don't pay and walk away. also i'm getting tired of romans throwing things at me. just because they have a social disease when it come to talking to girls doesn't mean i do!!!

AS ROMA vs INTER

2006-09-21T05:04:00.000-07:00

after going to my last italian class alec, frank, zak, zach, nick, and myself had a bite to eat and were out the door heading to the stadio olympico to watch AS ROMA vs INTER match. we finally found the tram that would take us as far as the river. this saved us about a 50 minute walk. after getting to the stadio we bought some scarves. mine looks a lot like a harry potter scarf. anyway we found out that the game started at 8:30 pm. it was 5:00 pm when we found this out. none of us had checked our tickets for the match time. as we were walking a way from the stadium some old woman started to swear at me in italian and made racial slurs, while pointing at me just to let me know that she was talking to me. everyone was very confussed. after that experience we went to a café and some of the guys bought some beer and we sat in a park close by and talked until game time. after everyone had killed their drinks we found some seats in the general area of our own seats. people normally don't care about assigned seatting here, it's basically first come, first serve. although this time a guy wanted his seat and kicked zak out of his seat. so we moved closer. the game was amazing. we saw so many stars playing it wasn't even funny. the fans were going nuts and i heard that there were about 66,000 fans at the game. inter pulled out the victory with an amazing goal by herman crespo. the inter fans came out in force, there was definetly some bad blood between the roma and inter fans. at the end of the game when the inter fans started teasing the roma fans, some roma fans broke threw the plexiglass barriers. nothing happened though. so in short the game was amazing and that old italian woman...yeah.

NOTTE BIANCO: school and stuff

2006-09-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

i'm sorry that i haven't posted anything in quite a while. not much has happened since my last post. last weekend rome had a city wide celebration notte bianco (white night). it was crazy people on the streets until six in the morning. all the museums were open all night a long with all the shops. my roommates and steph, elisa, and jennifer walked around campo d'fiore and sat around the cat sanctuary eatting gelato.

school is finally getting into a routine. i've started sketching and researching tiber island for my corporate identity class, i've also learned the art of making pamphlet, hard and soft cover stitched books. i don't know what to think about my art history professor. he really doesn't seem very motivated about teaching. he looks like he rolled out of bed and has a massive five o'clock shadow. my italian is class is INSANE. my professora is pregnant and very moody, but nice. so my overall opinion of this semester is it costs a lot and i don't know i'm going to learn. there is never a dull moment in the apartment. i've made friends with the locals at the pizzeria around the corner. i might have talked about this already, anyway i buy these sticky rice balls that are mixed with tomato sauce, and motzerella in the middle. they're called suppli and they are the best thing in the entire world. i'm already getting tired of eating pasta, and i'm not a big pork fan. the only real good hot meal i've had in about three weeks is the breaded chicken, pasta, and salad that katie made for us. other than that i eat turkey on horrible bread with Parmesan. wednesday september 20th, 2006 i'm going to the AS ROMA vs INTER MILAN match at the stadio olympico.

AS ROMA vs LIVORNO

2006-09-10T03:47:00.000-07:00

today i went to the opening match between AS ROMA and LIVORNO. i woke up around eight and tried to find the easiest way to the stadium. that was a task in and of itself. then i had to try to contact everyone that was going to the match (which was about 20 people). after that alec and i went to del corso and found cheap roma t-shirts. around 3:00 pm we finally had everyone rounded up and walked the three miles it would take to reach the stadio olympico. after the three mile marathon walk we got to the stadium and found our gate. after get frisked and our tickets scanned we made to our seats. for 15 euro seats they were amazing. we were at most 70 yards from the pitch. it seems that you can sit where ever you want in the stadium (at least on the visitors end). the people in our section were a little sketchy. they came looking normal, but then suddenly changed into their game attire. this consisted of hats and scarves that shielded their faces from the authorities. across the pitch in the home section the roma fans were waving their huge flags and started chants. then around 5 minutes before kick-off the livorno fans started to arrive (about five). this started the roma fans to go absolutely crazy. they ran to the Plexiglas barrier and started pounding and yelling at them. all of a sudden about 300 more livorno fans appeared in the away section. the roma and livorno fans started yelling at each other and then a barrage of bottles full of spit, urine, feces flew over the barrier both ways. reid and i were hit by a cell phone and a large bike lock land right in front of the girls, they moved seats after that. all of a sudden a livorno fan hit a security guard and the police in riot gear came rushing in and started hitting the livorno fans. this happened within the first 15 minutes of the game. the first half of the game was really slow until de rossi latch on to a ball cleared after a corner and blasted it into the net. the next goal came from a beautiful cross by totti and someone put a head on it which the keeper couldn't handle, and manchini poked in the bottom left corner. roma then got a third chance after awarded a PK, totti beat the keeper but shanked it way to the left. the came ended 2-0. what a way to start off the season.

Birthday and more

2006-09-07T03:19:00.000-07:00

i haven't updated my blog in a while, because I've been trying to figure out my schedule that they give to us day by day. not really much has happened lately. although on my birthday (September 5th) i got a ticket to watch AS ROMA's opening game against Livorno. it's at the stadio olympico this saturday. that night i went out with the girls and tony. i will not do that again anytime soon. my class schedule is not planned very well. although italian will be done in three weeks.

CLASS SCHEDULE:

Monday: IT (4:30-6:30)
Tuesday: 484 (10:30-12) 481 (3:30-5:00)
Wednesday: 470 (10:30-12) 484 (2:30-3:30) IT (3:30-5:30)
Thursday: ART H (3:30-6:30)
Friday: 470 (9-12)

i'm finally being able to walk around and not get lost. although i do not suggest walking in the ghetto alone in the dark though.

DAY 5: first day of class

2006-09-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

i woke up today and went to another orientation. after that i paid for text books and a key deposit. after dropping more money and not getting a recipt, i went and had lunch with katie, hana, and leah at buono. the man at the counter again asked me, "chinese, hong kong, no korean." then he told me how he does a lot of martial arts. i haven't done martial art since i was five. anyway i had a piece of basil pizza, which was fantastic. after that i walked across the river to tresevre which had a larger supermarcato. after getting nothing but drinks we walked back to my apartment and sat around until 4:30 p.m. then we went to italian and met our pregent instructor simona betrello (sp). when italian ended around 6:30 tony, reid, and i went and picked up our ikea stuff from the girls apartment since brenton was lazy and brought only his stuff back. on the walk back i stopped at the pizzaria on the corner on del arco ciambella (our street), and got some more pizza (patato this time). after that we saw a sign advertising the roma/juventus friendly match. so the apartment went down to the irish pub and watched the match. since they could find the match until halftime they gave everyone free jager shots. when the match ended 1-0 roma, we walked back home and puttered around the apartment until we got tired and fell a sleep.

DAY FOUR: TRIP TO IKEA

2006-09-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

i woke up today around noon, ate a bowl of cereal and went to ikea with tony, reid, brenton, his fiance laurel, and kristen (laurel's roommate). we took a taxi to ikea where i bought a non-crappy pillow, and a badass comforter, (i'll try to post a picture of it), a rug, etc. we then got outside and tony asked laurel how are we going to get back. she didn't know. we then tried to call taxi sevices with the help from ikea personel, but to no avail. we then heard of a bus stop across the highway that would take us to a metro station that would get us closer (that's where ikea is located by the highway). we crossed the highway with our bags of ikea stuff only to find out that the bus stop is not there, and where ever this mystery bus stop was it was a 50 minute walk. we never found this bus stop. at the gas station across the highway we all got water and i bought a map so we might have a chance to get back home. we then crossed the highway again and went back to ikea where some stayed outside and others tried calling phone numbers on an emergancy card given to us on orientation day. all the numbers on the card are COMPLETE crap. no one would answer the phone. so with daylight disappearing we decided to walk the 15 miles back home. we started out walking on the shoulder of the highway until we finally reach a residential neighborhood that was a little sketchy. we walked more than two-thirds of the way back before we finally could flag the first taxi we saw. the cab driver could only take 5 of the 6 of us so tony, reid, and i decided to walk the rest of the way. the cab driver pointed to the other side of the road where there was supposed to be a cab caller. yeah it didn't work. so we found a pizzaria right next to it and ate our first meal of the day. we finally flagged down a cab and got home. good thing we didn't try to walk it. it would have taken us another 3 hours. so the moral of the story is don't go to ikea which is 15 miles out of the centeral part of rome on a sunday with no map, a bad emerency phone card, and no way to get home. otherwise you'll be walking home.

2nd & 3rd DAY

2006-09-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

DAY TWO: after walking up late (around noon) i ate a bowl of frosted flakes and was on my way with tony and reid. scottie, reid, and i went to the ATM machine near the pantheon. there we took some pictures and they got some money. scott and reid became fasinated with the most haggard door in the entire world and took a million pictures of how the light was interically playing with the door. people would stop look at them, then look at this haggard door but couldn't figure it out. two waitors were watching them from a door, then finally one of them came over and asked why they were taking pictures of such a crappy door. considering that the panethon was across the plaza. after they explained it to them he laughed and walked back to his shop. i really didn't do much that day. around six angel and katelin stopped by with niki, renita, and amy. we then went to piazza nuovo. there we found a bar that catered to americans. the special was with every pint you purchased you would get a free shot. the only reason i went into this place was because they had the uefa cup on. after sitting there for a while i went and got some gelato (cafe and chacolat). it was so much i could barely finish it. scott, alec, and i then walked around piazza nuovo watching a magic show and fire throwers (both were bad). after we got back to the bar renita had got the phone number to our hot waitress (ha). after that we started to head back to the apartment and stopped at the pantheon where a movie was being filmed. after we got back to the apartment and everthing started to slow down, the rest of the guys came back. this is when we found out that zak got his new camera/video recorder stolen. he was pissed. more drinking occured until about four in the morning. i went to be around two.

DAY THREE: i got up around seven this morning for our orientation/walking tour. the rest of the house started sturring around 8:30, we ate breakfast and headed out the door. after getting speeches we had a little break and went on the longest tour of our OWN neighborhoods. after that everyone went to bed and nick and i went back to the trevi fountain, and bought a official roma flag for the living room. after that i took a nap. the guys went and saw tv on the radio, and i went to the spanish steps with jennifer, elisa, stephanie, lindsey, brittney, and andrea. after that i went to bed.

1st full day in rome

2006-09-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

today started off well. i woke up around 7 a.m. and updated this blog, before heading to the supermarcato with alec. the supermarcato is located across from the pantheon. it was a little chilly out this morning, but i hear that it won't last. we got back and tony arrives at the appartment and we go to the collegio ramano so i can get a pair of keys that actually work (the night before i came home and wanted to try my keys only to find out that i had two outside door keys so i couldn't get into the apartment). after getting the keys we met up with angel and katelin at the collegio. we then went to the studio were we checked to see if alec and frank's luggage had arrived. it hadn't so they are on day three of the same clothing. by the time we had returned everyone else had arrived (zak, zach, trevor, and nick). we all went back to the supermarcato and bought some groceries. everyone seemed to end up with similar items milk, cereal, pasta with sauce, and wine. after returning to the apartment tony, katelin, angel, reid, and i set off to find as roma tickets. we found a shop that sells them but they don't actually sell them until days before the game. after we found the shop we went looking for cellphones and ended up back at the studio where niki and adrianna were at the computers. niki was waiting for her baggage and adrianna was on the floor sleeping. after talking with them we looked for cellphones to no avail. by this time we were pretty hungery and ate at a shop called buono. in the shop i was asked if i was chinese. i answered no, he then asked if was from hong kong. i answered i was american, but i knew he wanted to know my nationality. so i told him i was korean. he then proceeded to speak to me in korean, i ignored him. i ate two slices of pizza, tony had some pasteries, and angel and katelin had sandwiches that were a little burnt. actually there sandwiches were black (bwahahaha). after lunch we decided to go to angel and katelin's. we walked past capitoline hill the colosium, and then into the forum. after our little adventure we made it to their apartment which i think was on the sixth floor. they gave us a tour of their place and then we went on the roof. i almost died walking up and back down. after spazzing out on the roof we walked to amanda's apartment. as we were walking to her place through a park (we were trying to find a short cut) on the ground were dirty needles and dog crap. when we arrived at amanda's we took a short tour and were on our way. later that night we had people over and they drank wine. lots of wine. we then went out for gelato and ate it on the steps of the panetheon. reid then tried to do handstands in front of the pantheon. he got an applause from the crowd. we then returned to the apartment where we got the soccer ball where tony, reid, scottie, and i went out into the streets and attempted to juggle the ball. a woman open her window and started to yell so we moved to an open square. after that we went to bed.

i'm stupid and tired

2006-08-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

after getting settled in i went out with my roommates and leah to the trevi fountain. i tried to throw a coin over my left shoulder backwards into in the fountain. i recommending not to try this when there are a lot of people. i hit some random guy HARD in the back. i was trying to get it over everyone but failed horribly. i then walked around rome until 8:30 p.m. with leah. around 9:00 i went out for some gellato. around 10 i went to bed only to be woken up by people yelling in the damn street around 1:30. i put my ear plugs in and went back to bed. by the way i signed up for skype.

getting to rome

2006-08-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

getting to rome was an experience i do not want to recreate for a while. our flight from des moines to chicago was fine, we left and arrived on time. after we got there things started to become a little more stressful (not too much though). i forgot that we had to take a shuttle to get to the international gates and then someone misplaced her boarding pass and had to get another one. by this time i wasn't feeling so hot because i didn't take my motion sickness medicine. so i ate two chicken sandwiches and took so medicine. our plane from chicago to rome left 45 minutes late. i think the pilot said there were 12 planes waiting to take off a head of us. ( i really didn't catch what he was saying due to the fact that i was out cold by this time). it was so hot in the plane because the didn't turn on the engine that run the air conditioner. it felt like horrible. after we left chicago the flight it self wasn't to bad. my in flight meal was chinese chicken. we arrived in london and were escorted to our gate after going threw customs. the plane waited for us since we made up about a third of it. the flight fro london to rome wasn't bad (almost two hours). i slept for most of it. after collecting our baggage (some of our group didn't get there baggage and were figuring it out when i left) i took a shuttle to the collegio romano were i picked up my keys and found brenton waiting for laurel. we then went to the apartment and settled in. the apartment is huge. we are on the second floor of the piazza cinque scole #19A, there are about six rooms and four bathrooms. we also have internet. as you walk in you enter the dining room it has a long table that can sit about nine people. there are also three refriderators. the apartment then split into three different wings. scottie, reid, and brenton's room i think they have a balcony. there's also a large room made up to accommodate four other guys. then there's the kitchen (which has your basic cooking whatever), which then leads to alec and frank's room. the living room is enormous. this brings me to my room. at this current time i have the room to myself. it's an average size room with a window looking out into the street. the bed is not very comfortable but better than a couch. alec warned me about how it gets super loud around 1:30 in the morning. because of the location of the street to the room.

what i know so far

2006-08-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

i have so much i need to do before i leave for rome. i recently recieved my address in rome. it's Via Arco della, Ciambella 19, Apt. #1A. i think i'm two blocks away from the pantheon. i think you should google earth me and holla at yo boy. sorry bad joke. it's bizarre how everyone has been displaced across the city, i haven't heard of any two groups staying in the same building. it should be fun. i'm going to buy a vespa.

later mortal