Lake Como

After a very long and tiring Olympic adventure, we all hoped back onto a train for Lake Como. When we arrived we could see really high lights, and we thought there were mountains around, but we couldn't actually see them. Sarah and I, again booking late, had missed out on the hostel and instead made reservations at a bed and breakfest. Sooo, we waited around for a taxi for a while, and when one didn't come for a really long time, we decided to phone the b&b to have them call one for us. To my grand suprise the woman on the other end answered hello! (I was all ready to budst out my Italian.) She called us a taxi, and we headed up into the mountains! We finally arrived at a large three story villa stuck in the side of a mountain overlooking the lake! The woman, whose name was Nicole, invited us in, and offered us some wine by the fireplace. Plus, we had our own room with a balcony overlooking the lake. Nicole and her husband Paul were from London, and essentially they just adopted us for the weekend- kind of strange, but also kind of nice. Plus it was amazing to watch tv in English! The next day we slept in til 11, then had a huge breakfast of pastries, nutella, grapefruit juice, tea, and pineapple for like an hour, then took a nap, then took long hot showers. It was heavenly!!! The way lake como works it is a bunch of small mountains surrounding the fork shaped lake, with the alps beyond. It is the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life. It is also the home of George Clooney! Paul showed us pictures of George's villa which was "just down the road" and complained about how "Clooney and Brad always race their boats out there" in front of the house. We then ventured out, saw the Duomo, shopped a little, and then went to the top of a mountain!! We took this very sketchy cable car up a pretty much 90 degree angle, but it was soooo worth it. At the tope we could see the entire area, plus Torino and Switzerland!!!! It was crazy, and soooooo cool. We got some hot chocolate up there- and there was actually snow. After we made it back down, we met up with the rest of our friends for some Barollo (famous northen italy wine as featured on the good morning america olympic special) and cheese! The next day we traveled to Bellagio, an area rumored to be one of the most beautiful areas in all of Europe. We did get some great pics, but we also almost got stranded. Never travel anywhere in Italy on a Sunday! We thought that perhaps we might never get to leave and we would miss our train and then I would miss my Philosophy exam the next morning at 9:30, but we prayed a lot and God took pity on us and sent us a bus, and a kindly bus driver who let us on for free since there was no where open to buy tickets!! Then the bus drove back through the mountains on roads that were 2-way, but only big enough for 1 car, so it would go around curves and honk to hope that no other car would venture to come around the curve from the opposite direction! But, we finally did make it home at like 10pm, and I hadn't started studying for philosophy- yikes!!! Oh well, we'll see what happens. Overall, Lake Como- my new favorite place!

Olympics: Torino 2006

As I was saying, Thursday night I took a midnight train out from Rome to Torino with Sarah, Sarah, Emily, Catie, Colin, and Joe. While leaving Rome at 12 and arriving at Torino at 8am seemed like a good and efficient idea, it was actually not so pleasant. We arrived slightly tired, to say the least, but at least we had the Italian mochas waiting to greet us. Luckily, Sarah and I scored 2 of the remaining 3 tickets left to the Womens Russia v. Switzerland hockey game, which everyone else already had tickets to. And since we were such slackers, all that was left was 6th row!!! I cheered for Switzerland, and of course, they lost, but it was fun anyways. And I bought a coca-light and the bottle says: olympic live on it, which I thought was pretty cool. I was actually really suprised that I could enjoy hockey. Although, Sarah and I kept hoping the whole time they might bust out a flying-v and we could start quacking. The atmosphere was very cool, but a little bit of a let down because the games were soooo spread out. All the venues were bus rides away from each other. Nonetheless, we had a good time, took pics with the creepy mascots, and spent tons in the olympic village! They even had a place for people to try curling, which has to be the most ridiculous sport i've ever seen. Our train left Torino at 7, so it was a very fast, tiring, but exciting day!

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

This weekend was quite a crazy time! Friday was Sarah's 20th birthday! Since we were taking a midnight train out Thursday night, we did a little premature partying at the JFRC. Chinese takeout, champange, gelato cake, When Harry Met Sally, and a little kareoke. It was a slammin good time!

Tara and Sarah's Wonderful Romantic Valentine's Weekend

Yes, that's right, Sarah and I are here without our wonderful men to join us, and since we decided to stay in Rome this Valentine's weekend and get to know the city more, we planned and had a wondeful and romantic day. We started off shopping and walked the entirety of Via del Corso, ending in Pizza Popolo. There we did a quick tour of a church and walked to up the hill to be greeted with a grand view of the city. From there we walked through grand Villa Borgehese (the central park of rome) and ate tantilizing desserts with pastry, creme, chocolate, and strawberries, atop the Spanish steps during sunset. We didn't think the day could get much better. We then decided to stroll the shops of La Republica and being a little hungry and a little curious we decided to be adventurous and try this resturant we had written down. My mom gave me a magazine while in Rome that had the top romantic resturants of Rome, and this one looked pretty interesting: Hostaria Antica Roma. Sooo, the cab started to drive us there and we were a little scared- we thought maybe he was leading us down some deserted dark roads to kill us in the night- turns out no, he was going the right way, the resturant was just in this really ancient and dark part of Rome. So we get there, and just as the cab is pulling away the guy looks at us shakes his head and says, "You are too early! It is 6, we don't open til 8." And we're like 'shit'. We were kind of scared again, but we'd thought we'd be okay because there were tons of cars and people around. He explains that he is having his neice's 11th birthday party, but we are welcome to wait and have some drinks. So intially we think he kind of hates us for being stupid americans, but then, he says "come see, come with me". And we're like, what? Come to your niece's party with all these Italians, okay then.. but we did and we laughed at the millions of children running around the really nice resturant. Then we sat and he gave us some nice sparkling white wine. He proceeds to tell us that he loves americans! and especially JOHN BELUSHI! In fact he would later show us a life size painting of John Belushi in a toga outside the resturant. He further elaborates that he loves Animal House, and has a nickname thus in his Harley Davidson chapter, the only Harley chapter in Italy. So by this point we're pretty much having a good time, and he keeps giving us wine and leftover orderves from the party, as well as some pretty tight balloon animals. He also gave us a huge book regarding the history of the resturant and articles from around the world writing it up as pretty much awesome. In there, we found out it is the oldest resturant in Rome: 1796 to be exact. It actually used to be a mausoleum, and it is this super ancient building that has these indents that used to hold urns of ashes. Yet I swear, it feels romantic! The resturant had been family owned since the 80s, and this guy we were talking to was the chef! So we keep talking and eating, also the food was supposed to be spiced like of old according to Anticus(?). He further told us that he had studied in Florida, and told us he had had this enourmous birthday party in San Francisco where he got high after getting drunk, threw up on his Armani suit, and walked around in only his underwear. When we finally ordered we got the salmon and buffalo mozeralla appetizer, we each got a dinner special: Sarah got lasagna, an old recipe created before the discovery of America and therefore no tomatoes (which she says was amazing), and I had a crepe filled with sea bass and artichokes which I say was amazing, plus rosemary potatoes for a vegetabe, and the red wine of his choosing. Least to say it was the best meal either one of us have eaten- ever- seriously not joking. And of course in between he brings us deep fried califlower, and cheese and bread, only this was no ordinary cheese, it is Virgil's cheese, yeah you know Virgil- the poet. Yeah. Yeah. So then we are painfully stuffing this food down, partly becuase it is so good, and partly out of respect. But of course we had to have dessert! So we order a double chocolate mousse to share, which of course is brought along with two extra creme pastries. And the mousse is the absolute most amazing thing I have ever put in my mouth. As he watches us take the first bite he reminds us that he really wants a greencard, and that he can make that... just fyi. By this time we have been at the resturant oh... 4 hours!!!!!! It was a true luxurious amazing Italian meal, where we made good friends with the chef. I forgot to say he also gave us a tour, and his private email and phone number just in case we ever got into trouble. We were just in the most fantastic mood ever, we could not stop smiling the entire taxi home. And after that dinner I think we both seriously gained 10 pounds and had to come straight home, to write this entry and then go to sleep. Buona Notte!

Venice Pics

Hello everyone, at least I hope everyone, I don't really know if anyone actually reads this, but at least I'll have it when I'm done :-). Yesterday I went to Pompeii, you know Mount Vesuvius and preserving and entire population. It was pretty cool, really neat to see some place you've read about since third grade. A little morbid, the city wasn't covered in lava, it was covered in volcanic material- essentially if you will the stuff that made up the "cork" of the volcano. So, people were simply buried alive, and there were spaces or cavities where their bodies were. Excavaters then pumped plaster into these cavities, and when the took the volcanic matter away they were left with these casts of people. It includes their bonds, and on some you can even see the imprints of their cloaks and sandals. Pretty damn creepy, and I felt a little morbid. Anyways, we had a good time, but ruins don't really do it for me. Plus we had to get up at 6am and it was a 4hr bus ride both ways. If anything, I am learning how to travel well. Oh and some day, ask to here about the bathrooms at Pompeii- I don't think I can explain in words- lets just say we girls got a lot closer to each other....

So a little update on Rome Center life, the rest of the week with mom and dad was great. It was really nice to spend time with the family. We had some more great meals in rome, good gelato, and I got to see all the sites again, which was really nice, because I don't spend enough time here. Mom and I can also now say the we've walked the entirty of Via del Corso, the most famous shopping street in Italy. Wow, do I wish I could buy everything there all the time!!! Don't worry- I didn't spend too much money :-). Also in the midst of all this, I went my second time to my volunteer sight. As part of my human rights class I am volunteering at La Casa di Giorgia, which is a home for immigrant women and children. I have met some really amazing people, both the staff and the clients. Plus, I am learning a lot- who knew that Italy was a major destination for African refugees? I've met a lot of women from Eritrea, which is a country I didn't even know existed. On Wednesday, I played my first Calcio game! Calcio is Italian soccer, and the Rome Center ha their own league. It is pretty intense, we play on old tennis courts, and last week a guy broke his hand and had to have surgery yesterday! Yikes! We've also been having a lot of blackouts- according to my film teacher because Italy doesn't actually own any source of power, and our kareoke night got cancelled because of smog..? Yeah that confused me too until someone explained that if there is smog, the government picks either odd or evens, and if your license plate falls under whichever they choose you can't drive. Yeah, wow would that never go over in the US. Anways, send me e-mails all you who read this! I want to know what's going on where you are!

Venice

Wow, so I have been slacking off and haven't updated in a while... but a lot has been going on! This past week/end my parents came into town. They flew in last Thursday morning at like 8, and I not only made them stay up all day but then fly to Venice that night. Least to say they were a bit jet lagged and not too happy with me. Nonetheless, at like ten pm that night we jumped on a water-bus in Venice!!!! Venice is completely navigated on foot and by canal, there are no roads or cars, just waterways and gondolas! It was absolutely amazing, especially to come in at night with all the buildings lit up around us. The architecture is mixed through the centuries but there are enormous churches, palaces, and ornate bridges. The city mapping however, not so good. That whole streets being parallel is apparently not an Italian thing. So it took us a while to find the hotel- but that too ended up being very cool. Nothing like the hostels I am used to. Plus the room was only prepped for 2, so they just had to give me my own queen sized room. I know, life is hard... So yeah, the next day we went exploring with Rick Steves as our guide. Venice is famous for blown glass and masques! They have the third largest Mardi Gra in the world and everyone wears masquerade gear- and we are having our on masquerade at the Rome Center- so of course I need an authentic mask. And like every other city (in the world I 'm coming to find) we checked out billions of churches and works of art. Of course we also investigated Italy's most famous art: dining! Not gonna lie, it is much easy to experience food when mom and dad are paying. I think over the course of the week we literally must have had 20 bottles of wine, plus a lot of pizza, pasta, bread, and caprese (italian dish with tomatoes and mozzarella). Probably the highlight of the trip for me was the all classic and ever expensive: gondola ride! My friends were also in Venice for the weekend with school, and we met up with them (by accident) at sunset on Rialto bridge at sunset. After exposing my mom to petrofils, we decided that we needed to take the gondola ride in Venice, so mom and dad, sarah, olenka, lindsay, and I all piled in and took a tour of the grand canal in a gondola!! I know I'm probably making a boat ride out to be more than it is, but c'mon! I think every girl (maybe boy) dreams her whole life of getting to float through the canals of venice on a gondola! Granted, I was slightly disappointed I was with my parents and three girl friends instead of my boyfriend, but oh well, still a good time. On Sunday we got up at 4am and flew back to Rome, and then preceded to walk the city- which was quite intense. I was just a little tired. Nonetheless, a little as expected, I think Venice is my new current favorite city :-).