Snow showers? Florence? Same sentence?

Current collection of dramatic arms-up pictures

There are a few missing. The ones from the mountain top in Assisi are on someone else's camera that I still need to get, and some others in the same situation as well.

Epiphanies, coffee, and the art of stealing

On the surface, it might appear as a fairly uneventful week here at JFRC. Its the first full week of classes, although for some of us (me) we continued to switch classes throughout the week six different times and the first full week of official semester schedule wont start till next week. Nonetheless, it was mostly class, hanging out around the campus, first day of work, and my first Italian meal out on the town. Lets get some stories out there:

I was eating lunch with my philosophy professor one day. I'm in (was in) two of his classes, but dropped them because the books were $200 and I didnt have that money to burn, admittedly a shallow reason, but one I couldnt avoid. Upon telling him this, he immediately scolded me, called me an idiot, and said the books were on him. He said to have the academic advisor contact him to get me back into the class because he would provide me with the books. What a guy! This is the man of the three times PhD, owner of a wine bar in San Diego, working on publishing his third book, organizer and leader of the world philosophy conference in London this July, and a family line consisting of two popes. After getting to know eachother, he offered to take me under his wing, adopt me as his philosophy protege (sorry Dad, you're gonna have to find someone else to pass on the fourth turning ideas), and pay for my education. That was actually just the dream I had last night.

I've had some bad experiences with our cafeteria, so I emailed the president, he got back to me, and he was on campus a couple days later to meet with staff and discuss the situation. The cafeteria issues are already so much better, and he found me and talked to me about it for a while. What a guy again! However, just as at Marquette, I'm on a semester long mission to steal everything possible from the cafeteria, so my fridge is stocked with yogurt, oranges, proscuitto, and cheese spreads ;-). I'll be hard pressed to experience anything else in my life that makes me feel such sweet justification.

My longing for coffee hit a bad spot a couple days ago. I thought I'd be able to do without it and just switch to the decaf, machine made, burnt coffee espressos from the cafeteria all semester, but apparently caffeine withdrawal takes about a week and a half to kick in. Following some research into buying a french press, coffee pot, or one cup brewer, I had to ditch the idea because of massive customs and shipping costs. All that research though made me into a fiend, and I had to guy buy instant. Tell you what, go from drinking 8 cups of coffee a day, to none for two weeks, then have a cup, and youll be jacked out of your mind and not even able to form sentences because you're off the wall so much.

I have a job as an English tutor to two Italian kids. I go to their house and hang out with them, 10 year old Carolina and 7 year old Gabriele. It is basically just babysitting, and I talk in English, and just hang with these kids, so it rocks. I make 10 Euro an hour, and I'm trying to get 4 hours, and it feels great to have income again! Its an awesome experience too because I get to hang out with the kids and then talk to parents and I hope I get to know them pretty well by the end of it.

In my continuous struggle to plan out every penny of my money and restrict myself financially into an anxious oblivion, I somehow had an epiphany on the situation. I have a flight home booked already and paid for, I have a passport, and I have a place to live with food. Ultimately, if I dont have enough money to take one of the trips that I want to and I have to pass on a city or two.....I'M STILL IN ROME. I dont know why that was so hard to realize before. I'm going to Cairo/Istanbul over spring break and backpacking eastern europe after semester for two weeks. If I dont do much between then? Who cares!!! Dont you love liberating epiphanies on life?

On that note, I officially have a flight to Istanbul for March 5, and by the end of next week hopefully I'll have my flights booked from there to Cairo then Cairo back to Rome. Its me and four other girls. We are looking into renting a car in Cairo and doing the couple hour drive to Jerusealem for a day or two. What an adventure that would be....I know you dont wanna hear this mom and dad, but I'm pretty sure the danger and mind blowing culture shock of that situation is too big of a rush to pass up. I've heard people here say Istanbul is the their favorite place ever and better than Rome - I was so pumped for Cairo, now I'm so pumped for Istanbul even though I admittedly dont know much about it...

Went to the Roman Forum and Colisseum today with my on site Roman Art class. Its really just....right there....in the middle of the city. You kidding me? These things still exist? Theres really not much to say except stare at it, try and guestimate how many sets of feet have been in that same place, think about all the paths that have crossed where you're standing, get nostalgic to watch Russel Crowe kick some ass, try and piece what it used to look like in your head (sure I can see reconstructions online; I'd rather imagine), and then once you realize your neck has a crank and youve been standing wide-mouthed for fifteen minutes, its time to move another fifty feet and get lost in thought again.

I'm sure these lengthy posts are getting old. I'm sorry that its working out like this, but I never have a chance to sit down for a lenghty period of time and think of everything thats been going on. I'm leaving for Florence tomorrow morning with a few Marquette friends. We will be booking around town Friday, leaving Saturday morning to check out Pisa for a few hours, heading back to Florence, and coming back to Rome Sunday night. I'm so pumped, and it'll be nice to get my feet wet with the whole traveling thing.

I'll have pictures up of my weekend away when I get back, and I'm in the process of going back through my other pictures and labeling them all. Still not having too hard of a time thinking of home, except when I called home, then broke out pictures, put them up on my wall, and looked at Madison/Jake/Alex for a few hours. I'm trying to condition myself so I'll be able to see them via webcam and not get crushed.

Love from Rome, hoping the good Karma, good times, good company, and good wine is flowing on the other side of the pond

Zach

PS - Does that mean post-script? I've been wondering that for a while

PPS (post post script....?) - leave some comments! There has been a few and I love hearing from you guys! All ya gotta do is click "Leave a Comment" at the bottom of each post