Home again home again.

24 hours of travel. Handsome welcoming committee. Home. Christmas tree. My own bed. Jet lag.

tomorrow tomorrow

I love ya tomorrow; you're only a day AWAYYYYY

I'm going home tomorrow in case you didn't know.

Here's my (short) list of things I'm looking forward to about America/North Carolina/home:

1. Seeing my family and friends and boyfriend. 

2. Christmas/gift-giving.

3. New Year's.

4. Actually using my iPhone as a phone again.

5. Sushi and Mexican food.

6. Free refills.

7. Driving my car.

8. Open space/grass/actually being able to see stars.

9. Seeing my pets!

10. Access to a toaster.

11. My bed.

12. Movies on an actual TV, not my computer.

13. An oven that does more than broil/burn food.

14. A haircut.

15. Southern accents.

finals. finally {almost} finished.

Tomorrow. 12 noon. I will be done with finals. Then it's a day and a half of exploring, shopping, eating, drinking, packing, people watching, monument revisiting, art appreciating, picture taking, euro spending and farewell-ing. And then a 10 hour flight, 4 hour layover, 2 hour flight, 3 hour layover, and 1 hour flight and then I'm back in Raleigh, North Carolina. Merry Christmas to me.

Cityscape, Trastevere style

Our balcony doesn't have the most scenic view, but it's pretty cool on evenings with a sunset like this one.

'Cause we need a little Christmas... and random musings.

Best. Juxtaposition. Ever.

I'm sorry I haven't had much time to blog the past few weeks. I've been insanely busy. And by insanely busy, I mean I actually had to focus on school. Weird. My Mystery Paintings class last weekend was excellent. I learned a lot about art history, so I'm not a total ignoramus anymore in that area. It's really cool stuff, especially since our professor is an expert in the history of art theft. How cool is that?

I also realized that I definitely do not have enough pictures of Rome, so I'll be taking my camera out with me a lot more before I leave. I have finals Tuesday and Thursday, plus papers and a portfolio review for my art class. It's going to be a crazy week, and it's going to fly by. But we're going to find a way to make the most of it, even if we have to waste precious Rome time studying. We've been going out to eat a lot lately, trying to get as much amazing authentic Italian food and wine as possible before we're deprived of it (until the next time I'm in Italy). I think it's safe to say I will never be able to eat at the Olive Garden again. We've also been playing Christmas music continually since the day after Thanksgiving, which makes me so excited to go home. So it's a fair exchange. I leave Italy and its food and wine, but I get my family and Christmas instead. Works for me. I'm just going to have to find a way to get myself un-addicted to cappuccinos. It's actually a problem. I get headaches if I don't have one. And it's completely unfair. I drank cappuccinos (cappuccini, if we're using correct Italian grammar) because they're delicious, not because I needed the caffeine. Then one day I had a pounding headache and I couldn't get rid of it. Then I drank a coffee and it disappeared and I realized I had accidentally gotten myself addicted to caffeine. Way to go, moron.

This past Thursday was a national holiday for the Immaculate Conception, so our classes were all canceled (even though we have to make them up on Monday - so dumb) and we took the opportunity to wander around Rome, visit the Christmas market in Piazza Navona, and do a significant amount of shopping. The Christmas market was disappointing, but I did try roasted chestnuts for the first time. They're unlike anything I've ever had before. And they look like little brains. I liked them.

busy busy busy.

I don't know what happened. I had time to blog, and then I didn't. I'm in the middle of writing papers, starting to study for finals, and trying to soak up as much Rome as possible in my last two weeks. I'm also taking a class this weekend called Mystery Paintings, which is amazing. It's about four famous paintings that have symbolism that nobody's completely figured out yet. It's more exciting than I make it sound, I promise.

Pictures - because they're easier than words. Of pretty things on my walk to school and more chocolate. Because I can.

Thanksgiving in Roma

This past Thursday I had a site visit with my history class, which meant I had to skip philosophy class in order to actually get to the Olympic Stadium on time to meet my professor. Italian class I just skipped on principle, but that's beside the point. The site visit was really cool. I had been to Stadio Olimpico for the Roma-Lazio game, but I somehow failed to appreciate the plethora of fascist symbols, sayings, propaganda, monuments, statues, etc, even though they were absolutely everywhere. Mostly because it had been dark then and I was way too caught up in the excitement of the crazy soccer match I was about to see. When I say they were absolutely everywhere, though, I mean everywhere. From huge blocks of marble representing a timeline of fascist history to a giant obelisk in front of the stadium inscribed with MVSSOLINI. Apparently the reason all of these things are still there is because the Allies used the area as a headquarters after the war, which prevented people from destroying all evidence of Mussolini and the fascist regime in the initial post-war frenzy. And now it's just there.

Once I finally got back from the site visit, I began assembling all my Thanksgiving food. I had literally been preparing for this for six weeks. I am that much of a Thanksgiving freak. I had to have my traditional menu: turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and stuffing. Everything was pretty easy to find in Rome except the cranberries and stuff for the casserole. When Alex's mom visited, I begged her to bring me french fried onions and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup to make the casserole. The cranberries proved to be slightly more challenging. I read online somewhere that Italy just doesn't really import them because people here don't like them. Luckily, I'm not stuck in Rome, so when I was in Brussels last weekend, I popped into a grocery store to look for cranberries. There they were, Ocean Spray and everything. If you want to know how ridiculously excited I was, just ask Alex. I think my little victory dance may have slightly embarrassed her. Yet victorious I was. I packed my cranberries in my carry-on and guarded it with my life. After that, everything was easy. I obviously wasn't going to buy an entire turkey here, so I opted for the turkey sandwiches option and bought deli turkey and fresh bread. I had never made stuffing before, but it's easier than I realized and turned out to be really good. Overall, everything was amazing. I had my friend Jenna over and it was just the two of us since Alex had left for Morocco that day and our other friends all had plans. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. We had a tiny, delicious, happy Thanksgiving. And then I got to Skype my family while they had dinner too. Overall, my first Thanksgiving away from home wasn't bad, but I don't plan on being absent from another one any time soon.