Series of Unusual Events

Ok. To continue where I left off from the previous blog...

Early Tuesday evening was spent at our professors' apartment where cheese and crackers and wine were provided. Ten bottles later, we decided it was a good time to head out. A few of us were rather hungry so we headed to a local pizzaria. One of my girlfriends told us of this place near her apartment and she had become familiar with one of the servers. After ordering pizza, water, and two desserts for all three of us, we were all fat and happy. I'm not sure how long we stayed at the restaurant, but it closed with our table still full. We started to make plans with the waiter to go out to a discotec. I used a rather butchered mix of Italian, Spanish, and English, but it seemed to get my point across. Before we knew it, techno music starting thumping through the dining room and a weird colored stobe light managed to make its appearence. I can only laugh about this bizarre experience.

Wednesday was dedicated to personal study and exploration throughout the city. Nicole and I headed to the Quirinale (Quirinale Hill, home to one of the major seats of government). It was quite a hike from out apartment, but after jumping on one bus, we quickly made our way. After reaching the top of the hill and observing the activity of the piazza, we noticed police had begun to block off the plaza to public foot traffic. We thought this slightly bizarre and soon after, were asked to step outside the plaza. Locals and tourists alike began to queue up behind the barriers so Nicole and I decided it might be a good idea to stick around and see what might be going on. We were fortunate enough to see an extensive changing of the guards ceremony.

From here, we continued on to a small nearby garden and took advantage of the ample sunshine and benches to take a break from the city. It was getting later in the afternoon and we decided it was probably a good idea to head home. On our way back through the winding Roman roads, suddenly Nicole grabs my arm as we passed an alley. She says sternly,"we're going this way." To my confusion, I agreed. As soon as I set eyes on what was ahead, I gasped. We had somehow stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain. It was swarmed with tourists (obviously). As we entered into the piazza outfront of the fountain, I heard the familiar chanting of a Rugby song. I grinned and walked briskly in the direction of the song in hopes to meet some Rugby players. After finding out that they really didn't speak english, we settled on people watching for a while. Strangely enough, a group of British men came up next to us and struck up a conversation. Turns out they were the city to watch the Roma vs. Arsenal "futbol" match. They invited the two of us to grab a beer with them, and we figured "what the heck?" Live a little. I'm always up for making friends. We walked to the nearby Pantheon and found a little cafe and our group of ten or so sat down and enjoyed some Peronis (Italian brand of beer). Come to find out one of the gentlemen is a developer out of Dubai. He politely asked Nicole and I to send him over some of our work. We were grinning from ear to ear with excitement. We had a blast just sitting around chatting, singing obnoxiously, and laughing with this group of folks. It was nice to be surrounding by people speaking english for a bit.

Today was slow. That's all there is to it. I was exhausted all day and haven't been feeling up to par, but such is life I suppose. I'll be heading off to bed shortly and waking up in the morning and heading to the local market to restock the fridge. Should have some exciting stories about the upcoming weekend!