Travelling for 3 straight weeks! / here comes Auda!!

HELLO! it's been super long, and i figured i'd update before april was over. I'm currently at home sick, so that's not very fun. but i'm headed to school tomorrow, so that'll be a change after sitting on the couch for 3 straight days. i was orginally all freaked out about the swine flu because my symptoms were basically the same, but then i started to get better, so the fears all went away. OKAY! Let's start with rome!

• 3/30- 4/5: SO! Wednesday i watched fight club all day in school, so that was fun! it's really good in italian, actually better than i thought it was going to be. Then i went home and we headed to the airport! after we checked in and everything we saw the un-official prince of italy, Emanuele Filiberto, who just won italian dancing with the stars and technically rules over Venice. He's the grandson of the guy they kicked out after WW2. so that's cool. and we took a picture with him, then waited for our plane. Once we checked in to get on the plane you basically walk out onto the runway and then everyone starts booking it to the plane because the seating is like on a city bus, the first ones on get the seats together. it was intense, but super fun! so then our plane was an hour late to take off (typical italian..) and then since our plane was late we got in late to rome, and missed our train, so we waited at the station a bit and Fritz's pants ripped up the butt, so that was great fun. We got to Vince and Maria Dele's house at like midnight and then went and got pizza, and went to bed around like 2 am. i was soo tired. The next day we went to Vatican City and ususally there is a huge line, but we walked right in, and didn't have to wait at all, so that was awesome. we got to do the whole vatican museum that day, and the Sistene Chapel is inside the muesum. It is sooo gorgeous. a lot bigger than i had imagined, actually. and there were a lot of people, because they don't regulate how many people go in. I think luca took pictures or a video (even though it's 'illegal') so i have to get those up on flickr. that afternoon we went to Piazza Navona where the Angels & Demons fountain is, then met up with grandma and papa (who just so happened to be in Roma at the same time!!) we all went out to dinner, then to the Spanish Steps where there were a bunch of Spanish tourists mocking all the italians, and being annoying. Then we went to Trevi and i threw 3 coins in with my right hand over my left shoulder, in true tradition. but i realised that the Trevi plaza is LITTLE! it's so small, and when you see it in all the movies it looks HUGE! so that was a big shocker. Friday morning we went inside St. Peter's, which is quite large. Then we went up into the top of the dome, and down into the catacombs. we actually sinned like big time in God's house though, because when you get in line to go up into the dome or down to the toumbs, the line is the same, until there's like this flimsy wooden bar that separates them and then 20 feet without a bar and no one watching. So they decided that instead of waiting 3 hours to go into the top, we should just cut all these people and jump right in the front of the line. So we did, and no one said ANYTHING to us and we walked right up to the top of the dome, which is gorgeous. you can see all of St. Peter's and a good deal of Rome too. Then down to all the pope's toumbs, which was interesting. It was the day after Pope John Paul II's 4th year anniversary, so he had lots of flowers and letters. it was sad, and lots of people cried. Then to Castell San Angelo to walk around the inside, and you can see the passage that the popes used to use when they had to run away, and that Dan Brown writes about in Angels and Demons. we were waiting to go up to the very top, and Fritz's camera has one of those screens that you can flip around and look at, so when you're taking the picture you can see what it looks like. He had his gum out of his mouth and was goofing around with it, and this lady walks by, looks directly at him and laughs outloud and points. i was like how rude! and so we started complaining about her in italian, and OF COURSE she was American. big surprise there. we saw a man that i swore was Albus Dumbledore, who here they call Silente, so we took sneaky pictures of him. That night we went out with some of our friends friends to Trastevere and walked around there. There's an island really close, so we got to walk on that a bit, but basically all thats there is a hospital. At this point i was like sleepwalking, so i don't remember much. i did get to keep a bottle of Duff beer from some bar when the bartender found out i was American, and i wasn't sure if we even had duff in america, but it's on the simpsons, so he gave me an empty bottle and a bottle cap and Luca was all jealous. One of our friends friends took us home and even though i was half asleep, driving here in rome is crazy. we got in the car and i look at Martina and go 'OH MY GOD! and i thought driving in Milan was crazy!' she was like i kknow i know!! Saturday we slept in until almost noon, after getting home at like 3 in the morning. Luca was making fun of me at breakfast because i was eating cereal and drinking coffee while he was eating bread with spicy sausage and beer. A bird pooped on Martina's brand new purse, we went inside the Pantheon, after having waited for like an hour to go in. And everyone was pushing and shoving, it was not really all that fun. and all the people made it hard to see everything. We then almost missed our bus, so had to book it, and made it just in time. We went to Piazza Babernini, where the Triton fountain is, and where one of the Angels and Demons churches is. Then walked to the Hard Rock Rome! and Villa Borghese, which is like a huge central park with lots of villas! we passed a huge VIP party and Luca & Fritz tried to flirt with the security lady to let us in. Then we passed around the back of this huge house on our way to Piazza del Popolo, and there was all this techno music playing, so i started dancing in the middle of the street, Luca took a video of me and we almost got hit by a car, so Martina freaked out and was all mad at Luca for putting me in danger. but then i just made everything worse by telling her that if we would've gotten hit, atleast it was a BMW, like it could have been a panda or something. and she didn't laugh, so that didn't go over well. i thought it was funny, and so did luca, but ... Once we get to Piazza del Popolo there were german tourists blasting Kanye West, so i started dancing and singing and then the came talking to me in rapid german and i was like WAIIITT Kanye is American! and then they started yelling about me in german, and they were 10. so i made new enemies in germany. who are a third of Luca's age. YES! Fritz and Vince found reject chairs outside the VIP party that were broken, and they brought them on the subway with us, so we've got a few videos of people's reactions. Mostly everyone ignored him, but this one group of teenagers were making fun of him in italian, thinking we were american, so that was funny when they did end up finding out that we (minus me) are italian. Sunday we went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forums. We saw some random Americans inside the colosseum with like leiter bottles of beer and the one was like trying to pop off the cap on the side of the Colosseum. i was like Great, use something from 70 AD as your bottle opener. There is a small museum inside the Colosseum and we found this one spot that is a big white wall with all these lights, and being the true american teenage that i am, i decided that this would be a great spot to take those photos where we jump and someone takes a picture of us. We then proceeded to spend the next hour and 15 minutes (no joke or exaggeration. i promise on this one. ) taking jumping pictures. and people stared, but it was fun, and we got a few good ones. Martina and i learned what happens when you steal from Ancient Romans because in the Forums there are all these orange trees, and i decided that i wanted one. so we looked all around to find one low enough, and we couldn't so then i just walked up to a tree and started to shake it. Sure enough, like 3 or 4 fell down, so i was like YES! LET'S EAT THEM! and they were super bitter and sour! so number one lesson learned from time in Rome, Don't steal from Ancient Romans, they will get back at you. We decided that since Luca is 7 years younger than my parents, he was being my fake dad to get me in everywhere in rome for free, because, being foreign and whatnot, i would be like double the price. but being Luca's random child, i was free/half price most about everywhere. so we started a family album. I was re-teaching Luca 'how much wood could a woodchuck chuck' and this american 6 year old came up to us and was like 'THAT'S NOT HOW YOU DO IT!' and started to correct me. ohh the fun friends i make! we got home late, and spent the rest of the night blasting old 80's music and translating Fmylife.com. Luca and Martina were sleeping on a blow up bed that was almost the size of Vince and Maria's family room, minus the 6 inch walking space, and i fell in the walking space like twice and got stuck and they all laughed at me! The earthquake did happen while we were there, but i am alive, and was asleep and apparently i'm a heavier sleeper than i thought i was. i had just gone to bed, but martina and some of our friends were still up and they did actually feel it. but rome wasn't really directly hit and everything is OKAY!! AND! i met monks inside the vatican museum who were wearing birkenstocks and ended up taking a picture with them, because Luca and i stalked them for a bit....


• 4/6 - 4/12: Monday we headed back to Milan, and surprisingly our flight was on time. We got home at like 10.30 and i frantically started to re-pack for going with Grandma and Papa Kuh, but had a semi mental breakdown, most likely from getting like a total of 20 hours of sleep in 6 days, and decided not to go to school on Tuesday, like i was planning to do. So i basically slept all day tuesday then went to go meet the grandparents in Milan! they got to meet anna, then we went out to dinner and saw the Duomo by night. I was really proud of myself becasue i got us around on the metro without any major screwups, so that was good! And we saw people filming some sort of old film or something by the Duomo, which was cool. Wednesday we did a tour of milan, which was great, because i've always done Milan as an 'Italian' so it was cool to be a tourist. We did the duomo, la scala, the castle and the last supper, which i had yet to see. And we've come to the conclusion that there is an extra hand, no matter how much our tour guide said there wasn't. we met a friend named Allison, who lives in Philly, so that was cool. had Luini's for lunch, which is the best fake hot pocket you will ever have. like ever. and the line is always huge, i swear they make about 1000 panzerotti's like every day. We hopped on the train later that day and went to Verona! Eventually found the hotel and walked around that day. Went on a goose chase to find a restaurant that ended up being like 35 seconds from our hotel. hahaha. and that night i watched Camp Rock in german. Because it was in italian, then i acidentally sat/jumped on the remote and it switched to German, and i couldn't get it to change back. Thursday we headed to Venice for 2 days! we made friends waiting in line for an awesome restaurant, and our first waiter bailed on us and gave us a new one, even though i was speaking to him in italian. I actually got asked a few times if i was italian and they were american, and when the people asking found i was american too they complimented my italian, so that worked out well! then we walked into a corner on our way home... good times. Friday we went to St. Mark's, then to Murano, the island where the blow glass. it actually was cool to see everything they do though. then we went and got pizza in the Jewish Ghetto. and then met all the black hat's who proceeded to invite grandma to dinner that night. At the pizza place i acutally spoke spanish to a lady, so i was like tri-lingual for about a minute. taht was cool. we made american friends when i called that they were american becuase one of the kids was wearing a plaid shirt and baggy pants. Then we headed to busto! we met up with Daniela's family and got gelato and walked to my school, then headed to Somma and they went to the hotel. then we skyped with mom and dad (indi got a convertible...) and headed out for Japanese buffet! with Luca and Martina. Luca and papa bonded over chemistry and Luca then decided that papa needs to move in with him. so that offer is still open... Sunday was easter and we headed up top the lakehouse with Martina and the family. we ate a huge lunch and hung out all day. Grandma taught me how to play gin rummy and i gave her a facebook 101 course, without the comptuer.


• 4/13 - 4/19: we spent all day monday at the lake, i ran around taking pictures of lizards, and one of them went inside our house, but i chased it out. We ate dinner at my house, after touring parts of the lake, then grandma and papa headed to the hotel. and flew out the next morning. Tuesday and Wednesday i basically slept. for 48 hours. in my own bed. I did skype with a bunch of people, and i think i watched the hannah montana movie. and cried. hahaha. Thursday. first day back to school after like 2 weeks. so that wasn't super fun, but i was glad to see everyone again. i taught the awkward turtle at some point in here, i don't remember where. i don't think they all get it though. so tried to teach the awkward turtle. we watched Buscando Nemo in spanish, and i understood a bit! yes! Friday we had a spanish test that i wasn't aware of until friday morning, so that went over realllll well. as you can imagine. i'm not excited to get that one back. i was out in the hallway for math studying, and all my hair was covering my face. and this kid comes up to me and goes 'salve prof!' and starts asking me questions about a class. i was like umm 'ciao?!?!' and then he started apologizing in italian, which was something like OH MY GOD I AM SOO SORRY I SCREWED UP I FEEL SO BAD! and then when he walked away the girl he was with goes 'isn't that the american girl?' he was like OH YEAH!' i was like hahha whoopppps. Saturday was actually fun. We all got to take the train home together, for the first time in a long time, so of course it was crazyness. everyone started to find out that davide is coming back with me for a mini-exchange, and so everyone was freaking out and asking me questions. So fyi mom and dad, we might have lots of visitors in summer 2010. woohoo! i didn't go out that night, because that's when i started to feel sick, and i feel asleep on the couch for the first time. (but many to come after that day.. hahah.) Sunday i slept all day, and we were planning to go to a tea market, but it was closed since the weather was so bad here.


• 4/20 - 4/26: I figured out that Davide's best friend reminds me of danny pailes. it was bothering me because i couldn't figure out who he reminded me of. taverna wrote some crazy quote on our board. ' L'ideologia da all'uomo l'illusione di essere una persona con un'identita dignitosa e morale, rendenogli piu' facile il non esserlo' meaning that ''the ideology from to the man the decorous illusion and morale, rendendogli more' easy the to is not it'' WHICH IS WHY WE DON'T USE freetranslation.com. so basically it means that ideology from man, where we think that being moral and having dignity is a 'correct' person, makes it easier for us to not be like that. aka Simone Taverna's quote stolen from someone. god knows who. but we have a joke that at the end of the year i'm going to get all of his quotes tattooed on my back and then have him sign it. hahahhaha. Giulia, Chiara, Camilla and i went to a store after school on Monday and ended up booking it to catch the train. then i ran again on tuesday morning because i woke up late. fun fun! On monday after school davide hit me in the nose with his umbrella (and we're letting him stay in our house! should we re-think this??!!) and it left a non-visible, but i-can-feel-it-bump. so i told him when i get a nose job he is paying for it....Tuesday i went into 40, where no one listened to the teacher and we all just hung out. then into another class i had never been in before with Cerana and she got all mad at them because they had no questions for me. luckily i am talkitive, so i just rambled on about america. but she was like 'oh so meeting american girls is normal then right?' and was yelling at them. i was like it's fine, i'll just talk. our class stayed after school to study for a huge english test we had wednesday and thursday. we were talking about Chaucer and how one character has a sexual personality, so i wrote sexual on the board because they didn't know how to spell it, then Cerana walked it. that was a fun explaination. We believe that our french teacher had some lifting done, but still getting to the bottom of that mystery. I did my first offical graffati. or however you spell it, on the train. so now a train in Busto proudly boasts my name on the inside somewhere. but of course that was the only day i didn't have my camera, so i have to find it again when i do. On Wednesday we had our english test, i found out that Angels and Demons wasn't actually filmed in rome, (which totally broke my heart, ps.) and i went out with one of the afs volunteers. Thursday i stayed after school to help a friend from giulia's class study for english, and we went to a new cafe place that i really liked. Friday i got my hair done, and then went to Luca's and hung out with him for a bit. He, Martina and I watched Honey that night. and i was laughing soo hard, but they didn't get a lot of the ghetto humor, and i didn't know how to explain it. fell asleep on the couch, again. Saturday i went into milan all day with Cath and Keyne! we did some shopping and went to see Marley and Me in italian, which was soo funny. just the way they say Marley is great. We all cried during the movie, but no one had a tissue, and i had to pee when we left, but they wouldn't let us out back into the main part of the theater. so when the movie is over, you exit exit the building out of a different exit than you came it. it's kind of confusing. there was a huge manifestation going on, so that was intense. lots of people. then i took the train to busto, went to sofia's and we got ready together. Went to our friend Claudia's house and had her birthday party. we played lots of guitar hero, so that was fun. i totally suck though. i went home early, because i was starting to get sick, and sounded like rob pattinson's american accent every time i opened my mouth, basically meaning my voice was shot. sunday i slept all day. and in these past few days i have successfully watched all 5 harry potter movies.
• 4/27- today! still sick. not fun. basically slept all day sunday, and yesterday. today i can get up and walk around, i'm basically as good as new, accept the whole lost voice and cold thing. so i will be headed to school tomorrow morning, even though it hasn't stopped raining since like saturday night. yes! that's about it! sorry this one is super long. i have school tomorrow and thursday, then we have off friday and saturday. and saturday at 11.30 am AUDREY AND RILEY ARRIVE!! YAY! i cannot wait! and we've got a packed week, so hopefully i feel better and it stops freaking raining!! I'll update more often before i come back, i'm really working on doing it once a week, but it keeps not working out. i have about a billion pictures to put on flickr, since martina, Luca, Fritz and i took about a 1000 all together. so i've got to cancel the doubles and re-name all of them. so let's pray i get those up before i get back into the states. :) Congrats to all the Rockettes! i'm excited for this upcoming season!! okay! more soon! ciao ciao! Jess.