It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Since Halloween and Thanksgiving aren't really celebrated in Italy (for some obvious reasons) I really haven't had that impending feeling that Christmas is coming. But recently things have been getting much merrier around here!

A few days ago a few of my friends and I ventured out towards Pizza di Spagna (the Spanish Steps) to go to Pompi: il regno del tiramisù which is the absolute best place to get tiramisù in Italy. Ask any Italian, they'll tell you the same thing. On our way we crossed Via del Corso, the main shopping street, and found it lit up with christmas lights! There was even a giant christmas tree from Mercedes-Benz with their emblem as ornaments. On the street connecting Via del Corso and Piazza di Spagna, the Via Condotti - one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world, we found it decorated with christmas light chandeliers. It was absolutely magical. Add the tiramisù and it was perfect!

It had just rained and the street beautifully reflected everything.

The next day, as a break between writing my final papers for my courses I went with my flatmate Wendy to check out the Christmas market that had sprung up in Piazza Navona. What was normally an austere piazza filled with sculpted fountains by Bernini had become a sort of carnival complete with games and a carousel. 

They also had a ton of shops selling ornaments. What was interesting was that there were a plethora of witches being sold as ornaments, on stockings, as figurine, etc. I finally learned that she is la Befana - a kindly old witch. The story goes that the magi stopped at her house on their way to see the Christ child and invited her to come with them, but she declined. When she saw the star of Bethlehem heralding the child's birth she decided to try go to him with gifts as the magi had done. Unfortunately she never found him, so now she seeks him every Christmas and ends up leaving the gifts at the homes of other children. This explains the abundance of broom ornaments that also are said to bring good luck.

Another wonderful part of the market is the ciambella - a large doughnut-like sweet that is warmed and pressed in a panini maker and covered in sugar and sometimes nutella. Wendy and I each bought one and they were fantastic! Warm and sugary carbalicious magic! 

Piazza Navona

A carousel with the horses of hell on it

Me and la Fontana dei Quattro Fiume

Sparkly things!

Brooms of la Befana

It was so adorable I almost died...

But what I am really excited about is that these decorations means christmas is getting closer and so is the arrival of my mom and sister! They're coming out to visit me and together we'll spend about a week here in Roma, the next week including Christmas in Paris, and a final week and New Year's in London. I cannot wait. It is going to be so beautiful!

I also just finished all of my papers for this semester (30 pages total!) so I decided that yesterday was a good day to relax. I ended up drinking an entire bottle of my favorite wine alone (over the course of 6 hours) and watching The Holiday and Love Actually. I may or may not have bawled my eyes out. It was just so cute and christmas-y and I have nobody... I'm not pathetic. I'm just in touch with my emotions!

Maybe I went a little gif crazy....

Sometimes it's not always magical...

Maybe I'm still riding the high off of going to Ireland last week and starting all of my new, amazing classes... Maybe it's because I think of every day that I am here as an adventure to be lived to the fullest... Maybe it's just hormones... I have no idea what the reason behind how much this past weekend managed to underwhelm me is, but I do know that I was very disappointed with it.

I try to make every day that I'm living in Roma valuable. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I don't want to squander my time here by doing things that I could do anywhere else in the world. So this mindset has left me very disenchanted after this past weekend. Almost everyone who is in my program ended up going to Munich for Oktoberfest and our apartment was dead. Only Lindsey and I were left in the flat, and when this place is normally filled with eight ladies that is just a bit jarring. I wanted to go out Friday night, but Lindsey wanted to have a night in, so rather than be a complete idiot and go out alone I was forced to stay home. I had quite a bit of reading to do for my courses, so I wasn't completely without purpose. 

By the time Saturday rolls around, rather lazily actually, I'm getting a bit stir crazy. I actually  recopied some of my notes into a more organized, neater area of my notebook. Official OCD diagnosis here I come! Anyways, I finally was going to go out with Lindsey and we were going to have a fun night. Unfortunately that is not how it went. We got to Scholar's, our favorite pub, and had a pint while we watched a Michigan vs. Oregon college football game - because that was the most exciting thing to do there. The pub was dead. So I voted to head over to Campo de Fiori, which is a very tourist-y and party focused area at night, but I had never been when it's in full swing. There were a ton of people, but they were all ridiculously pissed and obnoxious. This was not my particular brand of fun, but I was willing to move on somewhere else and find a nice bar, get a glass of wine, meet some people and practice my Italian. Lindsey was not. She complained the entire way back to our flat that she hated drunk people and crowds and that all she wanted was to go home. Needless to say I was frustrated. But we went home and passed out.

I spent Sunday doing some homework, but all of the downtime gave me a bit of too much time alone with my head. I would have gone out to escape cabin fever, but it was threatening to rain and the thunder and lightening had already started. Trapped in the flat I decided to watch the latest Doctor Who episode. I ended up sobbing. It was the mid-season finale and the point in time where the Ponds stop traveling with the Doctor. To say that I am emotionally attached to these characters is a bit of an understatement. My heart broke a bit. While I was crying my eyes out I began to think about Kev and how I had gotten a glimpse of the perfect kind of guy who exists and instead of trying to hold onto it, I , like the idiot I am, decided to let it go and exist in a perpetual state of unruinable perfection. But  at this moment I was looking back on it as a missed opportunity wondering if that was the only chance at love I might get, and I let him fly off to Sydney without even having my last name or a phone number. Now my heart is bruised and I can't really talk to anyone about it because the only advice to give is 'give it time, you'll meet someone new.' Although when people really get to know me I end up intimidating them with my freakish knowledge of history, art, and random facts and my obsessions with ridiculously nerdy things and my really strange sense of humor that can be a bit dark at times. So the realistic chances of me meeting someone who not only can handle these attributes but also find them endearing is slim to none. Pile up all of these issues with the fact that I afterwards decided to watch One Day (a romance movie with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess) and I was a ball of tears and broken dreams. 

There was a bit of this going on...

And a bit of this... I'm not proud

By this morning (Monday) I was heading out to class and silently reprimanding myself for allowing the spiral of rather depressive thoughts to pile up and ruin my night/weekend. After my Italian class where I made a stupid mistake in front of the entire class of eight people I got myself a cappuccino and decided to head out to St. Peters to have some much needed prayer time. I ended up in a pew in the east transept and all of a sudden a priest was bringing in the eucharist and an official looking guy with an earpiece was turning tourists away from the area because mass was beginning (they just didn't want people walking up to the altar while the priest is going through holy rites and taking pictures.) I stayed and attended mass in the Vatican in Italian. What was crazy is that I actually understood the homily and most of what was happening. I even shook hands and offered peace to the people around me when the time came! I participated in communion in St. Peter's. My mom is going to be so proud! After mass I walked around and asked some of the ushers who worked there if they knew where the tomb of Pope Julius II was (I'm doing a paper on it). I ended up having about 6 small Italian conversations until I found someone who knew. I was so pleased that they just spoke to me in normal Italian, not trying to speak English or really slow Italian. 

I finally decided to head home and I took the long walk through the Gianicolo, one of Rome's seven hills and a large park. I got a great view of the city and some fresh air. I ended up getting lost in the northern part of my neighborhood, Trastevere. It was beautiful and magnificent and comforting. I love getting absolutely lost. In Roma it's not really a problem because if I just get to the Tiber I can get home. It's a bit too easy. But I found some cute little bars that I would love to go to for lunch and an open air market that was for once devoid of tourists. I got back to my flat and had a bit of a siesta. I realized that I had been out exploring the city and walking around for at least 3 hours straight, so I was a bit exhausted.

 I'm feeling better and more in one piece. Today made up for the weekend. I'm realizing that life here will not always be magical.... but then again there are the times when the city surprises you, whether it's with a religious experience, some quality sightseeing, or a chance at love. So I'm resolved to appreciate every moment (even the lackluster ones). Like right now I am going to go get me some pizza margherita and read some Vitruvius. 

Confessions of a Poor College Student

So it's officially 11 days until I depart for the eternal city and I still can't believe that this is happening. I am hardcore panicking over financial aid things and other money issues. I think it is all part of me not having a job for the month and a half of summer that I got. I just feel so useless. I need to earn something to contribute to this colossally expensive trip. I worry that I am just asking and asking for money that neither my parents nor I have. All I'm really doing right now is worrying my pants off and since I can't really believe that any of this is really happening to me I'm stuck just freaking out. Hopefully I get this all settled in the next few days and  I'll be able to focus on how amazing this is going to be. I really don't want to spend my trip worrying about every little detail.