Day fifteen, September 1, 2010

I am going out of order just to get somewhat caught up!

Day fifteen, September 1, 2010

Wow, it is September. (Did you know that the Italain numbers of sette-7, otto-8, nove-9 and dieci-10 correspond to our calendar names ..September, October, November, December.. when the calendar was different??, Cool, huh?). I try to get up a little earlier today but I still hit my snooze several times (nothing new for me). Why did I want to take this class? I need a day of sleeping-in soon! I do a little laundry and then head out to try the breakfast. Just some girls are out this morning. From what I gather there is about four girls in one room and three boys in another room and then with me in my own room. The girls say hello but that is it. They do not even chat with each other. I have a little bit of cereal and some

orange juice. I am not going to go to school hungry today( you think all those years of studying would have taught me that). I head out the door and run and catch the bus. My timing is definetly better today. I take the Metro and get to the school about five minutes early. Today when I am on time, the class starts a little late (isn't that the way it goes sometimes). Class is better today or maybe I am just in a better frame of mind today. The teacher asks me if I was on bus over in the University area and I say yes that is where I am staying. Funny, in this huge city in the other side of town, I was spotted by my teacher! (Good thing I wasn't doing anything bad...spraying graffiti like I always do ;) We focus on Italian food words, which most of know many and then we work on making them singular and plural (once again this a confusing part of the language, when you have to decide the sex of an object i.e. a beer is female and a flower is male!)One of the gals says she is homesick. The teacher asks what she is missing. She says"Popeyes"...the stomach rules the world.

I take a break with the group this time. One of the gals includes me going down for coffee. Very nice to have the old lady along. I have a cappucinno and it hits the spot. We finish class at 1:00 as scheduled. I sign up for gesture and pronunciation class after our scheduled time tommorrow. We have to pay 10 Euros for this class so I hoping that it will not be a whole "blah, blah, Ginger, blah, blah" incident again as the walking tour was a couple of days ago but I figure I will give it try. I wonder over to the area of the Spanish Steps. My friend Jeanne told me the church at the top of the steps has a connection with the order of the nuns that run my highschool. And there they were...the Sacred Hearts! I wanted to break out in the school song (Couer de Jesus, The Heart of Jesus in French) but I did not think that would go over well in this quiet Italian church(the Italians are not real hip on the French or singing in church outside of Mass).

I am getting hungry so I wander around until a find a resteraunt that catches my eye. I pick a place off a busy street, Via Nazionale. I get a fine salad and a beer, a nice break from the pasta and pizza but I still had the accomopanying bread!

I ready to spend some to in a museum today. I decide to go to the National Museum of Rome today. This museum has sculptures on the two main floors, frescos and mosaics at the top and then jewerly/coins on the bottom floor. I go carefully go through all the rooms reading about each one. Of course, I closely observed the rendition of feet from the ancient times...same as today except no depictions of bunions or fungal toenails. These feet did not look they needed my services( if the toes are still even present...time is not good to noses, toes or heads for that matter on these ancient human depictions).The most famous sculpture here is a rendition(a copy but I guess that was common to copy the Greek sculputures...Romans were hip on the Greeks I guess) of the discus thrower. There is interesting sculpture of a hermaphrodite, looks like woman from the front and a man for the back..very clever. I now know a new ailment, "sculpture stroke".One too many busts (of heads not chests). Why did the bust go out favor?, I wonder, I only know of it through Schroeder's of Beethoven on his piano. Maybe we should get this whole bust thing going again. I go up to the top and the bottom floors just so I can say I saw it all but my eyes are getting blurry. I do think of my brother David down on the bottom floor with the ancient monetary items, now this is place that keeping your head could find you a treasure!!!

I wander around by the Termini. I need toothpaste. Strange, here is this big bus/train station but there is no place to buy sundry items! I walk around the neighborhood here and find the equivalent of a mom and pop dollar store run by an East Indian man and get a tube of Colgate. Now I still need to find a shop that carries shampoo sometime in the future but I am not desperate for that yet. I hop back on the bus and head for the hostel. I go to a pizza place across the way and buy a couple of slices and a beer( much cheaper on this side of town) and go to my little place. I sit out in the common area. The guys are here on the computer but they don't seem to chatty either...hmm, why stay in hostel if you are not willing to interact. I head to my room after my meal. I work on my blog and do my homework. I am ready for a early night tonight so so that alarm won't be shocking me in the morning!