my suspicions have been confirmed... our class is cursed when it comes to field trips. once again, the weather was shitty yesterday... you know? you'd think that we'd go visit gardens when the weather is warm - at least warm enough to support the growth of flowers and not so cold that it kills them... anyway - it was most wonderful to be able to walk around in gardens yesterday... we could actually hear the wind rustling through the trees - a sound that i know i haven't heard since the night before i left the states almost three full months ago. there was grass and i was quite tempted to through myself down onto it and roll around like a toddler... if there hadn't been a rather intimidating-looking docent with us, i probably would have - it's actually quite refreshing to realize that i still have wonderfully comical childish impulses that i'd actually act on.
i was quite sad when we got home... we were supposed to be back by about four in the afternoon, giving me just enough time to run to my flat, pack an overnight bag and jet to termini train station in time to catch a train with my friend, ottavio, to his hometown to go see his band 'candy and sky'. this did not happen... we got home at about 5:45 and i missed the train. i was most upset... however, upon receiving a text message from ottavio reassuring me that they will be playing in rome in a few weeks, i felt a little better. it might be better that i stayed, because our crits are on tuesday and i have to draw like a madwoman...
last night at dinner with brad and camille. we had the [dis]pleasure of sitting behind an obnoxious table full of americans from dallas - actually, as we found out later, they were all originally from new york but are currently residing in dallas, tx. oh. my. god. they were all drunk off of wine [before they had even ordered their food... sheesh] and speaking so loudly that the whole restaurant could hear them... all they were talking about was the 'dahler' [dollar] and how they 'didn't want bubbles in their water. bubbles are for champagne, not for water' - yes, they actually said this to the wonderfully nice waiter at the restaurant who had just finished explaining to them, quite clearly i might add, that they only kind of water they had was 'frizzante,' or sparkling water. argh. it's unfortunate that all americans abroad are stereotyped into being these kinds of characters. inconsiderate, 'everyone should speak english even in their own country'-thinking, pushy, overly-loud people. it is most thoroughly unfortunate for any considerate american person traveling abroad. actually, it's quite embarrassing. truly embarrassing.
oh - by the way, 'mother f!@#er' has been replaced in parts of the u-of-a-rome-center-study-abroad-group-slang with 'mother farnese,' which can be shortened to 'mar far' ... just thought that you'd like to know...
aaaanyway, i finished an absurdly freakish novel this morning: 'crash' by j.g. ballard. it's one of those novels that one really can't describe or discuss to/with anyone who hasn't read it. it's just that f!@#ed up [for serious lack of a more eloquent phrase]... the weird thing about it was that i honestly couldn't put it down, it's incredibly well-written - i started it yesterday morning and finished it in a total of about 7 hours of reading [224 pages]... it weirded me out so much, i just wanted to find out what was going to happen next. i think that i've been permanently scarred by it... honestly.
random nugget - it takes about 142.18 licks to reach the center of a tootsie pop.
oh yeah!
ciao.
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no... see, thanks to mr. owl, we know that it takes three licks AND a bite [remember the resounding 'crunch' after mr. owl take his three licks '1, 2, 3... crrrrrrrrrrrrrunch'?] before you get to the center of a tootsie roll pop - he never was patient enough to lick all the way to the center... but thanks to people with WAY too much time on their hands with the brilliant idea of having a test group, we now have the average number of actual licks it would take - 142.18 - to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop... bored people are so entertaining... by the way, if you want to find the site where i got the information, click on the 'random nugget-type factoids' link and it will take you there.
Po says that the movie (crash) is even hotter and twisted. Well, he thinks it is, but he's illiterate. Po will loan the movie to you when you get back to A'murka.
Good luck w/ crits.
po - why are 'we' speaking in the third person? ... anyway, i will most definitely 'steal' the movie from you when i repatriate; although, i can't imagine anything more 'hot' or twisted [that's a great word to describe it] than the book - but i guess that we shall see...
Natalie, if you're missing green space in Rome, you should check out the park off of piazza del popolo, the borghese gardens (great musuem, too, if you haven't been). not that there is much warm weather now, but that was a great place to just go sit in the grass.
also, go to the park in the janiculum area, it's really beautiful. there is a part of it where the trees are planted in perfect rows; really enchanting place.
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