Rejuvenating

So its been a while since the last update. Not all too much has been going on besides the basic school stuff, finished my first painting, took another Italian test, went to a national library/museum with my music class, and kicked it with my Organizational Behavior teacher since apparently teaching is secondary on his priorities as a teacher (which by the way I have no problem with, especially since he talks with us about real world shit anyways and I presume it to be more valuable then regurgitating facts and figures Ill forget to remember after the test).

My first painting was a still life, I have class today and hopefully Ill remember to take a picture of it so I can post it for you all to see. Its a decent piece of work, for my first piece of artist work, ever, I like what I did. The library we checked out was actually really nice and contained original works from people like John Locke, Galileo, and my boy Einstein. We focused on the first written pieces of music from the Medieval era which was still rather interesting.

This weekend I went camping with a couple of friends from the program, some familiar names for those who have kept up, Tracy and James, along with Mike Moore who I happen to enjoy the company of a lot more then I think Id enjoy the company of another Mike Moore we might know....We set out to a lake about an hour north of Rome. Our campground consisted of a nice little motorhome-ish type of deal. 2 bed rooms a kitchen, a dining room and 2 bathrooms. Pretty well kept. It also came with about 7 cats that were clearly malnourished, one mother and the rest recently born little kittens. We bought them some food and on Saturday we sat for about 2 hours and watched the play on the lawn in front of us, just wrestling with each other and just having a damn good time. We had a damn good time watching them, too.

As for our other adventures, we signed up for this gig knowing it was slow season at the campground. but to our astonishment, slow season actually meant no one is fucking here including the people who run restaurants and other basic shit near the campground. So everything we did had to be down in the city above the camp site. Now, the walk to the main city is only a 15 or so minute walk, but on our way back from shopping on friday afternoon
, we managed to find a detour that took over an hour of walking, aimlessly. Now, it wasnt all in vain. Along one of the roads we couldnt find on the map, or at least, couldnt understand which way it was going, we ran into Jerry. Jerry was an old, creepy looking man taking some stuff out of his beat up car on the side of the road. In his car was your typical black rain boots, black gloves, a gallon of gasoline and some extra pairs of shoes all in the truck, as he removes giant planks of wood from his car. Now, mother always said, dont talk to stranger, but daddy always said, if there is a random man on the side of the road, and you dont want to wander for another 2 hours with 2 bags of groceries in your hands ask the man for help. My dad is a pretty cool guy, so I did just that. After coming to the understanding we wouldnt understand each other(language barrier) He finally signaled for me and the rest of us to get in his car and he will take us where he thinks we need to go. After only seconds of loosely constructed debate amongst my fellow campers, we decided to hop on for the ride. We made some nice conversation with him, and he drove us a few minutes down the windy road and right to our campground. We offered a tip for his services but he refused.

The rest of the day was uneventful, until the evening when we ventured out to get some dinner and enjoy some alcohol. It was a cold dark night, and the entire strip along the lakeside was abandoned, one or two places open with a bunch of teens at one bar, but it didnt serve food and they told us we would have to go up to the city for dinner. So, with one flashlight, we braved up the dark road to the city. You may think 15 minutes is nothing to walk, but with no street lights on an empty street in a city you've never been to it was one of the more frightening experiences of our lives. We made it, but I swear that on the way up, I heard a soft voice say, "hello" while we were on the climb up the hill. No one else heard it, or believed me, but it messed with my mind for a while afterwards.

The rest of the weekend went by rather smoothly, nothing else really went down, but on Sunday, since we came home a night early due to the lack of entertainment, all the museums in Rome were free for this holiday. So the roommate and I went to the National Roman Museum, a 4 story building full of artwork, sculptures, busts, coin collections and other random artifacts collected over the history of Rome. Afterwards, a few of us were craving some football, and nachos. So we went to an Irish pub, Scholars, watched the jacksonville v houston game (One of my roommates is from Texas so it was a nice rivalry game. We ordered loaded nachos, six of them, one for each of us. Piled high with bacon, cheese, red and yellow peppers, jalapenos, beans and sides of salsa and guacamole. I know, very italian, but I'm allowed to reward myself for a month of pasta and pizza with an occasional treat from back home.

Now for the insane experience that occurred to me yesterday while coming back from class and right before Rosh Hashanah services (which by the way, took place in this gorgeous Temple, the only one a Pope has ever prayed in and the biggest one I have ever seen. It was orthodox, which made things a little difficult to follow, but nevertheless a nice experience to have done.).

I was going to unlock my door, disturbed by a crowd of students who were filming a movie and had been all day on the street. I decided to stand and watch for a minute. Thats when Gregorio came up to me and asked me if i would like to be in a movie. I immediately accepted and he went and got me a jacket to match the outfits of the other kids, dressed in plaid scarves and hoodies. He told me I would be running with the group away from a few cops that were chasing us and we would be running by this girl laying on the ground bleeding, and I was to bump her with my shoulder if she tried standing up as I passed by. They shot the scene a couple times before I decided I should ask what all this is about. This stunning Italian girl was standing next to me, and I began some conversation, random questions, until I asked her what we were filming. She informed me that it was a short film about the 2001 Peace Protests for Palestine. The irony sent a tickle up my spine, but a pleasant one. After I realized I was going to be late to the service, I informed them I would have to go, but Gregorio asked for my number and told me he would call me back if they need me for filming at their university on Thursday. I hope he calls.

Otherwise, thats been the gist of the last few days. Once again apologies for the late post, Johnny, its nice to know that you have been following along so intently.

Hope school is going well for everyone.

Happy New Year

Thursday = Oktoberfest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!