Italian time: 3:55PM

On Thursday we went to Villa Guilia, which houses the Etruscan art. After Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este....I wasn't impressed at all by it. It was interesting to see the pieces of art (they had actual dolls, doll tea-cups, figurines, jewelry, etc.), but overall a pretty bland experience.

Friday was St. Peter's. It was impressive inside, but I think I would've enjoyed it more if not for the tourists overcrowding the place. It was definitely an interesting contrast between Hadrian's/Villa d'Este, both of which were mostly devoid of tourists and St. Peter's, which was practically bursting with people.

I didn't see the tombs, but I heard it was pretty uninteresting so I feel like I didn't lose too much. But I did go up to the dome/cupola. A person could either take the lift and cut the number of stairs you had to take down to 320, or walk the entire way. I walked the entire way. First we entered the dome, which opened to the inside of the church itself (I didn't dare look downward). We then took even more stairs to get to the cupola. There was a stairwell which forced us to lean at an angle, stairs that were wide at the base but grew narrower, stairs that turned tightly, and even stairs with no railing except for a rope hanging down the middle. The view was amazing, though. But you were forced to really work for it.

Today was mellow. We only sat through talks and one hour-long workshop which was kinda tame. I went to the "traditional forms" for poetry one, because I felt I should work on my poetic form more. It was okay, but definitely could've been more engaging.

Now I have the rest of the day off. Yay!

( Cut so you can skip me whinging about people, a.k.a. Roommates )

We go to San Clemente and some other churches on Monday, Tuesday is the Vatican, and from July 2nd (is it the next month so soon???) to July 6th I have my midterm vacation. I'm not sure what all I will be doing then. Pompeii seems pretty set in my mind, and maybe the Cinecitta where they filmed bits of Doctor Who *squees* except the Cinecitta isn't open to the public *sighs*. Probably the catacombs, too. But a really awesome part about the break is that I will have the apartment all to myself! Tommi is going on the Capri trip, 3 of the other girls are going to Barcelona, and another is going to Vienna, I believe. I feel sorta like I should be planning on a more extravagant trip, but...really? I'm okay with exploring the nooks and crannies of Rome. Maybe I'll head north and see Pisa, or Milan, or something, but I'm okay with sticking to where I know.

One last thing before the pictures...Gelato is Fantastic. Especially Coconut Gelato.

Pictures of Hadrian's Villa, Villa d'Este, and...some other random things, since I have the time for it....Or at least I will post them later this evening when Photobucket stops being idiotic....

Edit 6/29 12:23PM: Okay, sorry, I only got to this now. Photobucket wouldn't stop being a pain. These pictures are slightly out of order, but you can still plainly tell what is Hadrian's and what is d'Este.

Here is Hadrian's and Villa d'Este.

This is San Pietro/St. Peter's.


Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.
We slowly drove — He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility — Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death—

You can finally see my wonderful apartment.

For some reason, LJ's "insert image" thing isn't working much at all, sooo..linkage to the Photobucket albums, which are probably much better organized.

Here are pictures of the apartment, and the area it is located in.

Pictures of the Pantheon. I'm standing in front of the column outside, the picture which is lopsided.

And I have found my camera! So I can start taking pictures once again! I'm sort of sad I didn't find it in time to take loads of pictures of the Capitoline Museum, or the Keats-Shelley house (which is where we went today, and almost immediately after found my camera). But there are plenty of other things to take pictures of, so I think I'm okay.

Tommi, Cate, and I went to the Porta Portese flea market Sunday while two of the other girls went to the beach (have no idea why....). That market is HUUUUUGE!!! I think we only got halfway before we gave up in exhaustion. But I think that's where I'm going to get my souvenir for my mother.

We also found a gelateria today which sold more flavors than all the gelato shops we've been to combined. It was crazy. Their smallest cup was a little smaller than what I've had from a different shop, but it was still a good portion. I'll post a pic of the store-front in a different post.

Now off to do dishes...and mourn the fact that we can't find garbage liners anywhere....and write from the POV of 3 objects/ideas/events that happened in/to the Keats-Shelley house.

So. My Italian visa. Which I've been griping and moaning about and probably making a lot of you roll your eyes at me from all the melodrama.

But once more, with feeling: I HATE VISAS!!!!!!!!!!!

However, I recognize that had I been more informed and if I'd been made more aware of what all the components were and when they were all due, I would be less angry with the visa (yes, I'm speaking of it like it's a human being, roll with it!).

So, really, my anger is aimed mostly entirely at the IPE office. *fumes with the thought*

In order to obtain an Italian visa, I need to prove "financial security." The only way I manage to attend and live at UW is through financial aid. So, I submitted the document saying I'd show I have financial aid so the people at IPE could write a letter saying, "She has money. Let her go to Rome."

Admittedly, I dropped the ball a tiny bit on this part. I didn't realize I needed to have already applied for summer aid by the time I submitted my visa application so the woman working with us Creative Writers (we shall henceforth call her YoSaffBridge because I don't like either woman) could send the collective visa apps sometime in the last week, so that's my fault. But the financial aid office doesn't decide financial awards until May-ish.

Can we see the issue here?

I submitted my visa application the 10th of April. YoSaffBridge only emailed me about the problem on the 29th. I'm not even going to try and speculate what all she was doing in those TWO WEEKS she had it.

And now, comes the true source of my anger (because up until that point I was merely frustrated). YoSaffBridge's office hours are from about 8-11ish and then from 2-closing. I got there at 2PM, almost exactly.

She walks in about 2:15 from her break. Then proceeds to take about 15 minutes to do...something. I have no idea what. We talk, she says I need a visa even though the program directors said all we have to do is sign an indemnity form if we didn't get a visa and pretend we're tourists instead of students. I go down to the Financial Aid office, I burden a very nice woman (Lisa, her name was, who was MUCH nicer than the last person I went to about financing Rome) with estimating how much financial aid I would receive for summer, I go back up to IPE about 10 minutes later with the estimate....and YoSaffBridge is "out."

I get that sometimes "when you gotta go, you gotta go." However, YoSaffBridge was only available for....10 minutes out of the 45 minutes I was at IPE.

Mayhaps I'm at the wrong university. When your hours are said to be from 2-closing, you're supposed to be at your office at 2 o'clock NOT leaving wherever you took your lunch at 2 in order to get to your office whenever you get there. Isn't that how it works? Or am I just strange?

I'd heard that IPE was horrible, and you have to watch 'em like a hawk to make sure they don't screw you over, but from the few, brief instances I dealt with them before it didn't seem bad. The secretary/person in charge (she seemed to have more knowledge than all the advisors put together, but she was only greeting people and answering the phone...) was very nice and helpful. But after YoSaffBridge....yeah. *takes out her hawk eyes*

Blah. I don't even know how coherent some of that is. I just got onto the elevator to escape IPE and thought, "She is so going into my livejournal." Grrrr.

I went grocery shopping yesterday, and I now have some yummy French bread, pepperjack cheese, lunch meat, and apples. Oh, and Pepsi, too. *drinks Pepsi to make up for the bad, bad IPE woman* Also went to B&N to pick up a copy of issue 13 of BtVS for Freddie and the 2nd issue of Better Days, since B&N takes about 2-3 weeks to stock the new issues. But they didn't have Better Days, sadly. I'll probably go to Pike Place and see if a comic store there has it. *hopes*

And there'll be Korean food tomorrow! The KSA at UW is hosting a "Korean Food Market" on the HUB lawn. Thankfully the food is bought through tickets purchased at the Ticket Office, so I can use my Husky Card to buy food. *cheers* Since I don't have cash and I demand Korean food. I just hope it's good food, and not fast-food quality Korean food (though I will still buy it).

The Korean test I took yesterday was difficult. Thankfully, though, it wasn't difficult because I didn't know my stuff (though it was still a factor). There was one section where it says, "fill in the blanks to reflect the translation given." Problem? There was no translation. Just a sentence in Korean, a blank, and whatever the heck our brains could come up with. Kim-sunsengnim wasn't there for the test, too, because she had to survey her TAs or some such, so we had no one to ask. Then there was a part where we had to use a certain sentence connector and come up with a sentence based on cues given in English. I knew how to use the connector just fine, but the cues weren't working harmoniously.

Kim-sunsengnim noticed no one finished the test, though, so we get tomorrow to work on it after taking a glance at it today to refresh our memories what we had trouble with. We informed her about the lack of a translation to "reflect" from, so she'll fix that. I don't know what I'm going to do about the connector thing, but at least I'll have more time to B.S. it and get partial credit.

Had my Planets midterm today, too. I know I didn't get 100%, but I didn't utterly fail either! I'm predicting perhaps about a 3.0, maybe a little less if the TAs didn't get their coffee/chocolate/whatever. The labs are weighted more than the tests, though, and I've been getting an average of 9/10, so I'm not worried about my Planets grade (unless something changes for the worst in the class).

I'm feeling a little calmer now. Probably #11 on "You Know You're a Writer When" shirt: You write out everything that makes you frustrated/angry and you feel better afterwards. Heh.

And I gave Nikki her bday present, so now I can show the x-stitching project I did for her.
( David Tennant in sepia )


Buffy: You're right. Ooh! She's even affecting my work, now. She's the Titanic. She's a crawling black cancer!
[She brings her foot up, around and down onto a bench, breaking it in two.]
Buffy: She's... other really bad things.
Oz: On the plus side you've killed the bench, which was looking shifty.
....
Willow: [on the phone with Rupert Giles] Giles, I just talked to Buffy and, yeah, I think she's feeling a little... insane. [pause] No, not bitchy crazy, more like... homicidal maniac crazy. So I told her to come see you, OK? --S.4, Living Conditions

[takes place in the musical episode, so everyone's singing]
Anya: I've got a theory, it could be bunnies. [uncomfortable pause]
Willow: I've got a theor-
Anya [accompanied by rock music]:
Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes!
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses!
And what's with all the carrots?
What do they need such good eyesight for, anyway?
Bunnies! Bunnies! It must be bunnies!
[Long silence. rock music stops]
Or maybe midgets? --S.6, Once More With Feeling, Buffy

First day of spring quarter!

Moving back in yesterday was sorta not very interesting (by this of course I exclude the AWESOMEness Nikki and I had watching Friday Night Project [think British SNL, with much less censorship] which featured David Tennant). For no reason whatsoever, though, I went to bed at 2AM, even though I thought I might have class at 9:30 (my wondering about whether I had class at 9:30 is explained below). I guess I just wanted to keep the spring break alive for just a little longer...

So, I am taking an astronomy class called The Planets, which is arranged in a way that quiz/lab sections are Monday and Wednesday and the main lecture is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Obviously, since today is a Monday, there is no possible way we could be doing labs and such since we haven't even begun learning anything. So, I didn't know whether or not the quiz section met. Typically at the UW, the quiz sections don't meet during the first week of the quarter. So, by this reasoning, this quiz section wouldn't meet, right?

I didn't know for certain, though, since there was no email stating which case was true. Because I'm a paranoid person, I chose to go to quiz section. I figure, if it doesn't meet, then I can go take care of other stuff. Or possibly even eat breakfast, rather than making it a brunch.

I suppose I was rewarded. Quiz section was meeting. Blegh. I did not approve, though at least the TA is bright and alert at that hour, and by her own words she's TA-ed for the class a "million times" so she knows what she's about. Still....really? Convening the QS before the first lecture? Not cool.

And, slightly deviating: They took away the broken obelisk in Red Square!!!!
( An obscenely big image behind the cut, because LJ refuses my attempts to resize it )
It was true!! I read a post about it in the uw community, but I thought they'd bring it back in time by start of classes, since it was taken away for "cleaning" (...really? Why do they need to clean it??). 'Twas not the case. I took pictures ^.^

The Quad cherry blossoms were out, too, and I took a picture of that as well. ^.^ Was very happy. And, really, UW has this "Hogwarts-esque" thing going on. There's Hansee, which is like the school proper, and then there's all these little artsy-architecture-sculptures/whatever-you-want-to-call-it that's all around the school. In the Physics/Astronomy building, there's this neat little pendulum that swings according to the Earth's gravitational spin or whatnot, and in order to get to my QS classroom I have to take this winding staircase. Seriously. Hogwarts-extension.

Anyway, back to classes. 2nd Year Korean is the typical 2nd Year Korean, with lots of me panicking about being completely stupid. And I never noticed it, but they moved where the class was meeting! Originally we were meeting in the basement of Smith, which was fine by me, but now we're meeting on the 4th floor. 4 flights of stairs? NO. Yes, with all capitals. Elevator? Most definitely.

Chaucer....is where my lots nerdiness comes in. I had to run down the 4 flights of stairs and then another bit of stairs to exit Smith, run up the big long hill to Denny, climb another bit of stairs to enter, and get to the classroom, which took about 5 minutes, and then the 2 hour class started. The teacher's a bit...I guess absentminded? He kept starting a topic, waxing on about it and a few tangents, and then restarted the topic again, but it was alright since I kinda do that, too. But then he got started on the timeline and history of Medieval literature, and what those years encompass in terms of people and such, and I was enthralled by it. *shifts eyes* I guess if I'd been more on the ball about my college experience I would've been a history minor (or double major, even), but I was interested in learning about the different names for the eras and people of them. History of English literature, I suppose they'd call it. I suppose it's the feel of it being trivia that attracts me to learning/knowing it. Maybe something to pursue in grad studies--except I'm not intending to faint in horror today, so I'm going to stop right there on that idea.

I think I'm really going to like Paul (the teacher). He kinda gives me a Mr. Hesse vibe, which sorta isn't a good thing, but Paul has a good Mr. Hesse vibe. He obviously wanted to talk at length about how bad the UBookstore is about textbooks and which professors ordered theirs. He ordered his weeks ago, but they claim to have not received it, and he went on at length about how much trouble he went to in copying and pasting the different ISBNs and finding them and how there aren't convenient options and so on and so forth. I found it amusing, at least. AND he gave a good reason for why he wanted specific editions of the texts, which was my main concern and grief with the class, so I'm at ease about it now. And there's an OPTIONAL multiple choice midterm exam (read: Extra Credit), and a choice between writing a literary criticism or research paper that's due at the end of the quarter, and the only required exam is also multiple choice, and I actually want to read the texts, and and and and and....!!!!!!!!

....is it obvious how much of a nerdy English/Creative Writing major I am now? *angles herself to hide under her desk from all the rolling eyes*

Speaking of books, I'm waiting to receive my email confirmation from B&N that my books have been shipped to them, which should be today since I requested 2-day shipping and ordered them Saturday. Since the UBookstore is being stupid and the only text we need for the next 4 weeks is the book I have, I'm not too concerned.

I've written it in my Facebook, but I'll reiterate here for emphasis: Joss Whedon is making me into a comics collector. *headdesk* Buffy Season 8 which will be going for FIFTY ISSUES and Firefly comics which seem to be coming out in 3s, and Joss has said/confirmed that there will be a Shephard Book series (in comics, I assume) after the Better Days arc.

*flails* I'm a college student! I'm going to Rome! I have no money for all this fandom!!! *flails more*

Speaking of....Info session for Rome nao plzkthnx??? Y'know...so I can prepare all the necessary stuff BEFORE June???? Like, visas and such?? (which, visas are apparently paper/authorization saying a person can enter/exit the country.)

Anything else? Wellll, the weather's turned rotten after a sun-shiney day of blue skies, but that's almost like saying the Earth revolves around the sun. It's Seattle/Western Washington (because all Washingtonians know that the Eastern and Western sides might as well be different states), we can literally have blue skies, puffy clouds, overcast skies, hail, and rain all in the same day, if not the same hour.

I'll probably be posting random pics up on my Photobucket account; when I do, I'll link them here. Just a lot of random me-stuff.

Edit 7:00PM: Added the pic of the missing broken obelisk above. And if you want to see more pics of different parts of campus, leave a comment and maybe I'll give links.

Edit 10:00PM: I TOTALLY FORGOT!!!! 21 NEW EPISODES ORDERED FOR EUReKA!!!!!!!!!!!!! *FLAILS* It may not mean 22-episode season(s), but...21 EPISODES!!!!! *FLAILS MORE*


{Asked by Mrs. Clark if he knew what day it was.]
"Oh, yes; it is the glorious Fourth of July. It is a great day. It is a good day. God bless it. God bless you all. [He then lapsed into unconsciousness. He awakened later, and mumbled] Thomas Jefferson..." --Pres. John Adams
John Adams died on July 4, 1826. He is often quoted as having said "Thomas Jefferson still survives." with some depictions indicating he might have not expressed the entire statement before dying, i.e.: "Thomas Jefferson… still survi—", but some research indicates that only the words "Thomas Jefferson" were clearly intelligible among his last. Adams did not know that Jefferson, his great political rival—and later friend and correspondent—had died a few hours earlier that same 4th of July, 1826, exactly fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

I added the non-quote bit because it's interesting trivia--trivia that I actually learned from a non-school source, though for the life of me I can't remember from where.

Got to see the total lunar eclipse! Yay-ness. At first Nikki and I were a little afraid that we wouldn't get to see the moon, because there was a little cloud cover, but once we got past the trees we could see the moon. We wound up going to McMahon's patio, where we got a crystal-clear view of the mooooooon, along with several other people. ^____^ Happy times. Also ordered some Wing Zone buffalo wings, which are good and the leftovers are currently sitting nice and cozy in my somewhat empty fridge. I need to go to QFC and get some actual food-food in my fridge; I didn't realize how not-full of food it was until I looked.

Hopefully not very many people see the eclipsed moon and freak out; the world's not ending! Though, at this point if I were on Pern, Thread would be falling from the sky and the dragons would come to flame it out of the sky......that'd be kinda cool.

I tried to take a few pictures, but the clarity was really weak. I might upload some of the pictures that showcase how terrible of a photographer I am. ^.^

America's Next Top Model is on tonight. Woo. It'll give me something to do Wednesday nights, and a little connection to TV until House comes back on.

Watching ANTM right now. More thorough update later.

Edit 9:00: AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! WHAT POSSESSES TYRA TO CHOOSE THE MOST IRRITATING, ANNOYING, CRINGE-WORTHY GIRLS?!?!?!?!?!?!

Okay. ANTM rant over (until next week).

Christopher Eccleston is made of WIN. Even if you don't know him from Doctor Who you should really get on that you should go type in "Christopher Eccleston Top Gear" in the YouTube search box and watch his Top Gear episode. ^.^ And for all those who are wondering, "Who the heck is Christopher Eccleston?" he was on Heroes as Claude (never saw it myself), in 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, Othello (2001), and lots of other stuff. Go watch and laugh and revel in the wonder that is a 14-month driver driving an automatic where usually it's a manual.

And I just realized that I never mentioned this....I got a new digital camera for my birthday!! I did a little "research" on it, meaning I went to various websites and looked at the reviews people left for cameras and decided on the Canon PowerShot A560, because out of the 10 reviews I read, 9 of them were 10 stars and one was 9, and the 9-star one was because of price issues. It's all sleek and small and yes I did name it Kakashi, but I've now decided to name it Jack because I have so many Jacks in my fandom it's not even funny. ^.^ I'm happy with my purchase, especially since WalMart failed me and didn't have it in stock, resulting me in going to Best Buy to purchase it for $10 more. But I'm full of glee about it.

I also got new books with the B&N gift card Nikki gave me on my birthday, including The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories, Lord of the Flies, Lirael, and Abhorsen. Got some money, had a breakfast at IHOP courtesy of my sister, and lots of Korean food. ^.^

And now I've discovered that B&N is having a "buy 2 paperbacks get 3rd free" deal. *flails* Couldn't that have been this weekend?? Then.....then.....O.O So many books that could have been bought with $25........*flails some more*

But yes! On to pictures, because I now have time (though I am going to be watching some Torchwood after I finish with this entry....yay Jack!)

Seriously. SO MANY JACKS!!

( Pics )


Col. Jack O'Neill: I'm not a big fan of that "bark like a chicken, cluck like a dog" stuff. --Stargate SG-1, Fire and Water