Yesterday we went on a Caravaggio walk to 3 different churches. It was interesting that people had to pay up to 1 euro to light a Caravaggio set-up at times. Otherwise the effects presented in the paintings were...

I've found I can't really describe it without sounding....ridiculously passive and superficial. "It's interesting" just seems adequate to me, so I guess I'm not one of those people who are strongly moved to tears by paintings/frescos. It makes me feel a little out of my depth, especially when all the cohort leaders/teachers/grad students have all these deep, meaningful reactions and all I can come up with is...."Cool." Which I guess is plenty enough, and the adults older more experienced people are expected to be capable of those observations. (There is one grad student who is 19; he went to college at 14, so...yeah. Way smarter than I.) Bah. The Caravaggio paintings rocked, my writing for that day didn't center around Caravaggio, and yesterday ended fine. Huzzah!

Today we went to the National Museum of Rome at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. The contents of the museum made me tilt my head sometimes, and the mummy down in the basement creepified me to getting out ASAP, and there was a cool sculpture of an acrobat in the middle of his act that I was strongly interested in. As well as this little girl framed in something that looked like a window within a window. It reminded me of The Family of Blood episode in Doctor Who though, so taking notes on the girl just led me down the path of writing a 4-line, 4-stanza poem of a haunted house. It's not a very good creepy poem, and I was somewhat glad I didn't get a chance to share today because Rick was in our cohort today and I'm intimidated by the thought of sharing poetry with him, especially when I feel the concept would have been better delivered in a prose format.

Other highlights: buses in Rome are, while cheap (just 1 euro for 1-way), WAY too unregulated. They stuff the bus as full as it will be filled, regardless of traffic hazards. There were people crammed against the doors at the front of the bus and even a little against the front windows; I was pressed into the plexiglas separating the bus driver from the aisle. If you get stuck with 2 really attractive, nice-smelling boys, then it's not so bad. When you get stuck with 2 kinda-okay-looking, terrible-smelling boys, it's not in the least bit good. On the bright side, raspberry and pineapple (two separate flavors in one cup!) gelato is AWESOME!!! Especially when you're randomly craving fruity stuff.

Oh. Forgot Repressed about yesterday: I was eating pizza bianca (just pizza crust with some olive oil; very delicious) in Piazza Farnese on this convenient ledge jutting out from a building, and a pigeon excreted on my head. It was only a little pebble-sized excrement, but....yeah. I've now experienced everything a person needs to experience in life to be a well-rounded person. Bee-stung. Pooped on by a bird. The stereotypical bad college roommate.

Tomorrow we have another bus excursion to someplace well outside of Rome. It's a monastery, with the first (Italian, I believe?) printing press, and an extensive library. I have to wake up at 7AM to get to the bus at 8, but hopefully they'll get us that excellent charter bus again. Especially for a bus ride which will be ~1 1/2 hours.

And I hate the TV here. I wish it were broken. >.<

Edit 11PM: Tru Calling is coming out with a "complete series" DVD set. So that would be....TV series #14-ish that I need to get on DVD, at least 4 of which have 7-10 seasons. Yeeeeaaaahhhh.......


Davis: I’ve got this thing tomorrow at my apartment, and I haven’t unpacked.
Tru: When did you move in?
(Davis looks as through he counting back)
Davis: Three years ago.

Davis: (to Harrison) I'm so sorry. Please, accept my condolences. You were so... young.
Harrison: Dude, I'm still alive. I died yesterday. --Tru Calling

"Spanish food is nothing like Mexican food!"

I meant to. Really. Really seriously. I'd planned to at least go to Castel San Angelo, if I didn't make it to Pompeii or the catacombs.

But I had the apartment to myself, and it just felt nice not to have to fight with the other girls (meaning 3 of them) for rights to the apartment. It felt nice to sit back and not be required to go someplace at such-and-such time, and do this-and-this for the-near-future. It felt nice to have a vacation, in other words, which I would've had if I'd stayed in Olympia.

( The highlight of my vacation )

To end on a more positive note....Rome got a tiny bit cooler over the vacation! And I'm not deadly sunburnt, like some other people I know who went out. I also have this crazy-insane weird longing to watch Van Helsing. I might go see if the Rome Center has it available to check out or something.......


[The Maximals pretend that Dinobot is seriously injured to trick Starscream]
Rattrap: [to Dinobot] Lie still! And GROAN, for cryin' out loud! You're supposed to be half-dead!
Dinobot: If you don't shut up, Vermin, you will be my role model! --Beast Wars

A blase entry, seeing as this is my break and therefore no extravagant places were visited. I'm still mulling over going to Pompeii, Castel San Angelo, and the catacombs, and for a while Capri was thrown into the mix, but I don't think I'll be going to Capri. A sign of encouragement for another trip to Italy sometime in my future, perhaps?

( A little bit about the apartment, I guess. )

I was waffling earlier in the spring (and, really, even before that) about minors and the Classical Studies, but I guess I didn't have the motivation. I can say with confidence that this Rome trip has inspired me to pursue the Classical Studies minor with gusto. I changed my Autumn quarter so that I'm taking 18 credits, 8 of which are Classic Studies classes. I'm really not looking forward to one of the classes, History 311: Science in Civilization: Antiquity to 1600. I'm not science-minded at all, really, but this class A) fulfills Classic Studies credits, which I desperately need, and B) fulfills my W-credit, which I also need like none other. The other 3 credits I'm taking is an Architecture course focusing on the Ancient World, which...is exactly where I am right now, so I'm sure there'll be a few architectural marvels that crop up in the class that I've visited. I'll have to take 18 credits again in Winter, but I don't mind because the Classics classes I will take revolve around books (the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, etc.), so I'm okay with that. It'll be kind of interesting, because I'll be taking that advanced class in winter, but in the spring I'll be taking an introductory course to Greek and Roman Classics. I'm sure I'm doing it wrong, but...there's nothing anywhere that says I need the introductory course first.

My only regret is that I don't know if there will be history classes available in winter/spring which are accepted for the Classic Studies minor. I'd be far more interested in the history than re-learning about the books and/or the Pantheon/Forum/etc. There's a book us Creative Writers in Rome are required to read which is a history textbook of Rome told in story-style which everyone has been complaining about. I unfortunately didn't start reading it until the day of the quiz (which, yeah, I did poorly on, but mostly because they asked obscure questions), but I was engrossed in reading it. It did start resembling a list at some point, simply naming kings/emperors/popes and the people who plundered Rome throughout the ages, but I was gulping the pages down. Again, I regret that dratted sophomore year, when I should have focused on my interest in history rather than somehow convince myself I could take Economics and a CSS class, but oh well. The minor should help somewhat.

They've also finally put up the requirements for the Korean minor and....3rd year is required. I can't take 3rd year, not without overloading on credits and dropping the Classic Studies minor. Even if I did drop the C.S. minor, I'd still need a W-credit, which none of the Korean classes are fulfilling, and even if they did I'd wind up having to overload on credits to something like 25 credits. It just won't happen. It breaks my heart a little, because I do really want to learn more, but...it just isn't feasible. Maybe if I come to the UW for a Master's program, which is a headache for an entirely different day (and not at ~2AM).

Random fact: Rick Kenney (my enthusiastic poet of a teacher) has a Wikipedia page. It boggles my mind, somewhat, and I wonder who put it up.

And...this post got a bit rambly. Eeps. I'll leave off with mentioning how I love having un-grated Parmesan cheese, Ravioli con carne, marinara sauce, and bacon bits all waiting for me to cook with it tomorrow. ^_________^


A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb. --W. H. Auden

I almost forgot that it was the 1st of July. My days here in Rome have been so hectic and long, they seem to run together so I can only think of them as "That one day we went to [insert place here]." And sadly? That's exactly how everybody else on this program is thinking, too. School six days a week suits me unwell.

On the bright side, MIDTERM BREAK!! Yay! I can sleep in (well, inasmuch as the market outside will let me). I also realized that, coming this Thursday/Friday, I'll be gone back to Washington in 2 weeks. It seems like such a short amount of time (both in how long I have and how long I've been here) and yet time is moving sluggishly, too.

I may have to camp out at the airport through the night of the 17-18th in order to catch my 7-something AM flight back to the States and get through security (I really should have kept a closer eye on the time when I booked the flight) because A) the Rome Center needs to check me out of my apartment, and I doubt they're going to open their doors at 3AM just for me. And 2) there's a subway that goes directly to the airport, but its hours are from about 5AM-11PM. Does not quite work for me. So, hangin' out at the Fiumicino Aeroporto para me!

As I've said, I'm considering going to Pompeii on my break. I'm also 95% decided to go to San Angelo Castel (I believe this is the place's name), which the only downside is that I have to pay my own entrance fee, of perhaps 7.50 euro. Oh well, I've heard it's an excellent place.

Speaking of places, we went individually to the Vatican Museum, where the "Torso of Apollo" is housed, as well as the Sistine Chapel. I actually met up with a girl outside the entrance and we went to see it together, and she didn't seem to get the intensity of the ceiling until she saw a miniature version in a poster/bookmark. The ceiling and the Final Judgement paintings are infinitely more intense in person than through other mediums, though I still mourned my inability to get a puzzle of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling (a box of 1000 pieces will never fit in my suitcase, le sigh).

In other news, our TV apparently works, but hates me. I sort of kinda short-circuited the TV when I was trying to plug my laptop in to charge the battery, and the TV refused to turn on for me, but did just fine with another girl in the house. Soooo...no longer going to fuss with the TV, which I'm not too sad about, since it does not show Doctor Who/Chuck/Firefly/Buffy/Justice League/Life on Mars/a whole lot of other shows.

Now I should go, since my battery is now at about 27%. Pictures might come tomorrow, but they won't be links to several pages' worth of photos.


Education: When in Doubt, Smile and Nod. Oh Daniel, how I love thee and your Chalkboard of Win (though Jack might not after Windows of Opportunity)

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—

Monday: We went to the Keats-Shelley house, as already stated. Found my camera, enjoyed wonderful gelato from a place called Della Palma. I don't really remember much beyond that; I think it was a pretty easy day.

Tuesday: Went to the Forum, Palatine, and Colosseum. The Forum was amazing, Palatine was pretty (and we might've maybe hopped a fence or two into cordoned-off places....) and the Colosseum...was a bit of a disappointment. I guess the picture in my head wasn't quite the reality, but that's okay. It was still amazing from the outside. Cate, Tommi, and I were joined by James, who's a nice fellow. Walking back from the Colosseum we kinda got lost, was directed by a couple from Barcelona, and stumbled upon a submarine in a building with brick interior and air-conditioning.

Yeah. The air-conditioning was awesome. The submarine we kinda stared and tilted our heads at.

We got gelato thereafter, and James got the priciest and biggest cup (2.50 euro). We all ate our gelato contentedly...and then James hit bottom. About halfway through the cup's size. We were all laughing along with him about him being ripped off, with his first gelato experience no less, and then Cate took the cup and shook it. Something rattled, Tommi noticed that the writing was similar to Spanish's "open here" and we realized that when the cup reads: "Toy Cup" it does mean what we think it means. He opened it and got a cute little hippo. We then broke into laughter over the fact that it was a toy, and probably irritated a lot of Italians with our undying laughter.

Wednesday: We went to Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este in Tivoli. We went by charter bus (a really awesome charter bus, too; kinda like riding in First Class in an airplane. It had air-conditioning, foot-rests, a table, and cup-holders. It was pretty classy. And, Rome (at least historic-center Rome) is to Tivoli like the Ave is to UVillage. I'm not even trying to be an English-major-snob, using analogies. It really is like that.

Hadrian's was amazing. It was definitely a ruin of its former glory, but...there was just soo much to see! Lots of ponds/pools, and this awesome room that seemed like a sun temple. James, Tommi and I walked through this sort of prairie-grass field, looking for a tower but not finding it, until we randomly stumbled upon it. We actually had to hop another fence for it, but it wasn't a place closed to the public, so it was just us saving time rather than meandering back the way we came, and looking for the slope up to the tower.

The view was amazing from there (and we happened to see our teacher Kevin Craft reposing under a tree below us). Pictures will come, I promise! We made our way back down, got on the bus, went further to Tivoli where we got lunch and would eventually go to Villa d'Este. We found this really cheap pizzeria where I got lunch for less than 5 euro, and...FOUND PEPSI!!! I've been really good so far and drinking mostly water, a little milk here and there, and one small can of coke in the whole week I was here, but I was expecting to never find Pepsi. Italians are apparently very fond of their orange Fanta, though (which seems to taste better than America's, judging by what other people say). So when I found the Pepsi, I was muy muy happy.

We then went to Villa d'Este and....Oh. My. Goodness.

Tommi and I had been joking about living in Hadrian's Villa, because we just loved how gorgeous it was even though they were ruins. But....I seriously want to live at Villa d'Este. I want that for my own. If I ever get married....I want to get married there. Rome, for my wedding present, you can just gift that Villa to me. Seriously. Keep all the Pepsis you want for the tourists, if it means I can have it.

It's a Villa of fountains and greenery and grottos and panoramic views....peaceful beauty in physical form. I don't know if I could ever explain it.

( A Late Cut to Preserve Flists )

A few pictures now, since I've uploaded a bit. I actually have waaaaay too many pictures of the Forum and what we saw today, so it'll be some links to a few stuff. They don't have headers/descriptions at the moment, but you can just enjoy them for their aesthetic value.

the Galoppotoio in the north and the Janiculum in the south. These places were mostly just gorgeous panoramas, nothing specific to the sites themselves.

A few pictures of San Pietro, near the Vatican. There will probably be more pictures uploaded to this album/file later, either on Friday and/or Tuesday, when we go to St. Peters (obviously after this one) and the Vatican (which, by the way, if you want something from the Vatican...let me know. I'm looking to buy souvenirs while I'm still in the area.)

And pictures from lots of different places. I'm sorry, this album kinda got all mish-mashed into one, because the places were kinda close together, and the same day, sooo...yeah. The first two pics are inside the San Ignazio (which had a slightly mean porter), the 3rd is Hadrian's Temple (not to be confused with Hadrian's Villa), #9-18 minus #16 pics are the Popolov Piazza, and pics #8, 16, 19, 20, and 21 are inside the Santa Maria di Popolo, which is a church (and yes, those are skull and crossbones). #16 is the facade of the church.

I really will get those pics labeled so it's more coherent. And upload the pics from the Forum and other wonderful places (Villa d'Este especially).


Batman: (Seeing the plant-laden Batcave) What's with the jungle?
Alfred: I thought this drab old cave could use some colour. How does it look?
Batman: (Pause) Green. --Batman: the Animated Series

Today we went to the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum all in about 3-4 hours, in direct sunlight and probably 87+ degrees Fahrenheit. We also randomly found a submarine in a building with brick interior. We're pretty sure it was some sort of naval museum, but it was still strange to walk in on that. Also, point of interest to anyone traveling to Rome: Romans are VERY protective of their steps. Odd, but seemingly true; this is about the second time we got kicked off of sitting/standing on steps.

Got back and found myself burnt across the shoulders. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as grueling, so...doubling the amount of sunscreen I pour on my shoulders this time.

The landlord had a dinner party for those living in his building, and it was a pretty good (and free!) dinner. It was just two small dishes of pasta, a plate of salad with keish (it wasn't bad, but...not to my taste, either) and some gelato. Unfortunately, the waitresses weren't all that great at tabulating who wanted beer/wine, so I wound up being served a cup of beer. Other people at my end of the table drank it, though, so it wasn't wasted.

More later. More sleep now-ish.

Edit 11:10PM: A handful of pics of the outside of the Capitoline Museum; I might hunt around later for pics of the exhibits inside from some of the other people.

8 Images at Photobucket.

Tomorrow we go to Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este. So, I might be able to upload pictures from that trip, the trip to the Forum/Palatine/Colosseum, and some misc. pics.

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.

Thursday was a bit horrendous, because I was still a bit jet-lagged and we walked for miles in the sun. We all met at the Pantheon at 9AM and went to the Adrian temple, a few churches (from one of which most of us got kicked out of because we hadn't been forewarned and thus not dressed according to the dress code), Piazza del Popollo, and the Galoppatoio (a long hill in the north of Rome) all before 12. Then we reconvened at 5:30 and after a little meeting we went to the Janiculum, saw Garibaldi's statue, and St. Peter in the Vatican.

I was absolutely dead on my feet by the time we got back around 9 o'clock, but of course I kept myself up reading a tiny, tiny bit of Ovid and checking up on email, etc. until about 11:30. And I was out like the dead, just like I was the night before. But exactly like yesterday morning, I woke up at 6 AM because of the farmer's market set up directly outside. I think they were purposely clanging every metal object they had at 5:50AM. *fumes*

Thankfully today (6/20) was a bit easier, since all we did was A) go to the UW Rome Center orientation, and B) "Get lost" in Rome. No marching after the profs, no trailing after the 30+ group like little ducks, just me at my own pace, wherever I wanted to go so long as I was "lost." I did not know where I was, but.....usually, on foot, I can backtrack very easily. I did try to go out of my way to pick a whole new path to the Campo de Fiori, but....yeah. I rewarded myself with some "pizza" which is more like a flat-bread sandwich, with promiscuitto and mozzerella filling. Very delicious. I also got some chocolate gelato (which, yeah, gelato is amazing in that it can get the flavor down EXACTLY. I had coconut gelato Wednesday, which tasted like it had actual coconut in it. Perfecto), and while I was walking my way back a guy with a family asked me in Italian where I got the gelato (and I knew what he was asking without having him repeat slowly and in English!! *wins*). I think he thought I was Italian, because when I pointed and said, "Around the corner, called Blue Ice," he said, "Oh, thank you" and had that look like, "Oops, made a fool of myself." I guess this means I'm looking more and more like I know what the heck I'm doing here. That's always a plus.

I'm also getting darker. It's only been about 3 days, and I'm fairly certain my arms are getting browner. Every time I look at the lower half of my legs, those seem a bit brown, too. *wins at tan, hopes she doesn't burn or develop cancer*

We got a schedule of what's going to happen for the next 4 weeks, and we're not going to be going on walks in the evening anymore (I hope) so I think I'll be able to finally fully recover from the flight and won't be so dead exhausted anymore. That will be a wonderful day.

I am missing home a lot. Especially when I went to the supermarket yesterday and couldn't understand what problem the cashier had with my euro. Looking back on it now, I think it might have been because she didn't have exact change for me, but...it seems like a terrible excuse, given that it was ~1PM, sooo....she should have had plenty of coins. But as long as I take a breath and remember how awesome it is to be in Rome, the four weeks should go by fairly quickly. Oh, and also if our hot water has finally been gifted to us. Because taking an ice-cold shower? Literally ice-cold, so that if it had been under the right pressure, we could've made ice-cubes? SO not what I want to come home to.

I've taken loads and loads of pictures, but haven't been uploading them to photobucket because I've been way too exhausted to even consider it. So I'm doing that now, and maybe later this evening I'll post pics up of the apartment and a few of the sites we've been to (unless I get a demand for it, there's no way I'm uploading every single picture I've taken to livejournal/facebook).

You know what's also nice? Having toilet paper. Hopefully that'll come soon.

Edit 9:19PM: A wonderful way to end the night!!! I come home, realizing that my camera is not in my bag like it usually is, and recall leaving it on the TV stand. But now it's absolutely nowhere to be found in the apartment, so now the only option I have left is that the nice electrician men stole it. And I have no idea what the protocol is for that scenario. So now I've lost a very nice camera that my mother unofficially bought for me for my birthday, I've lost the pictures I didn't get to upload, and I've lost that writing muse I had with me coming back to the apartment. *wants to break down and cry*


Buffy: [narrating.] “My love.” He called me “My love”. And then I threw up in my mouth a little.
Buffy: Ethan Rayne?
Ethan: In the flesh, my love.
Buffy: And again, a slight barflex. You have to stop calling me that.
Ethan: It’s an expression, pet. Like “pet”.

Finished my first day in Rome; since I got here at 7AM Rome time, I consider that a full day here and thus official.

Rundown:
Didn't get any sleep Monday night, because my family drove me to SeaTac at 3AM to get there at 4AM, went through security and such (and of course their currency exchange was only open from 6AM-sometime later, and was only open on the pre-security side of the airport. Of course. I realize now I probably didn't have to arrive 2-3 hours early because I was making a connection within the U.S., but....I much preferred the 20-minute wait through security than the long, long, long line at about 6AM.

My flight to JFK had its gate switched twice (once apparently after I got my boarding pass, and then again about an hour before the flight). Had a fine flight minus the screeching child every flight seems to require. I was sitting in the aisle seat and (excepting the first 30 minutes of the flight) had no one sitting beside me except the girl in the window seat.

Connected in JFK, tried to call home and got cut short by the stupid answering machine (there's a dollar I'll never see again), hopped onto the plane to Rome at 5PM Tuesday, and was on that plane until 7AM Wednesday. That flight was pretty uneventful, except for the typical bad airplane food (of which I had to eat with a spoon) and the movies (27 Dresses and Evan Almighty) in Italian with no English subtitles. I had the aisle seat again with only one other person in the row with me, but she was at the other end, so the only downside to that seating arrangement was the fact that I had absolutely no chance at a view (except the lavatory...). In total, I think I got about....3 hours of sleep for Monday and Tuesday? Maybe being generous. But then again, I don't think Tuesday even existed for me, since I was in a plane almost the entire day, doing my own version of time travel.

Got off the plane, went through the hoops of passport check to reach baggage claim, got money exchanged, and shared a car with 2 other girls in my program with a very cute Roman guy (Valerio was his name). Thankfully he practically drove us to the doorstep, and we only had to walk a block to the UW Rome Center. I got my apartment assignment, met coincidentally with one of my apartment mates at the office, and went over with her. The apartment is amazing but pictures are going to wait until A) I have reliable internet access and B) I'm not braindead from sleep deprivation.

Tomi (the roommate) and I went walking around the neighborhood a bit, got something to eat (first Roman meal: a flat-bread-type sandwich with provolone(?) and turkey/ham), and went to the UW Rome Center to get on computers with Internet. Met even more people with the Creative Writing program and directed them the right way, and went back to the apartment with a 3rd roomie. All total, there's 6 of us girls here for an apartment with 7 beds.

There's a farmer's market right in front of our apartment, so we went and got a few produce (I bought cherries, Tomi bought plums). Then came back, and I conked out on the bed for a few precious hours. Then we got some dinner (pizza! With mozzerella, tomato sauce, and mushrooms, delicious) before heading out to the first meeting with the CW group.

We hung out at Professor Kenney's apartment for a bit, then walked to the Forum (pictures to come later). I recited my poem with a few helpful prompts from the printed poem in my back pocket, and...yeah. That's it, really.

I'm just really, really, really tired. Not even physically taxed, but brain-tired. And we're to be at the Pantheon tomorrow at 9AM. Yay.

The heat's intense, and I think I'm going to be brown by the end of the month here, but I think it'll be bearable. Both fans we have in the apartment are broken, and I had my stupid moment of the day by plugging in my alarm clock without a power transformer. Completely blew it, and it smells of burned wiring, so I think it's bit the dust. One less thing I need to bring back with me, at least.....

And I found out my grades. My lowest was The Planets with a 3.5, so I'm ecstatic about that. I got a 3.9 in Chaucer, so huzzah there.


Yes, I have finally arrived to this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life... Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

50 Books in a Year Update:
( What I Have Read )

7. The Parliament of Birds by Geoffrey Chaucer, Transl. E.B. Richmond
8. Love Visions by Geoffrey Chaucer, Transl. Brian Stone
9. Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer, Transl. Neville Coghill
10. Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm also now in the process of reading Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Metamorphoses, so 13 books read, only...37 more books to go in 30 weeks. Hmmm.......I need to rededicate myself to reading a lot more often.

I deconstructed my room, so now it's a little freaky and soul-less. I put up my posters and was nestled in the first day, if not the first 6 hours of moving in, so I never had time to notice how terribly white the room is. I really should've left my posters up until tonight, since I move out Wednesday afternoon, but....It was simpler to get most of my packing done now. Speaking of....I should really get to packing clothes, for all that it will only take 30 minutes once my laundry is done.

I finished my Chaucer paper (which turned out harder than it would have been if only books were posted online), and now I am going to be studying today for my Planets final. Since the final is A) in combination with the midterm, only 40% of my final grade, B) I've gotten consistent 9-10/10s on my labs which accounts for 60% of my final grade, C) is curved, and if one quiz section does insanely better than all the rest of the class and skews the curve (like my quiz section managed to do for the midterm) the prof doesn't take that section into account, and D) I actually know a lot of this stuff, I'm not that worried about if I study poorly for it. The only incentives to studying my brains out in order to 4.0 the test is self-satisfaction and the fact that he weighs the final more if we show improvement in the final. Soooo...yeah. Not worried.

And Naruto Shippuden: Why can't you come to the US faster?! Let's skip all the dumb fillers and get straight to the real stuff! I want to know what everybody's fussing about with Itachi and...well, not interested in Sasuke, but what's going on with him and Itachi?!? Same to Doctor Who, though since SciFi was kind enough to air the episodes only about 2 weeks behind BBC (the edited versions, to our discontent), I suppose it's less of a rant and more of a "please to be showing us our Doctor Who at the same time as the lucky British folk and without the 43-minute version."

7 Days Until I Go to Rome!!!!!!!!!! now if I could only figure out this stupid cell phone mess I'd be less stressed


I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints. If you are noble, I will love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

I have a paper due tomorrow for Chaucer which I've only just begun researching for, since I know my habits and knew I wouldn't be able to focus on it until around this time. I've still gotten a headstart on the paper, though, since I came into it knowing what topic I wanted to write about, which I've never done before. Unfortunately, after about an hour of searching, I only managed to come up with one accessible article that pertains to the topic. The prof handed out a sheet a while ago which has "suggested formats" for the paper, and it seems to say that I do only need a single "full-length study." Or 2-4 articles. I don't know whether this falls under article or study, but I'd still prefer having a few more sources to back up whatever I'm going to write.

Unfortunately, I can never seem to find an online-presentation of the articles that seem appropriate to my subject. They always lead me to this page where they have all the citations for the article, but none of said article. *headdesk* Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Probably. *headdesks some more*

I might decide to abandon that topic altogether and choose one that doesn't require me to do any research. That's an option he gave us, too. I like this professor and how laid-back he is about the paper. I think if I really wanted to earn bigger brownie points from him, I would've done research on present-day adaptions of Chaucerian works, since that's what he's into. I still don't know if he knows about Britain's adaption of the Canterbury Tales, but he probably has.

On a less academic note, my family came up and took away a lot of my stuff. I actually have space in my room now! It's not nearly as freaky as it will be come Tuesday/Wednesday, when my posters come down and bare the walls for the first time in 9 months, but still. I turn to my right expecting a big huge butterfly chair, and find nothing but a little cart. My bookshelf's mostly barren now, too. It makes me sad inside to see an empty bookshelf.

I'm probably going to be completely buggy tomorrow after spending probably an all-nighter on this paper, but on the brightside I can come back to my room and sleep and not have to worry about moving out immediately afterward well, after I finish all my other errands. It's the only reason I'm on livejournal right now instead of freaking out about the paper.

9 DAYS UNTIL I HEAD TO ROME!!!!


rough quote from an anon friend: "What's incinerate mean? Is it something like circumcision?"

....but the study abroad kinda nixes that. Still.

I'M DONE WITH CLASSES!!! *realizes she only has a year left and deflates a little*

Now all I have left is a 5-8 page paper based on the subject of Chaucer that can be about pretty much anything due on Monday and a final exam for my Planets class on Wednesday. I'll probably spend Saturday and Sunday writing the paper, with a break on Sunday to pack up stuff/hang out with my family when they come here to do a mini-move-out. I'd say it'll be easy-peasy, but I know I won't be getting a lot of sleep Sunday night/Monday morning writing the paper. *sigh*

11 Days until I leave for Rome, bright and early (tooooooo early...) the 17th. *flails* I keep getting caught between being psyched for it and being completely overwhelmed/terrified of it. I think the excitement is pretty self-explanatory. But...I'm going to a foreign country with only Spanish (I doubt Korean is going to help me out there) under my belt. I've heard that there are people who speak English, but...it's still frightening. I think I'd feel a lot better about studying abroad if I were going to a country where English (American or British English) was the predominant language spoken, or even if I were studying that language, because then I have a grasp for it. Italian...not so much. Now that I've finished Korean, though, I can focus studying the new language, so maybe I'm just freaking out for no reason. *hopes*

Plus, this is the first time I've ever been truly away from my family/home. Sure, yes, I'm mostly on my own up in Seattle, but my family's a phone call and 1 1/2 hours of driving away. But now I'm seriously on my own. And I know, I know, I should be ready to be independent and not hold onto my mommy's apron-strings and etc. etc. etc., but the fact is... I'm going to be on my own without my usual support group. No me gusta! 싫습니다! Non mi piace! *sigh*

It turns out someone already took Via Appia for their project (I guess I can hope that they're a Doctor Who fan...) so I took Temple of Vesta. And, sadly, I read and wrote the name wrong so for a while I thought I was researching "Temple of Vestia." Not even Wikipedia redirected me, and I've put some really wrong spellings in that search bar. And I think I emailed my prof saying I would take the Temple of Vestia. *headdesk* ETA: Aah, now, see, my misspelling is okay! Because the only reason I wrote Vestia is because that's how my prof wrote it. *feels better about her English skills*

Yesterday I was walking along back to my dorm, and I see this gray feline-body walking toward me through the bushes. There's usually a cat around there, and though the cat I normally see is brownish in color, I thought, "Oh, cute, another kitty!"

Um. Nope. 'Twas a racoon the size of an oversized house cat. Out in daylight (er, well, 2 o'clock-ish; Seattle/Western Washington hasn't gotten the memo that it's June already).

Off to play...way too many hours of FFX. Way too many.


"No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be." Jonathan Harker --Dracula by Bram Stoker

.....to have everything come together.

My dratted Italian visa (and thus my passport) finally came back! So now I can actually get ON the plane come the 17th! And I got my health screening done Tuesday, so I turned in my Concurrent Enrollment form when I went to pick it up, and I've just finished signing up for the Student Health Insurance (*winces*), so.....yeah. I'M DONE WITH THE PAPERWORK!! There are no more hoops for me to jump! At least before I head off to Rome, anyway.

I believe I have all the book-y stuff for Rome now (so long as the directors don't randomly add anything else to the booklist....). I've got Metamorphoses, an Italian-English dictionary, a little tour-book for Rome, Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, and I've also got a moleskine notebook! ^____^ It fits so nice and neatly into my back pocket! This is exactly what I look for when I pick up new notebooks/journals to write in; I think I've got a brand, now. Hee. It's not one of the city moleskines, which is slightly disappointing, but I wanted it more for the number of pages I could write in, so it's all good. Now I just need to come up with a proper name for my little notebook......what? Nobody else does that? (ETA: I've decided it's Leonard. *hugs* But not the proper way of pronouncing Leonard.)

I also had my Korean presentation today (on the 1988 Summer Olympics), which I had 99% memorized before class and (by going over it again and again and again and...etc.) I finished memorizing the last sentence just as the teacher walked in. Of course, as soon as I got up front I completely lost the flow and had to keep looking at my sheet from time to time, but it all came out. I got through the Korean part okay, but when it came to the English translation/question and answer time I was shaking like a leaf--hopefully not too noticeably. I don't know if it was the adrenaline or the nerves, but it took a while for my hand to stop trembling. I also proved my English-major-worthiness by saying "protestations." It's technically a word, but not with the 's' at the end, I don't believe. And my Korean teacher, whose English is her second (if not third or fourth or....some other number) language, caught it. *hides face*

Speaking of really bad English...I was looking through my Korean-English dictionary looking for the number 12 (it should be so simple.....but it's not) and I happened to look at the ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.). They wrote "twelfth" as "twelveth." Ha.

I've seen the first 3 episodes of Chuck, and...yeah. New show to add onto my Need-to-Keep-Tabs-On. Adam Baldwin FTW!!!!! Now if only NBC would put up episodes 4-12 instead of randomly jumping to having episode 13 up, that'd be great (because...I have nothing better to do besides homework...or update fanfiction....or do my reading for Chaucer and Rome.....or study for the Planets final come the 11th.....)


"And the wheel," said the Captain [of the load of bloody useless loonies], "what about this wheel thingy? It sounds a terribly interesting project."
"Ah," said the marketing girl [one of the bloody useless loonies], "well, we're having a little difficulty there."
"Difficulty?" exclaimed Ford. "Difficulty? What do you mean, difficulty? It's the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!"
The marketing girl soured him with a look. "All right Mr. Wiseguy," she said, "you're so clever, you tell us what color it should be." --Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Restaurant at the End of the Universe, technically)

I went and tried this little pizza place called "Valarmos" which I'd read about in the UW's student newspaper. Supposedly their calzones are "the size of a football."

LIIEESS! It's a whole half-an-inch shorter in height than a football! Never mind that it's the same length and width, I declare false advertisement!

I got the "clucker calzone" which is marinated chicken, roasted red peppers, red onions and mozzarella. The crust I could pretty much eat by itself, the mozzarella is thick and gooey enough that you can pull, and pull, and pull and the cheese won't let go, and they don't skimp on the rest of the "toppings." Though, I sorta wish I'd asked to have it without the onions, because it tends to drown out the rest of the flavors. I'd finished a little less than half, not because I was stuffed but because I didn't want to run the risk of overeating and then having to walk in the heat down to the bus-stop (because there was no way I was walking all the way back to UW from where Valarmos is). The price is excellent, too. Less than $10 for what is now counting as 2 meals. It reheats pretty well, but definitely better fresh.

Annddd.....that's the end of my random food review.

I went to B&N earlier and got the last of my "required" texts for Rome, as well as a Moleskine notebook which fits nice and snug in my back pocket ^___^. I was going to renew my B&N membership, which is why I refrained from indulging myself with sci-fi/fantasy books, but found out my sister beat me to it. It's probably for the better; I've got enough to buy for Rome as it is.

Also went to Baskin Robbins. And bought a World Class Chocolate milkshake; not very original, considering I always have the same flavor when I buy shakes, but it's just oh-so-delicious. *mourns the fact that she has no more World Class Chocolate milkshake*

So, for Rome, I have to prepare this little presentation/talk(s) on something Roman. A site, books, etc. etc. I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I kept putting it off until a few days ago because I just plain didn't know, but a new email from the prof made me decide to actually research my choices. I went back to the list of topics, and one kept leaping out of the screen at me:

Via Appia.

I felt like I'd seen that before. So, I Wikipedia'd (that really, really shouldn't be a verb) it, and found that it was the Appian Way. And I recalled from a little earlier, when I'd been looking up Doctor Who quotes to put on my door, that there was a quote the Doctor said in Fires of Pompeii: "Yes way no way Appian Way!"

......I e-mailed the prof and asked to have that as my topic. Heh.

I have a Korean presentation coming up this Thursday *shudders* and I needed a topic on Korea, cultural, linguistic, historical, etc. I decided to do the 1988 Summer Olympics that was hosted in Seoul, and only after I realized the connection between Via Appia-Doctor Who did I remember that the Doctor was a torchbearer in the Olympics.

*is a sad little fangirl that manages to connect everything that happens in her life to her fandoms*

TOWEL DAY IS TOMORROW!!!!!!! KNOW WHERE YOUR TOWEL IS!!!!!!!! TAKE IT EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[in House's subconscious]
Dr. Cuddy: [Stops stripping and looks at House] I'm distracting you. [starts to get up]
Dr. House: No!
[Cut back to Cuddy who is now dressed normally and sits down next to House]
Dr. House: Dance, woman!
Dr. Cuddy: [Resignedly] You'd rather be diagnosing.
Dr. House: I screamed "no"!
Dr. Cuddy: And your own subconscious ignored you. I guess you'd rather fantasize about finding symptoms. How screwed up is that? --House, House's Head

approximately exactly 3 weeks until I am done with the '07-'08 schoolyear and move out of the room until September. O.o

1 month & 24 days until 2nd season EUReKA comes out on DVD!!!!!! Except, I can't really get it until at the very earliest an additional 3 days, since it overlaps with Rome. And then I'd have to see if I even have the money to buy it. But YAY EUReKA!!!!!!!

Also: 2 months & 7 days until EUReKA begins [the first half of!!] 3rd season! And episode titles for about the first 6 episodes were unveiled!!! Drones, dogs, Mummies (Are you my Mum--err, oops, wrong show), mentions of phase, and apparently somebody named Bob! *flails* There's also this woman named Eva Thorne who's being called ( minor, not really spoilery )

3 weeks & 6 days until I leave for Rome! Non parlo italiano, ma sarà eccellente! And, randomly, "I'm Welsh" is "sono gallese." Heh.

January '09 Dollhouse premieres! *waves Joss Whedon-fan flag* Apparently FOX is doing some weird experimental thing where they're actually reducing commercial time, meaning the "hour-long" Dollhouse episodes will be ~50 minutes as opposed to ~42-44 (which, why in the world do we consider these shows "hour-long" when they're barely 3/4 of an hour??). ALDKHFALHSALKDFH!!!! I'm of two minds about this. For one thing, longer episodes = more excellence. But on the other hand, longer episodes = more expensive to shoot, write for, etc. etc. And with less commercials showing, that drives the cost up more. So, if the idiots people at FOX see the costs of Dollhouse, they might think it's too expensive and (worst case scenario) cancel it. Especially since I don't think American companies are as well-informed about how these things work (except maybe the people for the show 24, who are also FOX, which might make my worries completely unfounded).

Just let Dollhouse work. Please. Or else I might have to boycott FOX's new shows forever and ever because I know they'll just end up breaking my heart. Yes, I'm still bitter about Firefly and Tru Calling. Ironically, Joss created Firefly and Eliza Dushku starred in Tru Calling, and yet both came back to FOX for a show. Maybe they can pool their good luck and it'll come out on top.

FOX has made me sort of excited for the upcoming TV season. There's Dollhouse, and then there are 2 new shows which I'm sort of interested in giving a go. Courtroom K and Lie to Me, the former of which sounds kinda like House in a courtroom, and the latter is a new crime drama. I just finished saying I didn't want to get too attached to any new FOX shows, but I couldn't help it. They just caught my attention.

Speaking of House and the '09 season....I can't believe they moved House to 8PM Wednesdays!!! What is up with that??? Arrgh. And then they seemed to have moved Bones to a different night, and while I don't watch the show I have read the opinion that those 2 (for some reason or another) shouldn't be split up. Those people will have a field day, I know.

Message to FOX: If you just have to cancel a show, cancel some of those stupid comedies and/or that really weird reality show where millionaires pretend to be poor people and accomplish their one act of kindness by giving money away. None of those shows sound very interesting at all.

The administration at UW apparently favor the freshman to a crazy level. I realize the people who organize Dawg Daze and this weird resident-thank-you-BBQ are completely different people, but...seriously? Giving the prizes to only the freshman-centric dorm (plus the upperclass residents who live down south)? Not cool. Is dividing the prizes between North and South dorms too hard? Or even just collecting all the cards and doing the raffling overnight? Or picking a more central-location? Oh well. I didn't see a PS3 anywhere on the little card thing that listed sample prizes, and I'm pretty sure that would've ranked at the top with the Wii and a bike. Soo..not really bothering.

At the BBQ, though, I had sat down with my food when a guy sat in the booth in front of me. He played a sound clip somehow (cell phone? I'm not sure) and, like the geek that I am, I knew what it was. Final Fantasy VII Fanfare!!! *dances in time with the trumpets/whatever the instruments are* ...Yes, sadly, I did deduce which Final Fantasy it was, though I might still be wrong--I haven't heard the music for I-VI. But I'm 95% sure it's VII. Hee.

Nothing much beyond my television rant/countdown. Well...and that Club crackers are terrifyingly (and it's hard to believe "terrifyingly" is an actual word) addicting. And Nobuo Uematsu is a genius.


(Referring to the new sheriff's car)
Jack: I know this isn't environmentally correct, but I really miss my old Jeep.
Allison: Well, next time you won't ignore the "tornado crossing" sign.

Allison: Be careful.
Jack: It's hard to be carefuller. (Receives strange looks) What?! I know it's not a word! --EUReKA, Once in a Lifetime

That whole "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" thing? Yeah, unless they're talking about the Doctor, they're wrong. I bought some Fuji apples from QFC, ate them every day since Wednesday last week until I ran out Friday, and Saturday morning what happens? I wake up with a cold. So pooh pooh, apples-a-day people, pooh pooh.

There's apparently this "Greek Week" going on, and of course Hansee is pretty much across the street from the Greeks, so I've been hearing music, screaming, bull horns, and who-knows-what for the last week all day.

I went to bed early Tuesday night so I could fight off the stupid cold, like 11PM early as opposed to 1AM. What's my reward? A drunk someone (I know who, but no naming names) comes to my next door neighbor at about 2AM, has a conversation loud enough to wake me up, and tops it by somehow slamming into my door. Yeeeaaahh, was real happy about that. Thankfully I managed to go right back to sleep, but the rude awakening? Not cool.

On the bright side of things, I have a three day weekend ahead of me! Woo!! It's because, for second year, we don't really have a textbook because our teacher is still in the process of writing/publishing it. She gives bits and pieces of it when we get to the chapter, but... all the loose sheets get lost in the multitude very quickly, and it's really hard to keep track of what grammar is covered in what chapter so we can go back and review it for tests and such. So she's taking that Friday to work on it. Yay!

I'm kinda/sorta planning on going to Pike Place tomorrow (since I cancelled my plans last weekend to go due to the onset of the cold), mostly to go to the comic book store they have there to pick up the latest issue of Buffy. Hopefully the (second) latest issue and maybe even the final issue of Serenity as well. I looked at their website, and apparently they're also up to issue #4 of the Doctor Who comic, which I remember Nikki telling me about, but it sort of promptly flew out of my mind. Sooo...we'll see if there are any back orders of the other issues. Better yet, we'll see if I have any money to buy any of these issues *glances figuratively at Rome out of the corner of her eye*

I'll probably explore a lot of the Market aside from the comic store, and maybe I'll treat myself to a lunch/dinner there (I'm really interested in finding that Piroshky-Piroshky! place). I just need to make sure I avoid the cheesecake-place, because I'm going to all-too-easily convince myself that I deserve it after my injurous week+cold. And then I want to find the Elliot Bay bookstore, and if I find that I might be able to find that chocolate-dessert place I went to back in junior year of high school on a field trip....

*headdesk* I'm so terribly excited about Rome, and it's going to be even more intense when I get there, but....GAH!! I need money now.

Speaking of Rome, at the meeting last week (has it only been a little over a week???) when all the writers introduced themselves, they mentioned majors and the like. And I'm amazed at how many psych majors there were. Not even double English/Psych majors, but solely psychology. I believe there was one who was double-majoring in English/Psych, but I think about half of the ~26 who showed up were psych majors. Kinda makes me wonder if maybe the Psych department needs to step up their study abroad game. Biology was another major that was strongly represented, too, I think. 'Tis odd.

Oh, and just about a week until the University District Street Fair. *sigh* Money money money money....bwah. *headdesk*

And, random mention here that I shall not explain: I am not a photogenic person at all. =\


The Doctor: I'll have to get a house! With - with doors and carpets, can you imagine? Me, living in a house?!
Rose: [singsong voice] You'll have to get a mortgage!
The Doctor: No.
Rose: Oh yes.
The Doctor: No. That's it, I'm dying. It is all over.
Rose: What about me? I'll have to get one too. Or - it could be the same one. [uncomfortably] We could... I don't know... share. [The Doctor stares at her] Or not, whatever.
The Doctor: Anyway.
Rose: Yeah, we'll see.
The Doctor: I promised Jackie I would always take you back home.
Rose: Everyone leaves home in the end.
The Doctor: Not to end up stuck here!
Rose: Yeah, well stuck with you, that's not so bad.
The Doctor: [surprised] Yeah?
Rose: Yes.

Ood: The Beast and his armies will rise from the pit to make war against God.
Rose: I'm sorry?
Ood: [whacks communication sphere] Apologies. I said "I hope you enjoy your meal". --Doctor Who, The Impossible Planet

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

Finally had an information session about Rome today, at long last. And thankfully I wasn't the only one who was irritated it was so late; a girl came to the room early and mentioned how she hated it was held this late. and this being the 10th year doing this program, I don't understand why they don't realize the earlier the better...

Lots of information that I wanted/needed, yay-ness, and some that I kinda wanted them to be clearer about but they were sort of in their "it makes sense to us, we can leave it at that" even though (to me) it wasn't very clear. That mostly had to do with clothing, though, so it's okay.

They mentioned computers/laptops and how, if we don't need them, don't bring them; it'll make the experience that much better.

......Er, yeah. Okay. Sure. Right.

I kinda get where they're coming from with it, but....it's not like I use my computer to watch questionable videos on YouTube or use it to honestly stalk people. I use it to communicate to people at home. I use it to store my memories. I'm sure many other people do the same thing with their computers.

Interestingly it'll be something of a 6-day school week, with Saturdays having...I don't know what happening in the morning. Sunday will be the day off, and there'll be a week July 2-6 which we have off, but somehow I don't think I'm going to be doing a lot of the out-of-Rome places I wanted to visit. Sad times. I guess it just means I'm going to have to come back. The school days will be a few hours in the morning touring the city with the group of ~34 people, breaking for the afternoon heat, and reconvening in the evening until about 8-ish, which is dinner-time. It'll be interesting adjusting to such a schedule, but hopefully I won't be one of those people who are incapable.

Other things of (probably less) interest to note. Yesterday I was walking to my first class, and it had rained pretty heavily the night before so the ground was wet. But I was in my Nikes, I'm used to the wetness, I wasn't all that concerned. And yet somehow my foot still manages to land on a bump so perfectly that it slides out from under me and I pull off Mr. Rockstar-With-A-Guitar move. And this being cement and me without padding on my knees, I get to go the rest of the day with a bloody and bruised knee.

OHYAYZ!!!*cue overdramatic fanfare* </sarcasm> So, yes, stairs are a bit of an enemy now, moreso if I need to go down stairs than up for some strange reason. It's more bearable now, though.

Before I went to my Rome info session I went for lunch at the student HUB, because I like food and I'd only had little snack-type food earlier. I finished my meal, stayed sat to while away the 2 hours before the session...and the fire alarm goes off. It's the first time I've had to be evacuated out of a public building on campus. At least it wasn't the irritating, high-pitched screech of the dorms.

And that pretty much sums up the excitement of my day week. I was planning on going to a midterm review session later tonight for my Planets test this Thursday, but...it's wet, it's gonna be dark, it's gonna be held across campus, and I feel I've got a handle on the material enough that I can study on my own. Sooooo.....not gonna go.

I may have to go back to B&N and buy some more materials for the Rome program, but I may decide to go to the UBookstore to do that. There's an out-of-print text we're supposed to have that the UBookstore has in stock now, and I really don't want to bother with the shipping department again at B&N. But then again, I also want the newest issue of Serenity that came out weeks ago, and I don't think the UBookstore will have it. Bwah. I wanna stop spending so much money on this program but...unfortunately, it will not be.


I read this from cafepress.com, and....um.....*hangs head in embarrassment*

Top 10 Clues You May Be a Writer:

1. You would rather talk to the voices in your head than the person sitting by you.
2. You know the library's phone number, but not your work number.
3. Some of the letters on your keyboard are completely worn off. (only the 'h' and the 'n,' oddly...)
4. You have a favorite pen that no one else can touch. (kinda sorta...)
5. Books are your favorite scent.
6. If you could meet anyone in the world, it would be your favorite author.
7. You eat macaroni and cheese for a week because you spent all of your money at the bookstore. (I've spent all my money at the bookstore...but thank goodness I can't use my dining money for anything but food.)
8. Your/you're errors drive you crazy. (ABSOLUTELY.)
9. You named your laptop. (.......doesn't everybody....?)
10. You would rather write than go out.

...I think I need this T-shirt/whatever.......And really, I'd probably spend way too much money at cafepress if I were so inclined to do the online-shopping thing. I should avoid it at all costs.