News of the Week and Mailing Address

We had visitors come this week to see us!! Katie's sister Tara, who is studying in Spain this semester, came to visit with 3 other people (Lydia, Brittni, and Megan) she doing the program with through her school. It was nice to meet new people and have to play the role of tour guide for a little bit. Katie was a great host for them, and I'm sure they had a great time.

European Skittles

One of the highlights of their visit was that Tara brought me Skittles!! The Skittles she brought ended up being European ones that she found in the Madrid airport. She had packed American ones in her luggage, but long story short, she ended up not being able to claim her luggage before she left for Rome. (Their group did a pit stop in Madrid before coming over.) European Skittles are different than American. Instead of grape, there is black currant. Not too sure what that is but it tastes a lot different. The rest of the flavors were a little off but not as bad. The skittles themselves are not as bright in color as American ones are. All in all, I still prefer American ones but these worked enough to suffice my needs for a bit.

Gelato
Another major part of their trip was getting gelato every night. :-) They agree that Katie and my gelato place is pretty spectacular. In personal opinion, it is even better than the famous Giolitti gelato store. Giolitti does have more flavors to choose from, but the people just aren't as friendly and the portions are a rip off for the price you have to pay. At the Frigidarium, we can get a larger portion for cheaper. With their visit, we made major progress on making friends with the workers at the Frigidarium. We're now on first name basis (Simona and Raphael), little larger scoops than normal, and friendly conversation terms. Tonight they joked with me about switching my usual order and getting fruit gelato on a cold night versus chocolate. Typically people order fruit gelato on warmer nights/days. Tonight Tara, Lydia, Megan, and Brittni got to take a picture with them, and Simona even made extra special servings for them since it was their last night. Katie and I are starting to wonder if we'll get any special treatment during our last night/week here. They have giant to-go containers, and we're hoping for at least one free one of those.

Vatican City
Earlier today we went to Vatican City. I knew the Vatican was close to my apartment, but with walking to it for the first time, I really realized how close it is to my apartment. We decided to go today to take advantage of free admission (National World Tourism Day? Or something like that.). We left our apartment too late to get a chance to see everything and ended up only making it into St. Peter's and into the Popes' tombs below. Pretty spectacular sights! It was a little much to take in in such a short amount of time; luckily, I have the opportunity to go back, and I'll be able to enjoy it more then.

School

School is going well. Last week was a bit busy with a lighting drawing being due today for my Made in Italy class and a model in Revit due last Wednesday and also this Wednesday. For our Revit model, we had to go measure a museum space using triangulation and put it into the computer. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, we had been divided into groups and each group only measured their certain part and did a drawing for that (section or plan). When it came time to put them all together, it didn't go too seamlessly. After figuring out certain measurements, we had some troubles with putting it into Revit. Revit likes straight walls and none of the walls we had measured were straight since it is a building from the ruins era. After a few headaches, mine has finally been pieced together, and we'll be moving onto the next stage this following week, which is to design our lighting showroom.

Every week my walking art history class gets better and better! My instructor has now made us baked goods two weeks in a row! This past week we went to the Capitoline Museum. It is filled with famous ancient sculpture pieces like the She-Wolf. It's hard to imagine that piece of sculpture being buried in the Roman Forum and being found x amount of years later, but, yet, at the same time it's so cool! It's even sweeter to imagine all the emperors and people we hear about today worshipping that exact same piece of sculpture that you are now looking at.

Field Trip!

My class is leaving for our South Field Trip Thursday morning, so this week will go by super fast. I'm excited for the trip and even more excited to go to Capri after it is over for one night. Hopefully the weather will be nice, and I'll be able to enjoy the beach!

Mailing Address:

I've been receiving a lot of requests for my mailing address, so here it is again. I'm anxiously awaiting for mail to arrive now that I've received so many requests for it! :-) If you want to send a package, make sure you write "used personal items" or "gift" on it and claim it to have no value. Italian Customs will search through the packages and decide if extra charges should be added, which can get to be quite expensive and out of my own pocket. Writing down "used personal items" or "gift" should help to eliminate those costs. Letters are always appreciated too!

Kelly McCann

Iowa State University Rome Program

Piazza delle Cinque Scole 23

00186 Rome, Italy

The Adventures of Climbing Stairs, Hills and Buildings

Stairs

Not one is the same as the next. For example, in my apartment one flight of stairs will be very steep while the next are rather flat. Some are worn out in the middle while others are just fine. The Colosseum stairs were quite steep! I had to have my hand on the rail the whole time. It amazes me how older people can move about in the city of Rome. Anyways, I had the chance to see the Colosseum twice (well actually three times) this past week. On Thursday I went and toured it with my art history class. SOOOOOO cool! The history behind these places is what makes it cool. Our instructor shared with us the different types of fights that would happen in the place and where everyone would sit. Did you know that ex-gladiators were never allowed to go to the Colosseum after they retired? They were afraid ex-gladiators might jump into the action if they saw their gladiator friend in action not performing too well against the challenger. Gravediggers also weren't allowed in because of bad omen.

I saw the Colosseum for the second time this past week on Sunday. It was the 140th celebration of the Roman government and a lot of places had various events going on. The Colosseum ended up being lit on fire. Yep, that's right; it is all gone now. Kidding. Some artists created the display by placing screens between the arches on the second and third levels and projected a fire image onto them. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, my camera wasn't good at catching an image of it. I did, however, get this cool photo of the Arch of Constantine which is right next to the Colosseum!

Hills
Assisi is built on the side of a hill. This makes for a lot of various alleys and layers to the city. It is basically a small strip of established buildings and homes and is very quiant. I went into St. Francis of Assisi church and St. Clare's. Churches are starting to get a bit repetitive. Don't get me wrong, each one is beautiful but they tend to blur together. What was special about these two churches were all the relics they had including garments of St. Francis and St. Clare and even St. Clare's hair. Other than churches, the rest of the city was filled with places to eat and tourist gift shops. It is really pondering to think that all of those tourist shops can exist in such a small place. Seriously, it was one after another of basically the same products.

Buildings

I forgot my keys last Thursday as I was starting a little shopping adventure. Luckily, my roommate, Morgan, was sleeping inside, so I thought I'd be okay to just go and return later and just have her let me in. My excursion took about 1 1/2 hours, and when I came back I had no luck in waking her up. I pressed our speaker button on the outside of our building and yelled her name but nothing seemed to work. I didn't think much of it and went to go buy some groceries. Half hour later I came back and had the same problem. So, off to go wander and get gelato I went. Came back; no luck. So, off to the Piazza Navona I wandered. Came back; no luck. So, this time, I sat in front of our building. At this point I was getting really strange looks for calling out her name and having my hands full with groceries but no place to go. Finally a woman went into the building and I was able to convince her to let me in. After I got up to my apartment, I rang our doorbell repeatedly and still could not wake up Morgan. Being quite exhausted from my long afternoon out, I decided I'd do whatever I could to get inside. This involved going out onto the community patio, climbing up on the ledge, and walking it over to our kitchen window. Sounds daring, right? Well, it was considering we live on the top floor which is 5 stories up. But the walk was just a quick 5 steps away and the ledge was large that I walked on. I made it safely and now have learned to always carry my keys. Walking on the outside ledge of our building once was enough for me!

Things That I Miss About Home and Don't Like About Rome

On Saturday I found out that my parents put my dog, Daisy, to sleep. She was a wonderful dog to have throughout my childhood and teenage years and will be greatly missed. She's the first major death in my family (other than one uncle who I did not know well)! I've shed my tears about it, but I'm curious to see what my response will be when I come home in December to not find her there. Since finding out about her death, I've been in a bit of a debbie downer mood. I told myself that today is the last day that I can let myself be overly negative, so in spirit of that, here is a little rant of things I miss about home and don't like about Rome.

• I miss eating Skittles/Starbursts/Nerds. I'm dying for fruit candy; everything here is chocolate.
• I hate how men think they can just pee on the street randomly. I've seen this twice in the past three days. All the urination does give the city a funky smell.
• I hate all the commotion in the morning. It gets SO loud and all I want to do is sleep!
• I miss the meat selection from home. Meat here is expensive and cut very thin.
• I miss seeing grass and plants everywhere. I went to Assisi on Saturday, and it was beautiful! However, it made me realize even more how much Rome lacks in greenery.
• I hate not being able to invade conversations since I can't understand them. :-) I won't know what to do with myself when I return.
• I HATE all the smoking!!!
• I miss Hy-Vee Chinese dinners every other Wednesday at the Sigma Kappa house.
• I dislike the water temperature for our faucets. It's either too cold or too hot, never perfect.
• I hate how all the slow walkers find it necessary to walk in the middle of the street.
• I miss the wide selection of juices and soda in the United States. Soda options here include Sprite, Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta, Pepsi, and I might be forgetting one? Juice options= very minimal.
• All the public affection in the street is disgusting and annoying. At first it was cute, then I probably got a bit jealous, but now I'm to the point where I ask myself if it is really necessary for couples to be doing such things in the middle of the street. I can't think of many situations where it is needed for a girl to straddle a guy while he carries her down the busy shopping street and makeout.

Okay, now that I've done my little rant (and it was harder than I thought to come up with those twelve), I'm going to share some things that I'm in love with Rome.

• The liveliness. Yes, it can be loud, but it makes the days exciting. There's always something to notice and things to do.
• Campo di Fiori. I feel proud of my purchases every time I get something from there. I can get so much for so little! Katie and I did notice this week that green beans are being out of season while potatoes are becoming in season. I'm excited to see what other fruits/veggies will start to be cheap and in season!
• Frigidarium. This is the name of my favorite gelato place and favorite flavor. It has caramel, cookies, and chocolate in it. They stick a cookie at the top and then dip it in chocolate. So delicious! Every time Katie and I go (which is often) we become better friends with the gelato guy that works there. Tonight I ordered in Italian to him "Posso avere il frigidarium?" He got a good laugh as I struggled to correctly get that out. There is another girl that regularly works with him. They both know what Katie and I order aka we're officially regulars. :-)
• Location! I am able to walk to everywhere. It's nice to be able to window shop and admire what is around me while getting a nice little workout. Though stairs can be annoying, they add nicely to the workout. I typically climb 350ish stairs a day (74 stairs to/from my apartment in my building about four times a day plus school stairs and wherever else).
• Young Italians and Europeans! I believe every young Italian that I've tried to communicate with knows some English. While I feel guilty and incompetent about not knowing Italian well, it has been easy to communicate with people here in English.
• The windows to my apartment. They swing open and have shutters. At night we close and lock the shutters to keep out the light but keep the air flow. During the day, we swing them open and attach them to the outside of the building. As dumb as it sounds, it's refreshing to swing the shutters open, stick your head out the window, and get excited for the day ahead.
• Art history. My instructor is great! She made us chocolate chip cookies this past week and always tells us fun facts about things. I lucked out on getting placed in her class.
• Window shopping. Windows are constantly changing with new clothes being displayed. I feel like I'm able to shop without spending the money.
• All of the alleys. It makes Rome feel smaller than it is. You can feel lost in the city even if you know exactly where you're heading. Some of the best discoveries come from taking an accidental left or right or taking a new route home.
• The landmarks. Every single one is everything you imagined it to be and more.

I can assure you that there are other things I love and hate about Rome, but my brain isn't coming up with them right now. Rome is wonderful, and I'm having a great time, but it isn't a fairytale. There still are nuances and things that get in the way of the fairytale. In my eyes, it is a rather regular life but just in a different location which adds new excitement and activities to it.

Notable Moments

Here are some notable moments and thoughts from the past week or so:

Store Openings

Even though a store in Rome says they are open on a Saturday or a a certain time, it does not mean that they are open. For our lighting project, we were asked to go view selected lighting stores. Katie and I went together 2 Saturdays ago, to find only one store out of the 4 open and according to each store's hours, they were supposed to be open! Oh well. Katie and I went back yesterday to one of the stores to pick out a light to draw for our Made in Italy class. The store said it'd open at 10, but by 10:30ish it still had not opened. I guess that is Rome for you.

ISU Tailgating from Rome

For those who don't know, this past Saturday was the Iowa State vs. Iowa game. I think Iowa State won, right? Ha. Since Katie and I wouldn't be in attendance and we couldn't find a bar to show the game, we decided to tailgate Italian style and watch the game via Skype. Our Italian tailgating food included bruschetta, stuffed mushrooms, and homemade pizzas. It was all delicious and made up for the embarrassing ISU loss! And yes, we got our ISU gelato (raspberry and mango/passion fruit).

Beach Babe

This past Sunday Katie and I went to the beach! It was about an hour commute away but very worth it. We struggled a bit to find what part of the beach we could go to. There are a lot of places to pay and go into, but we were looking for free. After a ten minute walk down the strip, we found a sliver of free beach. The beach was filled with all types of people: men in speedos, women without tops, people wearing swimsuits that they shouldn't, lovebirds, people looking for a tan, people looking to relax, families, and the rowdy group of teenagers. Every few minutes we'd have a guy come up to us and try to get us to purchase something, too. It was a relaxing way to spend our afternoon. I managed to not get burnt (or tan) without putting sunscreen on and the sun was out in full force. I found that quite odd. I sure hope we can make it back to the beach before it gets cold!

Narrowly Getting Robbed

On the way to the beach, I got a nice little reminder that I always need to carefully be watching my belongings on public transportation. I was carrying our backpack and on the bus I had to stand in the aisle with my back in it. I don't know if it was my subconscious or maybe I felt something, but slowly I started to readjust how I was standing. When I went to check my bag, I felt that my zippers had been unhooked (they were clipped together) and one was halfway unzipped. Luckily, nothing was taken. I either had moved at the right time or the guy didn't find himself to be interested in stealing our towels. Lesson= learned!

Self Navigating

I'm really starting to understand how to get around Rome. Everything is a short walk away from something else. Going to the Piazza Navona? Might as well go to Campo di Fiori and the Pantheon. Colosseum? Better see Trajan's Column, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the Roman Forum. And the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps will make a nice addition to a shopping trip. :-) Today, for my mixed media class we were walking around to various places, sort of just wandering, and we happened to be in the area where I live. I was rather excited about this, so of course I showed off the exterior of my apartment to my classmates and instructor. At this point, my instructor wanted to go to the Piazza Navona but didn't quite know the way (she was tired-- not thinking straight), so Katie and I got to guide the class to the place! I felt very accomplished.

Fireworks Show

On Saturday, there was a fireworks show going on along the Tiber River by my apartment. Upon hearing the loud "booms", I rushed up onto our roof to watch the show. I'm not sure what it was for, but it was beautiful! Might even rank higher than an American fireworks show. I feel like that makes me very un-American to say such a thing? The fireworks here seemed much brighter, louder, and a larger variety. Being able to watch it from my rooftop with other Roman rooftops and the fireworks in view, made it pretty spectacular. It was one of those moments where I almost had to pinch myself and ask if it was real.

Missing You

There are things about home/America that I miss so ever much. Yesterday, I had a HUGE craving for either pancakes or waffles. Today, I wanted either cupcakes or a cake. Who knows what I'll want tomorrow. I'm starting to miss seeing and getting to hang out with people that I normally would at this time of the year. I'm especially upset that I missed Miss Molly O'Day's lavaliering and candle passing! I'm sure I'll really miss Homecoming when all the Greek events start to get into full swing for it. I just have to remind myself of how lucky I am to be here, and that I still have nice hot weather! :-) I've already been in Europe for a month; time flies!

Why are you in Rome? Oh yeah, I'm taking classes...

Classes are officially in full swing and most are enjoyable! Here's the scoop about them:

Made in Italy: This is a class I have on Mondays about Italian design history. We have a project that involves drawing a lamp that we choose and draw from various angles to coordinate with our studio project. Overall, this is just a typical lecture class.

Mixed Media: I take a mixed media studio almost all day on Tuesday. My instructor, Brenda Jones, has so much wisdom and knowledge! She's been able to share a lot of pointers about Rome and always has a story to share. We'll be making a "scrapbook" in her class about our travels, a class mosaic, a water color painting, and maybe something else? Anyways, right now we just started our book. We had to buy a used book in which we'll transform the pages into telling a story about our travels. Our book is to be modeled off an artist from a list she gave us. I haven't quite narrowed down my options enough to decide.

Italian: I take an Italian class every Tuesday and Friday. The class is rough since we are speaking in Italian the whole time, but luckily, it is only a 3 week long class! The Italian is helpful, but my pronunciation is terrible. Definitely not my favorite class.

Studio: I have studio ALL day Wednesday (7 hours!) and for a few hours on Friday. This is a retail studio and our project is to create a lighting retail space. Not too sure of all the details of it yet since we're working on the project in steps. For the first part we had to study the interior of a picked/assigned retail space and then draw the floor plan in an isometric drawing. With the drawing, we raised two sides of the space and did some shading. I turned in my drawing on Friday, and already got my grade back-- first A of the semester!

Art History: I've only had this class once (last Thursday), but it just might be my favorite class of the semester. Instead of seeing slides and having a normal lecture about art history we actually go visit the sites and then talk about the pieces there! It is SOO cool and easier to remember the facts! Basically, I have a walking tour guide every Thursday for 4 hours; jealous, right? This week we are visiting the Roman Forum and inside the Colosseum. And after last week, I could talk about the Pantheon for at least an hour.

Overall, I haven't had much of a workload. Cross my fingers that it stays that way; I can dream can't I? I actually wouldn't mind them to pick up a little. I've been rather bored after classes are done for the day, and I'm tired of spending time on my computer. I know what your saying, "You're in Rome! How can you be bored?!" Well, we all know that I'm one to follow rules and be a good student :-) so the only time I've ventured around in the dark is on weekends. Plus I haven't figured out much to do on weekday evenings/nights. Yes, I could go to the bars, but that's rather expensive; I'd prefer to spend my money in other ways. So, in my evenings, I become glued to my computer checking anything and everything and watch a movie or show on YouTube (only way I know to watch US movies/shows overseas). I have a feeling, though, that my classes will be picking up and this routine will be changing.

Path to Obesity in Rome

I have been in Roma for almost a week now (tomorrow it will be). Sometimes it seems like time is flying by, while at other times it seems like I've been here for at least a few weeks. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. Hmm. To start off, I'll give you a fun fact. Amor= to love and Roma spelled backwards.

Slowly, I'm learning to live the "Roman lifestyle". That involves making almost daily trips to the grocery store, shopping at the open air market, Campo di Fiori, having pizza for lunch, eating gelato, taking the side streets to studio instead of the main ones, loving the heat, walking everywhere...etc. Ha, just realized the first 4 things I mention involve food. Typical me; food is always on my mind. :-) Guess I'll talk about that first then!

Almost every day for lunch Katie and I have ate at the local pizza stands that are around. We've been trying various ones so we can find our favorite. We've been eating out for lunch because the price to prepare a sandwich or whatever on our own is about the same as getting pizza. Depending on the stand, sometimes it is cheaper. For lunch last Friday we treated ourselves nicely by going to a Chinese restaurant that one of our instructors pointed out to us. It tasted sooo good and pretty cheap! The entrees were less than 5 Euro, but the fried rice was just over 5 Euro. Obviously, next time we'll skip the fried rice. I've very thankful to know that I won't have any Chinese withdrawals here in Rome. I am trying to find a good sushi place and edamame, but haven't had any luck with finding edamame or been daring enough to try the sushi here. Not sure how I'll survive without edamame.

The easiest and cheapest thing to do for dinner is pasta. Thank goodness I love pasta; however, I am concerned that I might grow tired of it at some point. We'll see. A bag of pasta will give Katie and I two meals each to eat and only costs 40 Euro cents. We've been having various sauces with the pasta; tonight's was pesto! It is my goal by the end to know about 10 different pasta sauces to use. Thus far we've either bought them or made super simple sauces of our own. We'll have to get courageous soon. I'm thinking a homemade alfredo sauce will be next since only red sauce is sold in the stores, and I'm usually a white sauce eater. Other than pasta, we had one meal of sausage and tomato and another of mini-hamburgers (minus the bun). The rest equals pasta!

I can't forget to mention dessert aka gelato! Sooo tasty! I'm very proud to say that I've only bought gelato from the vendors twice. But Katie and I bought a carton of it, so I've been have a shot glass full every night. This carton of gelato that we bought from the supermarket costs about the same as one small serving from a vendor (2 Euro), so we figured why not-- at least we're being cost effective, forget the waistline. We did make a rule on Saturday that for every ISU football game, we have to go get a serving of raspberry and mango gelato (red and gold) from a vendor to show our support for the team. Sounds like a great rule, doesn't it?

Not to worry, Katie and I have been getting our servings of fruits and veggies, too. On Saturday, we went to Campo di Fiori for the first time. Campo di Fiori is one of the most famous open air markets in Rome. Tourists flock it every day, even on Sundays when the market isn't operating. We quickly discovered that all the produce was MUCH cheaper here than in the grocery stores. We bought lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, apples, bananas, peaches, and dried fruit, and spent about 11 Euro on the produce (minus the dried fruit). Today we made a return visit to restock. I bought about 15 Roma tomatoes for 1,90 Euro. The dried fruit is expensive here, but tastes so good! I ended up spending 8 Euro today just on dried fruit. Yikes! I divided up my dried fruit into 3 containers in hope that I can make it last longer than my last batch did. We're lucky to have Campo di Fiori just a ten minute walk away from our apartment, and it is on our route for our daily walk to class, so I can easily grab something for breakfast.

We've been going to various places for cheese and some meat-- still trying to figure out the best deals and offerings. There's so much cheese here that it is hard to know where to begin! Bread has been a little difficult to find. Good cheap bread, that is. We might have finally found the spot to go to today but it is across the river (a long walk from our apartment).

Now that I've finished talking about food, the bottomless pit is hungry again... Oh, and just to put your minds at ease, I'm not busting at my seams. In fact, the scale says I've lost a pound or two which I assume is due to all the walking. Then again, it has only been one week; I might be obese by the end. :-)

Settling in Rome

Yesterday, Katie and I arrived in Rome-- two hours later than when we were supposed to. We had taken the night train from Paris to Rome. It was a pretty decent train ride, and I was able to sleep for awhile; however, it was annoying that we did not get updates as to why our train was running late. We were out of the train station within three minutes, in a taxi, and on our way to the housing office. Checking in was fairly quick and simple; we were soon at our apartment.

My apartment is nice, better than I expected. There's a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and two bedrooms for four people. Shortly after Katie and I put our stuff away and did a load of laundry, we were off to venture through the city. We wanted to find a grocery store and did, but it was a rather far distance away. Carrying the groceries home was rough. Luckily, we've now found a closer one. Before finding this one, we had been given directions to a grocery store by a guy at a local pizza stand/mini-mart. He tried to get us to get our groceries from there and even offered a discount. We told him we needed more and promised we'd be back another time for pizza.

Today we went back for that pizza we promised him, and he gave us a deal on our pizza! There were some other people in the place and he immediately turned his attention to us. Katie and I have plans to continue going to this stand every two to three days to increase this blossoming relationship. This evening we walked around our area found a mini-mart right down the street from us. We asked the guy for his recommendations on cheese, and he ended up giving us a discount, too! I sure hope my luck continues!

I'm finding in quite amazing and am in awe with all the ruins around me. It's fun just to walk and run into something famous like the Piazza Navona or the Pantheon. I haven't gone around Rome and toured like a tourist, yet. I'm pondering the idea if I even really want to. I think I might play with the idea of continuing to wander around the city to see what I find. If it gets close to the end and I haven't seen something, then I'll make an exception.

Playin' and Hangin' in Paris

Our train ride over to Paris ended up being a bit of an eventful trip. We had to switch trains in the middle and only had nine or ten minutes to do so. Doesn't seem so hard to do, right? Well, it is not as easy with a heavy load of luggage. Fortunately, we had made friends with a German who spoke English on our first train and was connecting onto the same second train. We made it to the new platform easily for the second train, but the signs were showing that the train was delayed. Our train ended up coming about 40 minutes late and we had to switch platforms. Our ticket also didn't match the train number and type of what they told was coming. Long story short, everything ended up working out smoothly thanks to our German friend! We would have been lost and quite frazzled without him.

At this point into our trip, Katie and I had almost mastered the train systems throughout Europe. We easily got onto our metro train to take us to our hostel and got off at the right stop. However, we didn't take the right exit out of the station. Once again, there were a few Parisans that were very willing to help us out. I guess it was our lucky day with obtaining help!

The hostel in Paris, St. Christopher's, was the largest we stayed in. Our room had ten people in it. Throughout the time we were there we shared the room with people from Australia, Sweden, Austria, and Taiwan. The bathrooms here ended up being my least favorite; they smelled like wet dog. And there were some minor problems throughout are time at St. Christopher's but it ended up being my favorite place to stay.

I did get a sore throat in Paris during our time there. Luckily it turned into no more than a nasty cough. Today, it's still a little sore, and I have a small cough but it is much better than it was.

Day One in Paris

We went on another "free" walking tour in hopes that we'd be able to figure out where all the tourist places were throughout the city. I didn't like our tour guide as much as the one in Munich but the tour served purposeful enough to find the attractions. After our ended Katie and I went on to get a closer look of the Eiffel Tower. The structure is massive! While we were taking photos with the Eiffel Tower, it started to rain. And it went on to rain a little every day we were in Paris. Katie and I joked the whole time though about how we could sense it was coming and were always timely in running for cover. (I like to think it's a Midwestern talent.) When I was posing for one photo with the tower, a person in a gorilla outfit decided to hop into my picture. I figured whatever, he/she can join. After Katie took the photo, they asked for money. I denied them saying that they were the one to hop into my photo. We bickered a little, and then I saw a guy selling Eiffel Tower key chains waving his finger "No." The gorilla saw this and immediately turned to fight with him; Katie and I turned and quickly walked away. This was probably the closest we came to getting mugged in Paris.

After the Eiffel Tower we went and walked to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe is in the middle of a massive roundabout that doesn't have any traffic lanes, signals, etc. in it, and it is VERY busy. The officials don't want to ruin the look of the star pattern the lanes have, I guess. Katie and I had no idea of how we were going to get onto this "island" but we were determined. Unintelligably, we ran across the lanes dodging motorcycles racing through the roundabout. Once we were on the island we realized that there was an underground passage to get onto it. We had a good laugh at ourselves, and it made for a memorable moment as we saw our life flash before our eyes.

In the evening we spent our time updating our blogs, Facebook, and chatting with friends/family... That is up until some drunk neighbors decided to walk the hostel's terrace and climb into our room through the window. Quickly, a drunk conversion began and an Italian-Asian picked me to be his new object of affection. He was funny and made the night very comical! These neighbors invited us over for drinks (2 windows down on the terrace) so Katie and I joined them. Besides the Italian-Asian, there were two Canadians, Tanya and Natalie, and another American that we got to know. We moved our gathering to the downstairs bar and met three gals from Poland. The Italian-Asian continued to pursue me down there along with one of these Polish girls (even though she was a lesbian, and her girlfriend was there.) As funny as this night was, the Italian-Asian did not remember me at all the next day, which we all found to be shocking. And yes, I was a little broken-hearted.

Day Two in Paris

I was very excited for day two in Paris because we had Versailles on our agenda! Katie and I saved a few Euros by doing this on our own versus through a tour group. We stopped at the Versailles tourist office instead of at the palace to buy our tickets. While in line, there were two ladies trying to figure out what pass to buy, and they thought the ones being offered were the wrong ones. I quickly informed them that indeed, these were the ones that they wanted, but these ones cost a mere 2 Euro difference from the ones being offered at the palace. They would spend a little more money, but save LOTS of time waiting in line. Needless to say, they were very thankful for my advice, and we started up a conversation. I found out that they were from a town north of Chicago and told them that I knew a lot of people in the Chicago area. We went on to discover that they've seen and know about my boyfriend's family's landscaping business. Small world!

The Palace of Versailles was very royal looking, obviously. Gold was everywhere and all of the ceilings were painted. As beautiful as the interior was, I didn't get to enjoy them as much as I would have liked because the whole time it felt like I was being herded through rooms, and there just was never an open area to sit or stand for a while. The rooms also began to feel very repetitive. I did really enjoy seeing the Hall of Mirrors and the Queen's quarters.

Katie and I went to Versailles on a special day where they were going to turn on the water for all of the fountains in the gardens for a certain period of time. We had some time to kill before this began so we went on a hunt to find the place where Marie Antoinette would stay and hide from people. This place, the Petit Trianon, is quite a distance away from the palace and is rather small. I thought it was pretty cool that Marie Antoinette had her initials placed in the Grand Staircase's railing.

The Gardens of Versailles were AMAZING! Definitely worth going on a day when they have the fountains going. There are numerous little gardens that make up the whole thing and each one of these gardens has some type of large sculpture piece or fountain in it. Unforunately, my camera had died by this time, so I'm going to have to steal pictures from Katie's camera. As we walked, Katie and I joked about how certain gardens would be a nice place to get married or proposed to. Ironically, on our way out we saw a bride and groom, along with a large group, going into the gardens (I assume). Made the idea become a little more realistic in my eyes for, of course, whenever that time comes.

On our second night, we took part in a pub crawl with the hostel mates we met the night before. The pub crawl was part of the tour company that we had used for our first day's tour. As our IDs were being checked in the beginning we were shocked to learn that our Italian-Asian friend was only 17! Drinking age is 18 in Paris, so he couldn't go but was so confused as to why he couldnt' come. Throughout the night we went to 5 different bars and at each one for every drink we bought, we'd get a shot! No worries, I didn't drink at every one. I met another person from Chicago. His little brother is a junior at Iowa State and is in Pi Kappa Alpha, which is the fraternity that my sorority was paired with for Greek Week this past spring. Once again, SMALL WORLD! At the second bar I met a couple from Finland. I also met two guys from California; one had just graduated from law school, so we had a nice time chit-chatting about that. The two had a nice system going on how to memorize names; one would write all the name in a little notebook and so when the other ended to know a name, the notebook would just get whipped out. I was "Kelly from Nebraska". A big group of us ended up leaving the last bar early (drinks were 15 Euros!) and headed back to our hostel to continue the night. Katie got slammed by the metro train's doors on the way back and another person in the group danced with a homeless man on the train. As you might have guessed, it was a good night!

Day Three in Paris

Churches were on the agenda for day three. The first one we went to was Sacre Coeur. This church was built on the largest hill overlooking Paris and was exhausting to get up to it. It takes commitment to get up to the top and attend church there. A cool fact about this church is that the stone it is made out of allows it to wash itself. Therefore the exterior of the church has never been cleaned, but yet it still looks as good as new! When we got inside, we discovered that mass was going on; it was a Catholic mass. Yet, even though mass was going on, they allow toursits to walk around the perimeters of the interior. It was rather cool to tour a church as mass was going on. However, at the same time, I felt like it was disrespectful, and that I shouldn't be in there.

The next church we went to was Notre Dame. It, too, had mass going on but it ended as we were in there. Such tall ceilings and pretty stained glass windows! Definitely worth seeing-- no wonder it is a tourist attraction! As we were sitting in a garden behind Notre Dame, Katie overheard two people talking about Sainte Chappelle. Katie really wanted to see it, so we asked for directions and were off to find it. We did find it and had to stand in a security line for about 20 minutes. This church was part of a former palace but now the whole area is a governmental. We had to pay 5 Euros to see the church, which is currently under restoration. The appeal of Sainte Chappelle is its large stained glass windows. My mouth dropped as we first walked in; it was beautiful!

Katie and I had McDonalds for dinner; I had more success with ordering my meal this time! After dinner we joined our Canadian friends, Tanya and Natalie, in the bar. Our time in the bar quickly moved to spending time in the "Chill Out Room" in the basement of our hostel. Tayna and Natalie wanted to play flippy cup (or flip cup as they call it) and were determined to teach other countries. The game grew throughout the night and by the end we had a good 20-25 people playing; Tayna and Natalie successfully taught the others and soon flippy cup will be dominating the world! We were even able to play by countries/continents; the North Americans were on one side while the Australians were on the other. The Australians took the English to play on their side, and we divided the two Swedish girls up onto both teams. I held my own quite well, but we had one Canadian guy that just blew it for our team almost every time. Oh well; it was, by far, the best night that I've had so far on my journey! By the end we must have gone through 30-40ish bottles of beer and wine. (And the beer bottles are a lot larger than back in the US.)

Day Four in Paris

Katie and I took an overnight train to Rome from Paris, giving us an extra day to spend in Paris. However, at this point we had spent about all of our money that we had in cash, so we had to keep our plans simple. The plan was to spend the day in the Jardin des Tuileries. This is a garden in front of the Louvre. It has a nice large fountain in it and a large amount of green lounge chairs for pedestrians to move around and sit in. The plan would have been perfect if the whether had remained nice; but as our luck goes, the day was quite cold. I think we only lasted at the park for a hour to 1 1/2 hours. While we were there we did get to see a little photo shoot happen. It was cool; the photographer was going to stand in the dirty fountain water to take the picturs but it ended up being too deep to stand in with his jeans on. We spent the rest of the day looking through souvenir shops and hanging out at our hostel before we said "Au revoir!" to Paris.