Study abroad in Rome!

im reading the book: eat pray love by elizabeth gilbert and she writes about going to italy after her divorce, sort of on a journey to find herself. she goes to italy pretty much because thats something she had always wanted to do, and she stays there for 4 months just to learn italian, how cool is that! I am planning on doing the same this time next year, winter term 2009!

• A bottle of good olive oil
• A bottle of my favorite cheap local wine
• A gigantic thing of Nutella
• Another slightly less gigantic thing of Nutella
• Limoncello for Mom and Dad? I dunno, I think Mom bought a bottle before she left, but I have to ask
• Candy for my sister, brother, and niece
• Tshirts for various people – myself, Kate, siblings
• Another rosary from the Vatican because I miscounted when I was counting people I wanted to buy rosaries for the last time I was there
• Something for Chelsie – she requested something Italian that can be involved in the wedding, so either something related to Italian weddings or something old, something new, or something blue…
• Cheesy souvenirs for a couple other people
• European edition of the Da Vinci Code in paperback (yes, I know it’s out in the US in paperback, but it was out here first, and I like the European cover better.)
• The book of Italian short stories that includes both the English and the Italian?
• A hunk of Parmesagn
• Dried fruit or granola or some similarly healthy snack for the plane from the Campo dei Fiori market
• More upper body strength to drag all this crap to the airport

Hooray! Finally done with exams. History of ancient Rome was the last one, this afternoon – could have gone better, I didn’t know a couple of the short answer questions, each of which was worth 1% of my final grade (why the hell do I care on what island Tiberius spent the later years of his reign? Did that really change the course of Roman history? No.), and my essay could have been better written, but I’m never satisfied with the essays I write for exams. Anyways, it could have gone better, but I really don’t care. I’m done and I now have just four more full days to run around Rome and enjoy life Roman-style.

When my mom and Nana came to visit the other weekend, Mom brought me, among other things, a pancake-making kit. This needs to be used up before I leave, along with the brownie mix, jello, and whatever else she brought me. Saturday night: Pancake dinner party for me and some other people who haven’t left yet. Most people, including the 3 roommates, will be gone by then, so pancake party is gonna be me, a couple other study abroads who are slow about leaving, and a couple of the resident students I’m friends with. It’ll be awesome. What sort of wine goes with pancakes?

I think I’ll make the brownie mix tonight, to celebrate the end of finals with my roommates. Hopefully that won’t involve me having to buy any more stuff, like oil or eggs or whatnot.

Also to do before leaving…decide which books I’m NOT taking home, register them on bookcrossing, and let em’ go.
The deciding part will be the hard part – as much as I love bookcrossing I still can’t bear to part with my books. The fact that I have to pack and carry them if I don’t let them go will be a good incentive though.

Today I visited…
San Pietro in Montorio
Santa Maria della Scala
Santa Dorotea
San Giovanni di Malta
San Giuseppe alla Lungara
Santo Spirito in Sassia
Oratorio Santissima Annunciata

Churches now visited: 32

Edit: After going out for a bit tonight, I can add…
San Carlo ai Catinari (Love that name – St. Carlo by the dishmakers)
San Crisogono
San Calisto

Total: 35

Edit: Monday 8 May…
Santissima Trinità dei Monti
Santa Giuliana Falconieri

Total: 37

Rome has about 9 thousand churches (ok, so that might be a slight exaggeration) and all of them are absolutely gorgeous. They’re all historic, they all have their own stories, all of them have beautiful artwork, basically all of them are worth visiting. I’ve been here since January and I’ve still only been to a few of them. My count is up to 21. I want to double that, at least, before I leave. Oh, by visiting a church I mean going inside and staying for a little while and saying at least a short prayer – just seeing it from the street doesn’t count (if I were counting that way, my count would probably be around 50 or so).

Churches I’ve been to…
San Pietro in Vaticano
Sant’Onofrio
Santi Francesco e Caterina
San Giulio
Santa Susanna
Santa Maria Maggiore
San Giovanni in Laterno
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme
santa Barbara dei Librai
Sant’Ignazio
Il Gesu
Santa Maria ad Martyres (the Pantheon)
Santa Maria in Aracoeli
Santa Cecilia in Trastevere
San Pancrazio
San Francesco d’Assisi
San Benedetto in Piscinula
Sant’Agata
Santa Maria in Trastevere
San Vitale
San’Andrea al Quirinale
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
Santa Maria della Concezione
One little one way back behind the forum on the Palatine whose name I can’t remember but it had the Stations of the Cross on the road in front of the church
One somewhere in Rome whose name and location are now completely forgotten

Churches that I still NEED to see…
San Paolo Fuori le Mura
San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura
San Sebastiano Fuori le Mura
Santo Stefano Rotondo
Santa Sabina
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
San Pietro in Vincoli
Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza
Santa Maria della Vittoria
Sant’Anastasia
...plus about a zillion others.

EDIT: 5 May 5:30PM: After going out wandering this afternoon, the “churches visited” count is up to 25.

Classes finished yesterday. Now all I have are my four finals. Took the Italian oral exam yesterday, that went fine. So…yeah…home stretch.

• Figure out how long I’m allowed to stay in the apartment, then book a hostel for the extra nights
• Find the library book I lost (Complete works of Aristotle, volume I – somehow I managed to lose one of the library’s largest books)
• Study and ace finals
• Not kill (or be killed by) my roommates
• Buy souvenirs
• Work on my “Things to see in Rome before I leave” list – mostly churches that I want to see, but also things like catacombs (I haven’t been to any catacombs yet!) and museums

I’m not looking forward to leaving Rome and Italy, but I AM looking forward to leaving AUR (which annoys me more every day and actually makes me miss GW) and my apartment (I haven’t talked about my apartment much on here, but basically I have horrible roommates), and I’m looking forward to seeing my family and friends back in the states.

Two more weeks.

:-(

The semester’s half over. {tear} It’s gone by so fast. As much as I miss my friends like crazy and I can’t wait to see them, the thought of leaving this place (and gelato and good pasta and good cappucinos and everything else here) makes me sad…

How would you like to have one of these for your garden?