Avventure

Several fun adventures to report on:

1) running. My first run was just around where I'm living, in the Monteverde neighborhood. I've heard from a couple other students who have run near their houses that they got a lot of funny looks... felt really awkward... etc. Kind of what I expected, since so many people have told me that no one runs here. Well, on my 6km run, I passed at least 3 other guys out running. Either Americans have taken over Monteverde and are starting a running movement, or Romans do run. I'm leaning towards the second since one of them was wearing a Roma jersey (as in, the soccer team). Boh.

Second running adventure was a bit more exciting. Chrissy and I went to do our 10x200 workout, which semi-requires a track. Chrissy thought she saw one in Villa Borghese, so we went there. Piazza di Siena was gorgeous... but the "track" was roughly cherry-sized gravel. Not even an old school cinder track. This was straight out of Giulio Cesare's day. So we tried to do the workout... cornering on that surface is anything but easy, but we got a workout. And then got a little lost on the bus trying to return al centro to take buses home.

2) Giro della citta'
Yesterday, we had one class (our lit class) and then a tour of the piazzas of Rome. Alix (our TA) broke us into groups of 3 or 4, and gave us a sheet with a list of places we were supposed to go, with everyone finishing at Piazza Cavour for gelato and then a merenda at our prof's house. Most of it went really well- I took 80 pictures, we saw a lot of the city, became a bit more familiar with the metro and bus system... and then tried to get from the bocca della verita' to Piazza Cavour. When I recounted this story to my Italian host mom, she laughed at that point. Apparently that would have been difficult even for her. It's like being back in Maine- ya can't get theyah from heyah. So... we took a bus to the Largo di Chigi, and then tried to walk to Prf.ssa Courtney's house... got a little bit lost, saw a lot of tiny streets, real genuine non-touristy Italian restaurants, and generally kept moving in the right direction thanks to Bri (oh yeah, whose idea was it to put Bri and Brian in the same group? Talk about name confusion) having two maps. We did finally find it... exhausted, having talked to a dozen different Italians to ask directions, and generally ready to sit and eat.

3) Culinary adventures
Yesterday, my Italian host dad had a work function, so he didn't eat dinner with us, and Flavio (Anna's grandson of 14 months, have I mentioned him?) was already in bed, so Anna and I had a quiet little dinner ourselves. But she doesn't eat much. So it was basically me eating, and her explaining to me what I was eating. Pasta with tongue and zucchini to start. Woah. It wasn't BAD, per se, but probably not something I'll order in a restaurant any time soon... but, it was the first time I'd eaten tongue, so I had to take my sushi mindset: don't think about what I'm actually eating, just think about flavors and texture... which unfortunately, didn't do much to save the grace of tongue.

Class is starting, so I gotta go... last day of class for the week!

Also, we're working on places to visit and things to see, so if anyone reading this has any suggestions of where I should go, please please leave a comment with your ideas!

Baci,
Brian