Orvieto

Crazy eyes

Cool street

We had a fun day yesterday in Orvieto. It's only an hour away on the train from Rome.

Tom Sawyer, love, dead rats, and February travel

I'm reading "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." Here's Tom and Becky pronouncing their love:

"Say, Becky, was you ever engaged?"
"What's that?"
"Why, engaged to be married."
"No."
"Would you like to?"
"I reckon so. I don't know. What's it like?"
"Like? Why it ain't like anything. You only just tell a boy you won't ever have anybody but him, ever ever ever, and then you kiss and that's all. Anybody can do it."
"Kiss? What do you kiss for?"
"Why, that, you know, is to -- well, they always do that."
"Everybody?"
"Why, yes, everybody that's in love with each other."

So sweet. I've always wondered why people kiss. Of course, that conversation was immediately preceded by this one:

"Do you love rats?"
"No! I hate them!"
"Well, I do, too -- live ones. But I mean dead ones, to swing round your head with a string."

Naturally.

We booked some winter travel plans this weekend. We're going to a tournament, Carnevultimate, with the Rome team, BID (Built In a Day), on Feb. 9-10. That should be super great fun, and with costumes. We're also flying to Sardegna for 4 days during Caitlin's "settimana bianca." I told my student services coordinator this morning, who said, "Yes, it is very nice. But it is strange to go in winter." Hmm. At least it's not high season!

Tonight is a pub quiz, and I get to announce a category. Mine is Beer. Study up!

Party time

Met up with our Gaelic football friends last night. The captain of the women's team was celebrating her birthday, so we all discovered the other Irish pastime: drinking! What a great mix: Italians, Irish, English, Belgians. Good, clean fun, for the most part. The shenanigans were down in Acilia, southwest of Rome by the airport. We missed the last train, but caught a night bus back. Yet another benefit of public transportation!

Today we are taking it easy. I have work to do, since I'm going full-time at ESE this semester. My first week of classes went OK. I'm not crazy about the courses on theory of management, but perhaps I'll learn to love it. Until I do, here's my impression of my notes:

I. Ideas
   a. thoughts
   b. concepts
       i. notions
       ii. theories
       iii. feelings
II. Words
   a. nouns
   b. verbs
III. Outlines
   a. letters
   b. numbers
       i. Roman numerals
       ii. upper-case I's
       iii. lower-case i's

Anyway, the point is: theory with respect to business is all a bunch of gobbledygook. In my humble opinion.

Just finished "Bel Canto." Next stop: opera!

Friends!

Kinsley came for a weekend visit. Lotsa fun! The three of us enjoyed a wonderful Sunday brunch with Maria and Ivan, thanks to our handy-dandy Bio Box. And we explored some landmarks as well as the night streets in the centro. Really a good time, relaxing and full of laughter. The girls let me win at Skip-Bo. And somehow we drank more than we had in weeks.

I start classes tomorrow, and Caitlin's in the thick of things at school already. Back to the grind?

How did they do it?

Tiny surprises

Nice little evening tonight. Caitlin's still battling a nasty cough, but made it through her second day at school. Also sick: our Italian tutor, so no lezione per noi stasera. Only one thing to do: Date Night! It's funny: we've spent so much time together recently, but felt like we hadn't had any time to just relax, joke around, talk about nothing, gaze lovingly into each other's eyes.

So we headed toward one of the taxi driver-recommended restaurants which just so happens to be located near Stazione Trastevere. Caitlin decided to practice on her 2.75-inch heels, which was somewhere between exciting and excruciating. The cobblestones especially were a doozy. We realized, though, that the key to walking in heels (and enjoying a lovely evening passegiata) is to take it slowly.

Sadly, our restaurant was closed for renovations. Bummer. Back on the tram to our neck of the woods — maybe sushi? kebab? But across Viale di Trastevere, a pizzeria calls us. Funny, we've each seen this building at least a hundred times, but it had never registered in our minds as an actual destination for anything. But tonight it was rockin'. So we walked in and were pleasantly surprised. Rows of marble-slab tables, a wood-fired oven, a dozen camerieri in green bow-ties, interior design that apparently hadn't been altered since the war.

So a nice little date, a funny little story tonight. But tiny surprises are much appreciated here.

A conversation

Caitlin: Am I sitting strangely in this chair?
Andy: No, it's just a strange chair

Ostia Antica

On whim this morning, Andy & I decided to hop on the metro to Ostia Antica. It's an ancient Roman port city that was ransacked by pirates in 68 B.C. We didn't quite know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised by the scale of the ruins. There was everything from tombs and mosaics to a largish amphitheatre complete with a vomitorium (ask Andy for the definition of vomitorium).

 

 

Flight Troubles

Our flight was canceled AGAIN from RDM to SFO! We are now in Portland eagerly awaiting our 7 am departure tomorrow. Leaving Bend today was bittersweet but we're excited to start the new year back in Italy!