Very good at shopping, not so great at studying

As of Wednesday night all of my papers are handed in. Finished! Finitooo! All four were grueling but I think being able to pull from personal experiences, even just jokingly to myself, for all of them helped push it along. I mean, for Myth I wrote about an Egyptian goddess... Cleopatra was my best Halloween costume ever, I'm half of Rome's royal couple, and have been treated like gold here with my word as law (don't worry, Jen, it'll end soon). BOOM! For Art History I wrote about the Pantheon..... where did a certain gang of sailors waltz into my life on probably the most serendipitous, insane night of my (then) 20 years? Ohhh! For Anthropology I did a 26 page study and dissection of PDA in Rome.... boy and I have smooched our way all around this city. My Sociology research paper was on feminism in Italy, according to region- I was obsessed with my 'Women in Religion' class last semester and have had first hand relationship experience with a traditional Southern I-talian. Now I just have to channel that energy and work ethic into my finals tomorrow-Wednesday!

On Thursday night Lexi, Mon, and I went out with the boys in San Lorenzo to a really cute little pub (not to be confused with our original 'local-a pub-a') that was entirely decorated in soccer scarves from teams all over Europe. We played into the weee hours and then were driven home by our wonderful gentlemen. What service!
Friday was absolutely gorgeous. We grabbed our books and hit Villa Borghese for some sun and studying. Saturday is a blur of trying to force myself to keep trekking through Art History, booking train tickets, and of course grocery store runs.
This morning the three of us woke up early (8:30!!) and ventured out to the gigantic Porta Portese flea market. As usual, one of us acquired a stalker on the bus. I was the oh-so-lucky one this time and enjoyed 15 minutes of leg-bumping, unrequited flirting in Arabic, intense staring, suggestive looks, and being followed off the bus. Ooooh, love connection!! However, the endless stalls of the market quickly pushed all thoughts of creepers from my mind. My super exciting purchase was a beautiful new brown, studded watch. I drooled over this watch when we were away in Riccione last month and again when I saw it in a boutique in Rome. Imagine my delight when I spotted it for a fraction of the price at Porta Portese today! After some haggling, I got it for 10euros! Being as I am very much my father's daughter, what with having a painful, Jay-Z-like watch addiction, this totally made my day!
Of course, Monica and I also got cute little leather Roma bracelets because we're lame. I got a bright blue one with a black design, too. We also got something for Jennifer (not a rock) and a jersey for my Pa. Mon also got really adorable sandals for 10e- she is ready for our Southern Italian adventure! The rest of our day was spent enjoying Roma... including falafel and kebabs from Campo, mmm.

Speaking of our adventure- plans have changed! While we were originally planning on spending 2.5 weeks traveling Venice, Poland, Germany, and Amsterdam starting on the 25th.... our love for Italy has made it impossible to leave so soon. So, new plan:
We still leave Rome on Sunday, but will keep our bags at school. We'll head down to Naples (and hopefully not get our purses stolen, as the Anti-Napoli Giampiero, Tony, and Alessio have now all told us will happen) for two days, with a day trip to Pompei. From there we are off to the incredible island of Capri! After Capri we're going to the world-renowned Amalfi Coast for even more fun in the sun and beaching like the little darlings that we are. We may hit up Sorrento, too. Then we're off to Salerno, where our pal Andrea is from! He's coming home for the weekend and ready to play tourguide, wahoooo! On Sundayy night from Salerno we will come back to our dear Roma for a few final days... :( After saying what I'm sure will be some very difficult goodbyes, we're hopping a train and heading north for 5ish days in Florence and Venice. We're taking an overnight train from Venice-Munich, spending a day in my beautiful motherland, and then taking another overnight into Amsterdam, where we'll enjoy 3 final days of Euro freedom! I hope I don't lose Mon in a drug den. The chances are really, really high (pun not intended at first, but now fabulously cheesy!!).

Thanks for being a little study break, blog! Time to get back to Anthro- I can't disappoint my man, Greggorio. Another special thanks to Rino Gaetano (rip) for singing me through finals and this blog update.

My super cute new watch, for my Mommy to see:


Miss Monica and her sandals!: