Couple more points after travelling

Have i mentioned how nice it is to be able to buy some food at a cafe or grocery store and not have them ask me if i have change, since they don't? In Rome, many of the bars, pizzerias and other stores never seemed to have change on them, and i definitely wasn't trying to break a 100 each time.

Have i mentioned how nice it is to not watch tv? In Rome i left MTV on while i showered & got ready to leave in the morning, just to provide some background noise, but the rest of the time was content to leave the thing off. For the first couple days i was home, i forgot that i had tv to watch. In a way a shame, as i generally learn a lot (have a tendency to watch History Channel and CNN, and i disagree with people who say watching other tv is a waste - it's more a matter of the critical eye one uses while watching it), but also got me out of the house a little bit more.

I'm off to work on photos from the trip.

Cameras

Spent part of today setting up an Axis Camera. These are pretty nice - we have one set up at work in the radio room and simple to set up. Lots of options, run linux on a cf card (don't remember the processor), along with ftp and web (via Boa). Solid state is nice. First photo taken with camera - the rest should eventually be located at http://www.wccnet.org/aboutwcc/webcamera/ and there is but one saved photo at http://www.wccnet.org/aboutwcc/webcamera/saved/wccplaza-20041130.jpg. I wonder how long it will be before one of the web folks removes that photo of Rex.

Caught Up

Finally caught up on all my notes from my trip and am able to reminisce a little, figure out what i forgot to mention, think about new trips i'd like to take.

In a couple weeks i'm headed to Peru, and sometime after that i'd like to head out to Cali, but there are larger trips out there i'd like to take.

After seeing Amsterdam, i'd like to visit other northern European countries, in particular the Scandinavian ones: Denmark, Norway, Finland, perhaps Sweden, and see how those all differ from each other.

Prague holds an interest, perhaps it should be a stepping stone for other eastern European countries.

Belgrade. Dunja the bartender was from Belgrade. She had been describing that city and its people rather nicely, so i said, "It sounds like a very nice city", to which she responded, "there are parts that are nice and there are parts that are less nice." I had never thought of that area as being nice - figured it was too war torn - and even now i would probably be too scared to travel there without Good Reason, so Serbia will have to live in the land of fantasy for a while.
One other comment Dunja made about Serbs, and this one was also a lesson on history for me, especially after my nonsensical rhetoric about the uselessness of history. Her mother lives in Athens, and she tells me that, when she visits Greece and mentions to people that she is Serbian, she is instantly welcomed into houses and treated as a family member. Apparently the Greeks have a very good memory and are quite appreciative for the supportive role the Serbs lent Greece against Nazi Germany during WWII, enough so that they still treat Serbian visitors with honour - quite a nice benefit of history. Dunja also says that the opposite isn't true, Serbs have forgotten the help they received from the Greeks. Perhaps they've had other things on their minds.

The South African gentleman i met made his country out to be a place i might want to visit as well, though interestingly his take on Pretoria made the city seem worse than Belgrade. I've been wanting to go to some place in Africa, perhaps South Africa is the right place (even though it's about a full day of travel time).

For now there are family obligations and monetary drawbacks (need to save money for a new tattoo too) to more travelling and i will be content to remain in place for a couple months once i get back from Peru.

Work

My mother picked me up from the airport and one of the first stops i had to make was the office. Had to have her drive me there as i let my license expire and i didn't have the clothing for biking in the cold.

Yes i go to work immediately after i get back, my grandfather would be proud. Didn't have to - it was Friday after Thanksgiving and no one else was at work. Still it was good to go back.

My main reason for going was to reset a couple secondary servers, which took but a couple minutes. Checked my (physical) mail while i was there - had two smallish packages in my mailbox and a box on my desk. The smallish packages held a shirt each and the box was a Canon A75 digital camera (the A75 is the newer version of the A70 which is the lower end version of the A80 i own and love), all won via promos from APC.

The last time i won anything was also around my birthday, back in 1992. I wasn't going to buy a raffle ticket, but a friend of mine was quite insistent. The girl i was dating at the time was involved in the drawing and by complete chance, i'm sure, i happened to win the grand prize: a large basket full of american chocolates and other candies. That prize was just as useless to me as the camera and shirts - it was the beginning of the wrestling season and i had to lose a couple pounds. I gave the candies away to all my friends, as if i was so overwhelmed with joy at winning that i had to share. I only wrestled for two matches that year thanks to Tony Kikka (sp?) - during a training exercise with him something in my foot went POP and i was on crutches the rest of the season.

I'm giving the A75 to my father. He's the wealthiest person in our family but has no camera.

A long Thursday night

Got hungry Thursday night so headed out for a couple pints. One of the waitresses from Misc was happy that she got her internship with the UN in Milan (something in criminal justice, perhaps ISPAC?), which was a good sign for the coming year. Over at the Irish Pub, an american tourist sitting at the bar was clamouring for information on where to go to, like, you know, meet women. I gave him the names of a few places i used to hang out and got a free bar tab as a result. I love sitting at the bar, it's a great subculture.

Didn't get to see my fav bartender (over the course of a week), but left her a goodbye. Stayed up all night since my plane left at 6:30am. Wasn't sure i would make it as that guy kept buying drinks ("you've never had a surfer on acid?? Bartender!!"). Still, as i scrawled into my notebook, "Well, i'm in Rome [note the use of well]. I could probably be drunk and still be drunk and find my way home safely here." Not completely sure what that means, but i did find my way safely home.

After an uneventful flight to Amsterdam, i met a white South African man on the plane to Detroit, who gave me a good lesson on the history and current state of affairs of his country and various parts of Africa. Another reason i love travelling, get some different perspectives.

Still, it ended up being around 30+ hours with little sleep; ended the trip the same way i started it.

Trash talkin'

A few stories from Maudy reinforced a criticism of Rome that i've previously expressed.

I've walked around town at around 3-4am and have seen the street sweepers cleaning up the daily mess. I've also walked around town at around 7-9am and have seen how efficient Romans are at dirtying their city: by the time 9am rolls around the streets are again a mess, littered with pizza napkins and daily newspapers and morning dog poop. They don't throw their napkins into the trash cans, they leave their newspapers on the benches so the rain and wind can spread them around the streets, and they don't care for cleaning after their dogs.

Another aspect of messiness that i alluded to before is the broken sidewalks; i can understand that coblestone roads are difficult to keep even but the sidewalks in Rome are also broken and in disrepair (in all parts of the city, from EUR to downtown to up north). In Ann Arbor we have very harsh conditions: the temperature ranges from -20 to 90 degrees farenheit and many streets are lined with trees, yet the sidewalks are in quite good condition by comparison.

The stories:

Every time he cleans up after his dog (a little dog named Rocco, i forget the exact breed), people look at him funny and say che schifo, how dirty, as if cleaning up after the dog is dirtier and nastier than leaving dog crap on the sidewalk. When he was working in a bar, this guy buys a bag of chips, finishes them, then throws the bag on the ground instead of into the trash. Maudy tells the guy, "hey put that in the trash", but the guy just looks at him and says, "what's your problem", as if Maudy has just insulted him.

There is a high wall that runs from the castel to the VC, it used to also be used as an escape route for the Pope so he could hole up in the castle during war times. A couple years ago this famous structure was open to the public, with a coffee shop and little bar at the top (by the way, a bar in Italy isn't a sit down get drunk kinda place, but implies an actual bar across which one might order a coffee or a sandwich, and perhaps a beer or shot of grappa, but not necessarily a place to get drunk), and the ability to sit down or walk around the passage way at the top. Eventually, though, this had to be closed as visitors were constantly throwing their trash off the side of the walls and into the neighbouring resident's back yards and balconies.

What's with the lack of social responsibility, both in terms of not cleaning up after themselves and in terms of not caring if their streets and sidewalks are in a good state of repair? Are they simply content with one large urban renewal plan every 500 years?

Thanksgiving in Rome

Back to the VC to have some mail sent the Holy way, as well as to do some shopping. Decided to give Maudy a call from just outside the colonnades. Beautiful columns, by the way; who can deny the all-encompassing nature of the Baroque style? I've been wondering what way is best to approach St Peter's: from the large road built by Mussolini or by passing through one side of the colonnades. Catholicism has always seemed pompous to me, so the large, formal road that runs up to the church in such a glorious way that no red carpet entrance could ever compete with it (and it's also the only sidewalk in Rome that isn't broken, an actual smooth pathway! More on this later) seems appropriate for all the other excesses that the Church takes upon. On the other hand, the Baroque style seems more emphasized when the cathedral's plaza is suddenly come upon from the side: at first you're walking through part of typical Rome - narrow streets and buildings bustling with common daily activities - then suddenly through a few rows of columns and you emerge into a peaceful plaza in a different country - the warm embrace of the church echoed by the two arms of colonnades is fully Baroque.

The last time i saw Maudy was Minneapolis 1994, while i was working for 3M during a summer internship. I believe he was looking at some school out around there, someplace to go study art at.

I called him around 12 or 1 and it turns out he currently lives a couple blocks from the VC, in between it and Castel San Angelo. He was just waking up and invited me to his family's house for Thanksgiving lunch (sure, him and his mom are Mexican, her husband Italian, but they're americanised enough to celebrate). Was a very nice treat for me to go to his house and enjoy some fine pasta with tomato sauce, a good salad, and some turkey (yeah i ate turkey, i had already lost trying to eat vegan so figured i should Fit In for one more meal) with potatoes. The meal and company was quite a delightful surprise - i think i spent last Thanksgiving eating some rice and vegetables (with egg, of course) in some country stop with a French guy in Cambodia.

After lunch, got an opportunity to talk with Maudy about Old Times and Old Friends as we went back to his rooftop apartment so i could admire the views of the famous surroundings. He told me lots of stories of lots of people from high school, most of which i cannot repeat here due to their personal nature, however, if you happen to want to know more, contact me. It's interesting how Maudy knows a take on people separate from everyone else's - during the little reunion i attended in January the folks repeated very different, tame stories about the some of the same people.

His apartment really does have a great view of the VC, including what he says is the Pope's bedroom. I didn't stay long enough to see the Pope go to sleep as i had some more shopping to do. I of course had the idea of something good to get my niece, just had to find the right one.

Was sad to go on my way after visiting an old friend and old ideas, but at least next time i'm in Rome i might have a cheaper place to stay.

Lessons

While looking for the Picasso show and after i had visited my old school, i overheard some young college girls talking to eachother. Every third word they used was the word like, as in: so, like, i was, like, talking with these guys, and like, they, like, told me about this, like, bar around here, and like, we should, you know, like, go, right?

I am neither a linguist nor a communication expert.

There are a couple categories of words i am interested in: those used multiple times throughout a sentence and those used at a distinct point in the sentence (such as beginnng/end), and in both cases there is little to no structural reason for their use. In the first category is the word like and the phrase you know. In the second category are the words well (such as during interviews, the interviewee will often begin an answer with "Well...") and right, and the phrase you know (yes this one exists in both categories). Aside from words/phrases, there are also sounds that are often used in the same context, such as uhm and hrm.

Now it would be easy to launch into a discussion about the reason these words are used in such an apparently mindless fashion, but since i was walking through Rome, listening to English speakers, having just come from talking with an Italian/French instructor, i wondered: are there similar words/phrases in other languages?

Other Wednesday activities

Wednesday morning, wound my way through Villa Borghese, a huge park just east of Piazza del Popolo. If you're going to be insanely rich, forget the private jets, million dollar cars, pounds upon pounds of jewelry, and expansive mansions. Instead, hook yourself up with a park the size of a small city inside a large city. I hear that if you're going to try this it helps if you're related to a Pope or someone of similar stature.

Somewhere inside that maze of a park is a largish mansion, the Borghese Gallery, which houses some of the best Baroque art in the world, including sculptures by Bernini and paintings by Caravaggio. It's quite a treat to stand in a single, smallish room, surrounded on all four sides by some of Caravaggio's best works - enough to bring a tear or three to the eye.

A couple other notes about Villa Borghese:

1) From the top of the park, above Piazza del Popolo, is a very impressive view of Rome, especially the Vatican City. The most impressive part is that St. Peter's can't be more than 3 or 4 miles away, yet the haze of pollution makes it appear 20, perhaps 30 miles away. Perhaps that's just Rome's attempt at displaying the environmental perspective technique employed by renaissance masters.

2) Originally i would have written something about my personal history with the park, but it's too personal and i'm not drunk. Instead, i'll mention that north of Piazza del Popolo is the Flaminio metro stop and also a tram stop (don't remember the number). This tram runs north to Piazza Mancini, an unremarkable piazza with a number of bus stops, including the 201 and 301. Had to look at all the bus signs to make sure these were the right ones - these buses run further north up via Cassia to my old high school.

at this point i went to my old school, covered in a previous post.

Had to leave school eventually, and at the suggestion of a bartender i looked and found a show about Picasso and his influence. Good little show, better lighting than the Van Gogh museum. One piece was from UofM, another from the DIA - reminder enough of home to bring a tear to the eye.

The night found me eating penne all'arriabbiata after a vegetable soup. The soup was rather thick and hearty and good, perhaps one of the better soups i've had in a while, though quite salty, too salty almost for any other specific tastes to emerge. The penne was uneventful - spicy enough, tasty enough, but the pasta was a little unevenly cooked, some places a little too firm and some places a little too tender. Perhaps it was cooked on too high a heat? The sauce was also a little thicker than the first penne i had. I think the last two places i had penne all'arrabbiata at were more geared towards tourists and thus served inferior foods. Good, just not as good.

I left the restaurant wondering if i should have stuck to a liquid diet. I think i forgot to mention the vegetables with tofu i had Monday night at a Chinese place by Termini - the plate with a distinct taste i couldn't quite place until i rewound my taste buds a number of years to the time i used to eat Ramen noodles - this place was using the flavouring from ramen noodle packages in its meals. That by itself wouldn't have been too annoying, but finding pieces of meat in the dish pushed it too far. That dish, the penne with cheese, and too much pizza with cheese made me think i should only have Guinness from then on - fish filtering i can deal with, i consider it more in the same category as what ingredients are used in the packaging, not what ingredients are used in the recipe.

I didn't go on such a complete liquid diet, but beer did make up perhaps 1/3 - 1/2 of my consumption, just like high school.

Return of the prodigal son, part II

Found my way to my old high school, the Amerian Overseas School of Rome. As the bus travelled down the old familiar road my heart started beating faster and harder, a strange sign of a strange nervousness. Spoke my way through the security guard and up to my old math class room, which is now a computer lab. A student pointed me to the math classroom on the other side of the hallway, and i spoke to my old math teach, Mrs. Fiochi, who didn't remember me but did say that my eyes, no, the look in my eyes, was very familiar and unique. She said the same thing 12 years ago, and couldn't say much more this time since class was starting.

Walked up the villa (my school consists of a number of modern school-type buildings and an old villa in the middle, housing offices in the first floors and classrooms in the upper floors, as well as a large soccer field on one side (contrary to runour, it wasn't sold off)) to my Italian classroom as i knew Mrs. Levine wouldn't mind me waling in on her class. Sure enough, she was giving her advanced French students a test on the last day, last period before the break, but she welcomed me in and talked with me at length. The students were very talkative during their test, at which Mrs. Levine would look up every now and then and say, "students, be quiet, this is Francisco, an old student, and i'm trying to talk with him. One day you too will return after ten years." You had to know her and her unique pedagogical techniques.

I was surprised that she remembered where we used to sit during class, and was most delightfully surprised to hear she remembered a unique stunt (hack?) pulled at our school: someone took salt and wrote the words "FUCK ED" (Ed Tatko being the principle at the time) in large letters in the field (salt kills plants, in this case killing the grass in the shape of the letters for a number of days, weeks after the stunt was pulled, and the words were quite beautifully visible from the top of the villa). Levine remembered our class b/c of that stunt, and related the tale to her class, though in her memory the letters were the size of the soccer field (a notion i almost scoffed at since writing letters that big would have required a little more skill than i give the possible culprits credit for). I hear that stunt was one of the main causes of his nervous breakdown, and he left the school after only 1.5 years.

Levine walked me down to the offices where i met some of the new staff, including the Spanish instructor (they now offer up to AP/IB Spanish), who happened to be friends with the mother of a high school friend of mine, Maudy Tuseth, who used to live in New York but moved back to Rome just over a year ago. Through Maudy's mother i got Maudy's number, quite a treat, of which i'll talk more later.

What's going on?

It's too bad we don't know what's going on.
- American Tourist w/ southern accent

I had forgotten about the smell in the city. Lisse warned me that a friend of hers found the city very stinky, but somehow i never noticed during the years i lived here. Coming from Amsterdam here, though, was a little mistake as the difference is quite drastic - Amsterdam being a rather clean, tidy city and Rome being rather dirty. Pollution creates a foul odor that hangs about the city, and the dirt of the streets and cars (contrasted with Amsterdam's plethora of cyclists), along with the slight humidity, helps that grime stick to one's body and clothes quite unpleasantly.

It could be a clean enough city, if people made more use of the transport system and the transport system were re-redeveloped a little, and if people would stop throwing their trash on the ground and use the many trash cans around. How can people just litter their streets? Don't they care about their home at all? Even Phnom Penh with its dirt roads seemed cleaner, but that's probably due to its lack of pamphlet advertising and its massive recycling campaign (not a true campaign, but poor people come up with very creative ways to reuse anything and everything).

I wonder if the age of the city, if being surrounded by Old Stuff (and Old Falling Down Stuff at that) has numbed their minds to the seediness of their surroundings and made them complacently accept that they must live in a decrepit city. Has the memory of their past glories destroyed any desire to better themselves in the present? Not that they don't try a little, but their present glories amount to what, being on the losing side of a world war and bringing down the cost of living for the rest of the EU? Why not concentrate on bettering your immediate surroundings and stop throwing trash on the ground?

I think there's too much history tied into Rome. Everywhere you turn is more of it - the Coliseum, the Pantheon, St. Peters - and if not this history them a homage to this history, such as the square coliseum in EUR (as seen in a motion picture starring Anthony Hopkins). What is the point of all these ruins other than to serve as a reminder - yeah, you once were something... once, a couple thousand years ago - or to bring in revenue via tourism? In a sense, this history seems a scientific approach to ancestor worship, as well as a copout for working towards a socially concious, clean Rome.

Perhaps the best argument i've heard about the need for history is that those who forget it, repeat it. But those who remember it repeat it as well, so that argument seems a little foolish. Maybe this city would be better off destroying its heritage and starting a new culture, one that knows how to clean up after itself, one that respects a little bit of health in the environment.

Or maybe i'm off-base thinking that littering is a Bad Thing, or that pollution is a Bad Thing. Maybe it's just my U.S.-centric mindset trying to impose itself on a foreign country. Maybe the culture must exist as a whole, the good and the bad, and it is silly to try to separate the two. Maybe Romans should feel satisfied living their lifestyle, grimy as others might find it.

Oh, the quote at the top was from a tourist watching a soccer game in a bar.

Monday

Passed by the Pope's place this morning. There seem to be more barricades there than before, but perhaps that's because there's some special show going on soon. There is a stage being erected in the plaza and many of the trash containers have been sealed off - i assume to prevent someone from placing a bomb inside. It feels safer to send mail through the VC than through Italian post, perhaps b/c i imagine Italian post as striking all the time, and who would dare strike against God's earthly rep? Hopefully all those postcards get to their destination before i do, and make more sense than my recollection of the feverish ramblings i wrote.

On the way out of the VC i walked down and around via Ottaviano looking around and for a tavola calda to eat at. Sat down, but was too early for them to tell me what kind of pasta the cook was ready to make for the day (was perhaps 11:45am). So waited and waited. One thing in Italy - you don't rush food very often. I'm surprised McD's can work here - people are accustomed to meals taking many hours if necessary. After some time of waiting i asked the waiter what was going on, he rambled something off about spaghetti all' amatriciana, and brought me a plate of it. What's the diff between that and alla carbonata? Thought i was getting something with tomato sauce, but instead got a yellowy sauce: cheese, egg, and a little little bit of tiny pieces of ham along with a smattering of pepper. Was quite nice, and the first time i've eaten egg since Cambodia (where they think that if you don't want meat in your stir fry then you must want egg).

This afternoon i went to EUR, down to the apartment i lived at in high school and bought some fruit and soap in La Standa, the grocery store across the way. The place looks pretty much the same. Walked around EUR a bit and noticed a couple new McD's. I wonder how many pizzerias have to close every time one of those opens.

Nighttime again found me over by the Pantheon (just like high school) where i tried to go into a restaurant to sample their penne all' arrabbiata but was denied. The problem was that it was before 7pm, and they don't open til 7. There's no sign on the door indicating this, but hay que saber (or c'e che sentire) - there are some little nuances about place that you just need to know through some mystical insight. Perhaps knowing which places serve penne all' arrabbiata with cheese is one of these insights.

out of date

Will try to post my writings about the days before i took some time off for illness. The dates and times associated with these posts won't make any sense.

Tuesday

Managed to find myself sick (fever/cold, not food poisoning, luckily - i've religiously avoided Thai food since that episode a year ago) most of Tuesday and didn't wake until 5pm. Thus, i'm a bit behind in my plans and my writing. Will reveal more in a later post, if i find the time before i leave. A couple notes: not all penne all' arrabbiata is created equally and tofu with vegetables does not imply no meat.

So, on my birthday, instead of going to my old high school like i had planned, i found my way back to EUR to see the apartment we used to live in back in the late 70's. Was easy to find. Wound my way back to downtown, to that Irish place, and had a couple pints to celebrate. Well, after a nasty penne all' arrabbiata; i had previously suspected that it might be a safe vegan bet to eat a mixed salad and that penne dish (which is one of my favourites, Paglio's in Ann Arbor also makes a good one), but this one place managed to make it with cheese. Local interpretations of a classic, i guess. At least some of the beer was free (good to be a birthday boy).

Adaptability

Last night i again found myself around the Pantheon, but this time it was early enough that the doors were open. There was a sign outside asking that during special events tourists stay outside and let the devoted pray in peace. Yeah, inside the Pantheon, the building built a couple millennia ago to worship the gods, not the God. Same thing found in Cambodia, where the former Hindu temples have been dutifully converted into Buddhist temples.

In a largish restaurant off of Piazza Navona, with a nice view of the various street artists, sampled penne alla rabbiata for the first time in a while. Just picante enough, just salty enough, and the sauce perfect consistency. The plate would have been a half portion in the States, but the States is wrong. The Chinese food i had the other day was also a tiny portion in comparison to States mentality, but was plenty for me. Most other countries serve small portions, but the States likes it big. Coffee here comes in a shot glass sized cup, and then is only half full, but packs a punch like a case of red bull (not that i'd know). The only place i've had small portions that really were too small is in Cambodia, and there it felt right to always be hungry.

I'm 2/4 in directions asked and 2/3 in places found. Not bad, i suppose. The places people asked me about, i didn't know when i lived here either, and i think the place i couldn't find closed a while ago. If i don't talk too much, i can pass for Italian (similar story in the States, if i don't talk too much i pass for an American); this morning when i ordered some pizza the woman asked me if i was on my way to school. Am i that young looking? How kind, a day away. By the way - sometimes, more important than your vocabulary in a language is how well you can pronounce the few words you know - it seems this might be key to why i pass.

A couple more notes on the differences between Europe and the States, as relayed from Dunia, the Serbian bartender at a decent Irish pub in Rome, through me, to you. She studies at La Sapienza, the largest University in Europe (200000+ students), and her classes are all 3-400 students in a lecture hall. However, no need to go to class - you only have to pass an exam in the subject matter at the end of the semester. Fail that one test and you're fucked.
Before Italy joined the EU, everything was substantially cheaper than it is now. The introduction of the Euro leveled the various countries off, with stuff in England and the like becoming cheaper and stuff in Italy becoming much more expensive, in some cases 3x more so. Dunia relates that her rent used to cost around 250,000 lire before the change and now costs around 300 euro (from roughly $200 to $350).

The logo for that Irish pub is two swans, necks intertwined and forming a heart-shape. I wonder where that stylized heart shape comes from - would be nice to be able to click on that shirt and find out more about the symbol. After 3 pints of Guinness, clickable shirts always sound good.

Sheridan's coffee layered liqueur, from Dublin, comes in a nice split bottle, one side for the liqueur and one side for the cream. I asked the bartender that i might see the bottle, which points out a difference from me in my youth versus me in my Old Age: i never used to ask such things, was always content to observe. I believe there are anthropological arguments for both sides.

One more note on expenses: those pints of Guinness cost 5.20 Euro a piece, that's about US$6.75. Luckily i was only charged for two of them - must be the pre-birthday special.

Return of the prodigal son

Was unable to find Victoria's Pub (fear it has closed) last night, but wound my way to Miscellanea. The place looks the same, the clientelle is the same, and the owner is the same. I said hi to Mickey, he didn't know who i was but listened to me and was happy that i came back - introduced me to his son (who now also works there) as "this guy used to come here as a kid, he met his first beer and his first girl here". Mickey was pretty close to the truth.

Anyways, he was so pleased to have people return that i got free food and drinks the whole night i was there. Wonder if the folks at Ashley's or ABC will be that happy to see me when i get back? Even if i were to return after 10 years, i doubt anyone there would still be working that i recognized.

Managed to sleep for another 12 hours, woke up and got out at 4pm, a little later than i had expected.

Rome

I swear there used to be a porn theatre on that plaza, now they are showing Disney flicks. Where do i go for my porn? Oh yeah, turn on the tv.

Found the Chinese restaurant that my friends and i used to go to every now and then. This was probably the first time i ever bought something there too.

Went to the apartment complex i used to live at and the grocery store across the way. Even tried the buses a bit - but these have changed a little, now there are separate lines and the numbering seems different, else my memory is just too faded.

By the time i got back i thought it might be a good idea to shave my chin whiskers. By the time i was done i realised it wasnt.

Havent been able to find the apostrophe on the Italian keyboards, and am disappointed that UofM is down by 3, but we all know they only need 6.5 minutes to score 3 tds so am not worried, just disappointed. Got to do some tech support, the woman next to me accidentally placed an image of herself and her friends on the desktop but didnt really want it there.

There are a lot more McD's here than there used to be (found the apostrophe).

Amsterdam

Arrived in Amsterdam a few hours ago. When i left MI it was in the 60's, so i didn't bother dressing to warmly. Here it has been in the 40's, windy, flurrying, and even hailing. Kind of chilled right now. Spent 3 hours getting lost in the city but wound up at the Van Gogh museum, so toured that for a couple hours. Now am trying to find my way back to the Central Station so i can get to the airport in time to fly to Rome.

Haven't slept since Wednesday. Normally i would sleep on the plane but this plane had a tv screen in every seat along with a remote that let you play games and pick from around 10 different movies, so on the way here i just watched movies instead of sleeping.

But all is ok - what more would i want from a vacation than to be exhausted, cold, and lost?

One great thing about this town - they have LOTS of bikes. So many that every road i have seen has a very wide bike lane in it. Which reminds me - Van Gogh looks like the guy who sold me my bike.

Part II

It had been a while since i pissed off my mom, so i got a new tattoo today. If you have x-ray vision, you can see it here. It's opposite the other and (partially) reflects a different culture i was exposed to as a youth. Two or three more cultures to go before i get my own going on.

Home

In 4 days i will return home after a 10 year exile.

Here's a photo of the place: http://url.rexroof.com/1108

Termini (main train station) is in the middle right side (cut off diagonal rectangle). The hostel i'm staying at is immediately right of Termini. The pentagon on the left side, above the curve in the Tiber River, is Castel San Angelo. To the left of that is the entrance to the Vatican City - the curves are the collonades built by Bernini, a badass Baroque architect/sculptor - and the rest of the VC is off the page. Still, you can see the centre of the plaza in front of St Peter's, where i would enjoy sitting down and eating a can of soup.

The huge green area in the upper middle is Villa Borghese (a huge park previously residence of the Borghese family), and in there is a museum with some of Bernini's best sculptures in it, as well as some choice Caravaggio paintings, like David holding the head of Goliath. The park is a nice place to go and hang out, but keep your guard up after night, who knows what manner of young 16 yr old is out roaming.

Immediately left of the park is an oval shape with a dot in the middle, Piazza del Popolo and its obelisk, and there are three main, straight roads extending downwards from that plaza. The obelisk is one of a few famous ones in Rome and the plaza is nice enough, you might even find a younger man sitting buddha style in the center plaza, and feel inclined to headbutt him. If you follow the rightmost road, you'll reach the Spanish Steps towards the edge of the park, but this isn't really visible from the satellite map.

The middle road leads to a thick white line, that's a famous plaza where skinheads have been known to stab Filipinos while the cops watch on, and if you were to continue that line on down (though the road doesn't go), then the large brown rectangle shape (at a diagonal) is the Circo Massimo (big chariot race place). On its right there is a road going up and at a slight diagonal to the right that leads to the Colosseo (the slight oval shape), where i used to take the subway to on the weekends and where Gypsies steal cd players (among other things) if given a 1/2 second window of opportunity. The real Colosseo is not visible - Nero fell a while back - but of course the famous stadium is there, maybe even with a Pope inside, giving a nighttime speech. On the way from the Circo Massimo to the Colosseo, the Foro Romano is on the left.

But back to the middle road from Piazza del Popolo: about 4 blocks in and to the right is (was? soon to find out) Victoria's Pub, an English pub where i first learned to appreciate Guinness and where i plan on spending my 29th birthday. Thus Victoria's is one of the most important places in my life - how else would i have ended up in Ashley's so often?

Down the leftmost road and a bit to the left you will see a long dark rectangle with 3 white dots in it. I believe this is Piazza Navona, a plaza with 3 nice fountains, a great place to drink wine, play guitar for money, and get hastled by cops.

Ok: draw a line between the bottom two dots in Piazza Navona, then draw a line perpendicular from that, equidistant from the two dots. Follow this line to the right until you reach the larger white dot. That is the Pantheon, and about a block from that is Miscellanea, the bar that took most of my lunch money, and one of the most memorable locations from my high school years.

Now you know my Rome.

Disclaimer: this includes most of the places in the picture, but not a lot of places i used to hang out that are out of the picture, like Fermi, AOSR, and a few clubs. Also, it's all from memory so i could be wrong (good heavens!).

red cars

Someone in a red car tried to run me off the road this morning, but apparently i've been biking long enough to make up for assholic driving. Yay!

look up, there's a mustang commercial on; a red car rev'ing its engine in to the national anthem... The best part of Computer Generated Imagery is that ad companies don't have to actually go to places like Monument Valley to make silly car commercials with the natural beauty as its backdrop. Instead they just splice everything together after the fact and those of use who enjoy traveling to those open places don't need to have their presence spoil the feel. I wasn't planning on buying a Mustang anyway.

Red is a nice colour. I think i'm going to buy myself a red cap.

First Post

My brother asked me to set up a blog so that he doesn't have to call me any more.

This is it.