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What a joy this week has been so far.
I took a picture of my hottie/biotch Architecture prof. Giovanna, for your viewing pleasure. This was during class one day. I'm pretty sneaky.
After a long 4-day week of classes, my friends and I needed to get out and par-tay on Thursday night. We went to a region of Rome called Trastevere, a hipitty hoppity place filled with night clubs and magic. We went to a bar called DJ Bar, and it was 1 euro shots night! Kory + 1 euro shots of tequilla = great fun for all!!!!The bar was EXTREMELY crowded, but we made our way through the half and half italian and american crowd to the dungeon-like basement dance floor! While ordering my 5 shots at the bar, I met an Iowegian! Imagine my surprise! After insulting her state for a few minutes and downing my shots, Dana and Tim and I danced our hearts out. First on the dance floor, then on the chairs, then on the tables! But not just any tables... IKEA tables! I was so happy to be able to tell everyone that I was dancing on $7.99 IKEA end tables!After the night of dancing, I woke up in the morning (in my own bed!) with confetti on the floor and streamers in my underwear. Nobody knows how or why.. Nevertheless, we had fun!
Friday was a chill day after party night. Along with the confetti and streamers, I also woke up to SNOW on the ground! That's right, SNOW! For the first time in Rome since 1985 (or 1965, depending on who you ask.) We went to the soccer fields and built two amazing snow people, and had a snow-covered orange fight. Friday night we made some new friends at JFRC! Kathleen, from St. Paul. I'm always happy to meet a fellow Minnesotan.
Saturday was the day-trip to Pompei (Pompeii in English, Pompei in Italian). It was neat to see, and interesting, but after you see a bunch of ancient ruins, they all start to look the same. Ancient, and ruined. The best part of Pompei was the body casts. It was awful to see the looks on the faces on the people. There is a part of the town called "Garden of the fugitives" where there were about 10 bodies all found together, at the wall of the city. It was sad.
It was fun during the day to tell Dana that Mt. Vessy was going to erupt again (it really is!- they predict a huge eruption that will send ash and lava in a radius of 7 km around Vessy!). But much to my dismay, it didn't. Another interesting part of the city is the brothel. The local prostitutes didn't speak Latin, so the men had to point at dirty pictures on the wall so the girl would know what they wanted. The pictures are still there, thank God, unharmed by Vessy.
Sunday we went to the flea market again and I bought Purple leggings for calcio! I can't wait to sport them on Wednesday. I also got two more doughnuts. They really are the best in Rome at this little restaurant near the market.
I did laundry today! And watched old videos of Tessa that were on my computer! Hey Tessa!
Finally, a not about Mensa, the cafeteria. I can't eat pasta ever again. I honestly vom at the sight of it. Today in Mensa I got hot dogs. I was eating one, and it smelled familiar, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Then it hit me. Beggin Strips dog treats. Oh joy. I couldn't eat the rest of my meal because my hands smelled like I just gave Tommy and Lola a treat (shout out to my neice and nephew!). I want Mexican food, Dunkin Donuts, Panera, Chipotle, Dairy Queen. I just can't take Pasta anymore.
Feel free to send me mail!
Kory Iverson
Via Massimi 114-A
Box 225
Roma, Lazio, Italia 00136
Ciao raggazi! A doppo!
Hey yallziez!
Uffda. It's been one heck of a week and it's not even over yet!
Last weekend was spent shopping and reading. On Friday night, Manak and I ventured into the city in search of hoodies, coats, and sweatpants. We didn't find any of those. After a rough shopping excursion, we decided that instead of having Mensa (the cafeteria here at JFRC), we deserved some good old American fare. So we headed to the Perfect Bun restaurant downtown. It took a little bit to find, (good thing I have a photographic memory), but we finally made it. We were a bit early for dinner (6:30! oh no! blasphemy!) so we had to sit at the bar and order drinks before. But we both got great cheeseburgers and french fries. It was a cool place.
On Saturday we all once again headed out for some shopping. We were on the "Michigan Ave" of Rome (Via del Corso), and when we walked out of H&M, there was all of a sudden a parade down the street! Mind blowing. Italians are so random. I guess it was related to Carnivale, but anyway, it was people dressed up, and lots of horses, and confetti. Oh the confetti. They litteraly just threw it in your face. It was fun though. After shopping, we all went to a bar in Trastevere. We ended up at Mates, a pretty hip place if you ask me. I had my first Kamikaze(s). A very enjoyable drink if I do say so myself. The bar was very cool. Lots of italians, and lots of good music. We sat in this velvet booth thing with a table, and a curtain to boot! (Confession: I had accidentally typed "booty" but I changed it.) After the bar, we had to take a cab back as it was approx 2:30am. The guy tooootally screwed us over. He drove in a circle before actually going to JFRC, and then our total was 17.10 and I gave him a 20 but he only gave me 2 euro back. I wish I spoke more Italian so I could express my discontent.
Sunday. Oh Sunday. This day was great. It was sunny and warm, so I convinced Dana to come with me to read our book outside in the courtyard. It ended up that 4 other people from our class joined us, and we read the day away. We are reading a slightly (majorly) confusing and annoying book titled "The Silent Duchess" (I don't reccomend it, HUGE waste of time), so whenever one of us was confused about something, we would just ask the other what the heck was going on. Or we would tell eachother if it was actually worth it to read the next 10 pages or not.
I had my first Italian test on Monday!! I got a 50/50 even though I spelled Arrivederci wrong. I'll never forget it now though.
Tuesday! An uneventful day, I had class alllll day until 9.30 pm. In my film class we watched a 1946 movie about two boys who end up in jail together, and in the end, they get in a fight and one accidently kills the other. It was oh so uplifting. This came after last week'd movie where the dad killed himself. After the wonderful film, it was KARAOKE NIGHT!!!!!!!!! Karaoke night is one of the many activities that makes me love JFRC. 10.00 pm everyone gathered in the Cafe downstairs, and although it was called Karaoke, it ended up being more like a JFRC sing-along. There was even free beer provided by Loyola! They played such hits as "No Scrubs," Toto's "Africa," and Whitney's "I wanna dance with somebody." Along with the backstreet boys, brittney spears, and some Frank Sinatra thrown in there, it was a pretty magical evening.
Wednesday I only had one class and it was cancelled! Thank the Lord. It was my Architecture class. So instead of class, we planned the rest of our trips. All in all, we are going to: Madrid, Paris, Franfurt, London, Greece, Budapest, and Dublin. Uffda! and since it was Wednesday night, that means CALCIOOOOOOOOOO!!!! We got our t-shirts at dinner tonight, and because my high school soccer shorts already have the number 5 on them, I obviously got the number 5 on my tshirt! I am the only one with a full uniform! The Purple Nurples suffered a tough loss (2-1) but we will prevail next week. I had an assist with the Irishman! (who, by the way, was playing Irish jig music today in his room while I was showering. It was pretty great.) After the game we went to Angela's for pizza and beer. I want to play soccer this summer. High school sports really ruined it for me, but I love this.
As many of you know, I have a thing with older, or shall we say, Mature Women. Well, this gift didn't stay in the US! It came along with me to Italy. I now have a relaysh with Nella, the 70 year old woman who works with her husband Renaldo at the self titled Cafe "Renaldo's" downstairs. She always gives me the special, two nutella filled cornettos for 1 euro (a savings of 20 cents!) and the other day she brought our relationship to the next level by giving me pound cake completely free. She also asked for my name, and now she knows what I want at when I go. She looks good for 70, don't worry.
Well, that's all I really have to say for now. Time is flying here but I really do enjoy it, even if I don't enjoy Italian people all that much.
Ciao ragazzi. A doppo.
Hey y'all.
Since you all begged for a new blog entry, here it is.
Where to begin... On Sunday we got up early to go to the flea market. It was pretty interesting. For the Mantorville people, think Marigold Days but wayyy more crowded. It was rows and rows of vendors and tons of people. I didn't buy anything but we did laugh a lot at the sights. After the flea market we went to a cafe and I had my first Italian donut. It was amazing.
On Monday I made my first trip alone downtown. I had to buy shoes for calcio, so after my class I got on the bus to downtown. I first went to Athlete's world and looked at some pairs, but they were all over €65 so I went to foot locker but they didn't have my size. I ended up going to Nike, Adidas and some other smaller store before heading back to Athletes world and I found a sweet pair in the sales section. I'm pretty happy with my purchase.
Wednesday was probably one of the best days of my life thus far. It started with getting up at 6a.m. to go to the Vatican and get in line to see the Papal Audience. It was my first time in the Vatican and it was beautiful. We had to go through security, and then we sat in a big hall waiting for the Pope for about 2 hours. The place was filled with different groups of people. When the Pope came out, I didn't know if it was going to be like church and everyone would just stay calm or what, but instead, everyone got up and started clapping and shouting, it was great. And Joe was loving it. He was like yeah, yeah!! and he put his arms up like ok enough, enough, and he was blowing kisses and having the time of his life. He looked really frail, but he was having a good time.
After the crowd quieted down, he started his speech, first in Italian, and then in like 8 other languages. At the beginning of whichever language he was about to do, a priest that spoke that language would come up and announce the groups that were there who spoke the language. Whenever they would announce a group, they would stand up and sing their school song, or for the Nigerians and Chileans, a typical song from their country. It was very unexpected but very cool. We didn't have a song planned, but we did stand up and clap, and at the end of the Joey's English speech, he said he specially blessed all the students and faculty of Loyola Chicago's Rome Campus. One of the groups from Asia did a dance routine right up on the stage in lieu of singing a song. It was so weird, yet fascinating, yet mind boggling. All of a sudden this techno dance party music comes on, and all these little Chinese boys run out on stage, literally RIGHT next to the Joemeister, and they did human pyramids and juggling and Joe was loving it. It was the only routine that he clapped for!
As if my could've gotten any better after the Pope, Wednesday night was my first Calcio game! I got on my new shoes and my old KM soccer shorts and we had to walk all the way to the fields, which already had me winded, but luckily I had about an hour before my game, during which I cheered on Anna and Manak in their games.
All of Calcio is just for fun, and nobody really has any great soccer ability, so it was hilarious. I cheered on people who I didn't know, and we all sang songs together and it was just great. My team played the Maroon team, and I played defense, goalie, and offense. I love my team, and we already have one win under our belts! During the game, all my friends were cheering me on, and doing KM cheers too. Between laughing and running, I was pretty much dying on the field. I called a personal foul on this girl who grabbed me, and then at halftime I purposely ran into her and told her to watch out. I put my arms out like "what are you gonna do about it??" It was fun. After the games, all the teams went to the local pizzeria, what I call Angela's, for pizza and beer. A great ending to a great day.
Oy vey this is getting long, but I just have to tell about one more day.
Since we had the Papal Audience on Wednesday, we had to have Friday classes this week. My only class was Architecture, and it was on-site. We went to the first church ever dedicated to Mary, Santa Maria in Trastevere. We had to sit at the fountain once again, and draw the church. I had previously like the professor, Giovanna, but yesterday made me not like her so much. She was walking around, giving people advice and what not, and she came up to me and said I was being too detailed by drawing the lines on the windows, and I was like, uh, are you kidding me?!? Dana had drawn stick figures for the statues!!! But heaven forbid she look at Dana's drawing! Giovanna almost ripped my drawing out of my sketchbook, and since then I'm not too fond of her. It's a good drawing I think!! I'll put it on here once I figure out how to work this scanner. At the second church, Santa Cecilia, she had everyone lay their drawings out on the fountain and she went around judging them all. At one she said "don't get offended, but..." and pretty much said it looked like a pile of you know what. I still talk about Giovanna like we're best friends/ lovers (what's new?), but unless she gets an attitude change about our lack of drawing ability, she's not my favorite anymore.
That should just about cover my life up until now. I went shopping yesterday, got 3 shirts for only 20 euro!
Take care, Ciao, arrivaderci, etc.
