Sibling Bonding

Adam landed Thursday night for a 9 or 10 day stay in Rome with me. Haven't seen him since December so it is really nice to have him around and show him everything here. Friday morning we got up and did (hope you're ready) Pantheon, Trevi, Spanish Steps, Campidoglio, Il Vittoriano (Wedding Cake Building and went in it too) and the Jewish Ghetto. Then we stopped at Dar Poeta for a late lunch and took a walk before coming home for an epic 3 hour nap.
Once we got up and moving we went to dinner in the Trastevere area. Everyone at AUR had been talking about a restaurant "Toni's" for a while but I'd never been, so we decided to stop by there. It was amazing. Way too much food, but absolutely delicious. We got bruschetta to start, which came with a salmon and cream one (which oddly was my fave), traditional tomato then an olive and cream one. I got a baked lamb dish for dinner and Adam got gnocchi in tomato sauce and veal in gorgonzola sauce. We shared everything more or less and it was all soooooo good. The guy next to us got a HUGE and i mean HUUUUGE steak, which we may go back to share later next week because it looked good and he said it was delicious.
Today we were supposed to do a picnic, but it's all cloudy, so we'll see what happens, but for now I'm off to shower since quiet hours don't let me shower after like 10pm and early tomorrow morning we're off to the Amalfi Coast!

I fell in love through my stomach

Two of my final papers for this semester involve food, a major passion of mine. I know a lot of people claim they have a passion for food, but mine isn't all about eating, in fact, I love to cook far more than I love to eat. One of my favorite quotes about cooking comes from the movie Julie and Julia:

You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That's such a comfort. - Julie Powell

Through my research, I caught myself looking at quotes about food and thought I'd share them with the rest of you: (all from Julia Child, one of my faves)

"The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook."
— Julia Child

"You'll never know everything about anything, especially something you love."
— Julia Child


"Learn to cook--try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!"
— Julia Child (My Life in France)


I talked to a friend in my writing class this morning as we walked through this gorgeous park. She grew up in Rome and is graduating from AUR this month. Writing has been her passion since she was little, in fact she published a novel when she was 12 or 13 probably. In August she starts at Columbia for Journalism, one of the best in the world. Listening to her talk about how excited she was, despite being nervous to be dropped in the middle of NYC, far different from Rome, she was real excited. For some reason it got me thinking of what I'm passionate about, and how next year I'll probably be in her position, except with culinary school... and probably not one of the top ones. My journey in Rome may be ending, but I have a whole new journey ahead of me.

Brother Bear

On Thursday my dear old BrotherBear lands in Rome for 10 days of sibling bonding. From Sunday to Tuesday we'll be on the Amalfi Coast together hitting up Sorrento, Naples, Capri and hopefully Pompei, as well as exploring all that Rome has to offer for the rest of his visit. I'm super excited for him to come, haven't seen him since I was in Hawaii in December, not to mention we've never traveled anywhere together just the two of us, so it will be quite the amazing experience to show him my life and venture other places we've both never been. I've already promised to make him carbonara when I pick him up from the trainstation and he got some euro's at the bank about an hour ago so he's ready too.
Unfortunately this is all at the end of my semester. For those of you that don't speak college language, papers projects and tests. I've worked my butt off the last week, and will continue to until he gets here, but the rest of my semester looks a little something like this:

May 4
Media and Gender Paper due -> not started, original topic didn't work out so I'm in the process of emailing with my professor. great.
Rome Memoir-> Done. Teacher editing, will get edits back tomorrow
Italian-> Oral part of the final exam and quiz

May 5
Music Paper due-> Wrote on Killer Queen by Queen. Need to add a little more, have 7 1/4 pages, supposed to be 8-10. Not a problem, doing well in the class despite the teaching being duller than a butter knife

May 9
Art History Paper Due-> group project. we have a full draft already, just need to format and see if it's too long.

May 11
Writing-> Reading instead of a final
Italian-> Final

May 12
Music Final
Art History Final

May 13
Media and Gender-> have to check in/show up, but no final.

Scary that I can plan out the rest of my semester, but that's that. Going to bed before my on-site class for writing tomorrow, an afternoon of homework and class, a night of homework and then Thursday I'll be crunching to get as much done before Adam's arrival!!

Wasn't it January 24 like yesterday?

I'm kind of extremely freaked out by the fact that 3 weeks from today I'll be back in the US and this semester will feel like nothing more than a dream. All the plates of pasta, cones of gelato and impromptu adventures with my friends will have happened and will be done. I know that I'll return to Italy, especially to Rome when I have my rich and gorgeous husband... but for now it's a really bittersweet feeling.
I have the best friends and family in the world so obviously I'm more than excited to get back to seeing them regularly, rather than random skype dates or gchat sessions or the occasional phone call that gets choppy thanks to gmail, but this experience has really been one of the most positive things in my life. Thanks to Rome:

1. I have some new amazing friends. Most of my friends go to American or UMD here, so luckily they are close by when we get back. I'm probably most happy about the amazing roommate I have been lucky enough to have here, my new wifey. Wouldn't have had such an amazing experience if it werent for her. Don't want to boost her ego too much, but we've had some amazing times and I can't wait to get back to DC where we can take over a whole new city. DC should start preparing.

2. I've got some new cooking techniques and recipes under my belt. Most people told me to learn to make some good Italian food when I was coming abroad. Well all you are lucky people because I listened to the requests and will make pasta for all when I'm back. I am so lucky to have been able to take authentic cooking classes from a Roman chef.

3. I really came out of my shell. I know most of you will be like "Zoe what are you talking about" but others of you may know what I'm talking about. I'm no longer the girl who takes carrots and sliced turkey from her purse from a snack, I'm the one that suggests we take a homework break for gelato con panna (gelato with whipped cream kinda thing). I may have gained a few pounds here, but there's not a single problem with that. I probably won't continue to eat gelato/ice cream multiple times a week, or have pasta every single night for dinner when I'm home (mostly because it won't be even half as good as here), but Rome has definitely helped me to become more comfortable in my own skin. You only live once right?


Once again it's back to the papers, the day after Easter is a national holiday so classes were canceled and everything is closed, but once these papers are done.. off to savor my last 20 days in Rome.

Easter in Rome

Let me start this post by saying Easter in Rome is nothing like what I expected or anticipated. I figured since it's basically the headquarters of Catholicism, it would be a huge deal and all this stuff would be going on etc. False. It was just like any other day would be. Not to mention it was nothing like the US where it is all commercialized with the Easter Bunny, dying eggs, easter egg hunts, etc. None of that. Just going to church (which there is no shortage of churches here) and spending time with family.
Our morning started early, but not too early, with an adventure to St Peter's Square. Because all the locals just go to their normal churches (only tourists and study abroad students go to St Peters for the most part) our bus ride was quite pleasant since we live in a residential neighborhood. Once we got to the square, it wasn't quite as crowded as I expected, but there was definitely a large turn out. We weaseled our way into the square as close as we could get. We were only about 5 rows of people away from the gate, so I'd say we did pretty good at getting close. There were free tickets you could get ahead of time to attend mass and have a seat and everything, but we didn't plan on staying for the whole time, the service was in Latin, and I didn't do anything for passover so I figured I'd just not do anything for anything, so we only stayed for about an hour before we went for some 11 am gelato.
Gabby's dad had sent her something that said it's interesting to go to tourist spots like the Spanish Steps on Easter because it's a different vibe and different crowd. Since none of us wanted to do any work, we ventured over there after finishing our gelato outside of the Vatican wall (no big deal right?). Even though Easter is completely different here than in the US, I could still feel it in the air for some reason. We had sandwiches on the steps and people watched and you could tell people had just come from church and that people were with their families and loved ones. On the way home we stopped in a church for Rachel and Gabby to light candles in honor of their loved ones and headed home for an afternoon of what was supposed to be work (but I took a nap). We then decided to treat ourselves to Easter dinner at Carlo Menta, where I ate so much I had the biggest food baby I've had in a while... so big my friends were terrified. For now it's off to bed because I can't seem to stay awake for more than like 5 hours and then a day of real serious paper writing tomorrow. Adam in 4 days!!

Cooking Class #2

Last Tuesday Gabby and I did another cooking class with Chef Andrea through the school. He remembered us from the previous class we'd taken, thus making us the center of his jokes, and having us teach the rest of the class how to make pasta. We are the pasta queens at this point basically. Since Chef Andrea goes to the market each morning, he picked ingredients in season and since our last cooking class was over 2 months ago, we learned to make new stuff. We only did three courses today because that's what he normally does, we just got lucky last time. We learned to make, pasta with speck and asparagus, a sicilian style beef and a custard flavored with lemon and fresh strawberries.
The pasta with speck and asparagus was my favorite of the courses probably, although the fresh tomato sauce on the beef would be a close second. I had never had speck before, but it's another cured meat, similar to panchetta or porchetta that is used in carbonara. The pasta was similar to carbonara, especially when you look at the ingredients: - 4 cups flour - 4 eggs - pinch of salt - 1 bunch of wild asparagus - 1 tablespoon of butter - ½ cup of thinly sliced speck - besciamel - parmesan cheese, but the fresh asparagus really added another dimension of freshness and was crisp.
Sadly we don't have time to take another class with our favorite Roman chef, Chef Andrea Consoli, but having the experiences of each of the classes was extremely fun. We now can go back to the United States with some Roman style tips under our belt, considering I fly home 3 weeks from today (seriously, where did this semester go? like seriously though.) For now, back to more paper writing. Easter post soon to come!

Holy Weekend in Rome

I thought I would make a pre-Easter weekend post about being in such a holy center for this weekend. I don't plan on going to services, especially considering I haven't done much for Passover (cutting carbs out of a diet in Rome is just not really possible), but Gabby and I are looking at Easter Sunday similar to how Inauguration in 2009 was.... tons of people, so wake up and go early and be able to say "Yo, we were in St Peter's Square for Easter"
There are more tourists here than I have seen my entire time in Rome combined. Last night we were meeting my friend in Piazza Venezia around 9something and there were floods of tourists coming back to their hotels from a day of siteseeing and shopping. Normally after like 8 no one is in the streets I feel like.
This weekend also includes nothing being open. Saturday is basically our only chance to go grocery shopping or get anything we'll need, if things are even open Saturday, because the whole country is shut down for Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and then on Easter Monday... whew 5 day weekend for Zoe (since I didn't go to my horrible music class yesterday, but wrote the paper for it so that counts just the same).
We're doing all our paper writing this weekend because Adam comes next Thursday, so I'm writing 4 papers this weekend pretty much (yipee), considering it's kinda overcast today. Tonight we're trying out a new pizza place that Chef Andrea said was the best in Rome, Bir&Fud, so I'll let you know how that goes. But for now, back to my personal memoir... or paper on Killer Queen by Queen, or my paper on Danny Tanner from Full House... yeah I've got an interesting mix going on in my schoolwork.

Epic Hawaii Comes to Rome Post

Sorry for the delayed update, but this month has been really busy. Once getting back from Amsterdam, I went straight to dinner with my dear old dad. It was sooooo nice to get to see him in Rome, as I write this, about a week after he left, I wish I could see him again. We spent the week sightseeing, eating (lots), getting gelato every day (at least once) and giving him a look into my life here. He got to meet my friends, see my life and we even did things I hadn't done yet, like go to the Jewish Museum and Synagogue.
The Monday he was here was his 21st birthday (and by 21 most of you know I mean 21+ a lot of years) so we threw him a mini party at The Drunkenship. He doesn't like being reminded of this fact, but me and Debbie beat him and my friend Brian at Beer Pong. He can consider it his birthday present though that he has a daughter with such a skill (and his son has the same skill... runs in the family or something)
I took him to all my favorite spots around the city, like the Borghese Park (which we also went to the Borghese Gallery) and the Aventine Hill Orange Garden and keyhole, as well as all the favorite restaurants and gelaterie and fun things like that. Even got him addicted to suppli. noms.

The Thursday my dad was here, one of my closest friends from high school Becca (known as Vanessa) came to visit for the weekend. It was extra nice having both of them here for the day and was just the taste of home I needed, without realizing it since I get caught up in how much I love it here that I forget the little things from home I missed. I hadn't seen her in two years almost, so we had a lot of catching up and literally picked up right where we left off (after catching up on the last 2 years of our lives). We spent Friday morning with the popsle then after a sad, close to tears, good bye we headed off to a different country... Vatican City.
I know I know, I've been in Rome for 3 months and hadn't been there yet. It was really fun though. It was amazing to see all these things I had learned in school and studied in Art History class, like School of Athens and the Sistine Chapel. It really is awesome to see, and definitely worth the like 12 euro to get in. Luckily we were smart and reserved tickets cause the line otherwise was massssive.
The rest of the weekend we did a bunch of touristy things, it was culture week so the Colosseum was free to go to, we rented bikes in the park and road around and then did a lot of cooking and wandering around the city. There was also a chocolate festival so we went to that and got cannoli's cause those are Sicilian and they don't have them very many places here. Best choice ever to go to the chocolate festival.
It's definitely a bummer than their visits went by way too quickly, but in another week Adam will be here and we're going to the Amalfi Coast together. Until then... Easter weekend (heading down to St Peter's square for easter morning) and writing all my papers due the week adam's here (4 papers yipee) but right now Gabby and I want some gelatoooo

Airport Thoughts

Even though I've traveled a lot during my time in Rome, all of it has been on boats, buses and trains until today. I'm currently on my KLM flight to Amsterdam to meet two of my friends from DC and have realized how different flying within/from Europe is:

1.Security is pretty lax. No need to take off your shoes and they don't even check your id until you're boarding your flight.

2. The airport is gorgeous. Tons of designer shops, including Furla, Bvulgari or whatever, etc were in the airport. Not to mention it was clean and had relatively cheap dining options.

3. Nice planes. Maybe it's just KLM, the Dutch Airline I'm on, but the plane is clean and I have tons of legroom, my brother may even fit if he was in a regular seat... or come close to it.

4. They feed you. They gave us sandwiches and drinks free of charge, not to mention asked if we wanted multiple drinks. The sandwich was interesting, half was a really weird egg salad and the other was turkey and cream cheese, but it's the thought that counts right?

The flight was delayed half and hour which was annoying and hopefully I won't get lost trying to meet my friends at the hotel but... I'm on my way!!

Amsterdam

So I backdated this because I realized I never wrote about my trip to Amsterdam. I'll keep it short, it's been a few weeks since the trip already. Here is a list of reactions to Amsterdam that I wrote on my plane ride back:

1. The place is beautiful: I didn't do much research prior to leaving for the flight, I was mostly excited to see my friends, but with the canals and boats everywhere it is really something unique. Not to mention how bike friendly everything is. The people on bikes may not be so friendly, you have to watch yourself as to not get completely nailed by them, but it just seems pretty clean and the air seems nicer since most people travel by bike.

2. The spirit of the place is so unique: I know people will claim it's due to the legalization of pakalolo, but whatever it is it's great. People seem nice, enjoy tourists and speak English. Such a change from the parts of Italy I've traveled where no one knows English.

3. Anne Franks House: It was unreal. I lost count of how many times I got the chills. They did such a good job of using what they had to make a museum. It was so well-done and such an interesting dynamic to be able to be in the house she was hiding in.

4. Bitterballen: Best food ever. Fried balls of what tasted like mashed potatoes and gravy in it. I'll need to look up what's actually in them, but it was amazing. They served it with a dijon mustard sauce and NOM

5. Tulips May be my favorite flowers. They are so pretty and cute and happy. Not to mention all the different colors they come in. It was hard to resist not buying myself some.

Spring!

Spring is in full swing finally. For the past week or so the weather has been gorgeous (70s and clear skies) and it has made life in Rome even better. I thought I'd make a list of all the things I love about spring time in Rome:

1. It's gorgeous- The flowers are blooming and the way the sun hits the city adds a new brightness to it. The Wedding Cake Building looks even whiter and everything just seems more happy.

2. Laundry is easier- As long as I do my laundry during the day light I can dry it on the balcony instead of in my room. The clothes dry faster and there isn't a huge drying rack taking up half our room.

3. Warm Weather Clothing- I've always had a theory that people look better when the weather is nice. Most of you know in DC I don't wear all that much color (I stick to black, grey, white and denim) but here I have a nice spring wardrobe of pinks, blues and greens, even a bag that is white with flowers on it.


4. Skin Tone- Because of the gorgeous weather and strong sun I have been able to sit outside as I do homework and spent Sunday tanning on my balcony. I'm back to a more normal skintone for myself and not looking all so sickly. Basically when my dad gets here this weekend (YESSSS!) I won't get told I should get to the beach or that I look pale. Sadly, I have tanlines from the top I wore yesterday from eating my lunch in the garden at school.

5. Overall Happiness- It's hard to motivate myself to do anything when it's rainy and cloudy, all I want to do is sleep. But with the gorgeous weather I have been up and doing homework or errands that I need to do earlier without a problem. This is partly why we picked the yellow room (to wake up to bright colors), but in general it's easier to get going, which is good since I have a lot of homework and project to be doing.

Back to some homework. It's only 9:15 am, but I woke up early to skype my friend (which skype totally failed us) and put in some laundry. Hopefully Music won't be canceled today since we haven't had class in like 2 weeks.

Let's Play Some Calcioooo

So we went to our first and probably only soccer (or calcio) game and it was against Juventus. We lost 2-0, but it was still extremely fun to be there for the game and surprisingly I got really into it. I yelled a lot and stood up in anticipation of the plays etc... what can I say, still got some of that boy baseball player in me. I was a little upset that we didn't win, but it was definitely worth it to go and even the excitement the opponents showed when they scored was really interesting. There were tons of security guards lining the aisles, as well as a few aisles left with empty seats to separate the two different crowds. Each time Juventus scored the crowd got extremely riled up and threw waterbottles and screamed and all this stuff. Luckily we were on the other side.

I really felt like I was in Italy after being at the game because it is such a big deal and a super cultural experience. So many people brought their flags and when the anthem was sang it really showed all the pride that they had for their country and for their team. Every one had scarves, which they held up during the anthem, and it was really neat to look around the stadium with all the scarves held up around. Unfortunately I probably won't have time to go to another game, but I repped the jersey well. Totti #10!!

How are they not shvitzing?

So the title of the post is probably spelled wrong... my Yiddish is a little rusty, but despite the nearly 80 degree temperatures the locals still wear their hideous puffy, metallic coats with boots and leather pants/long pants. Then they give us disgusted looks for wearing cute sun dresses, or shorts, or even if I was wearing jeans with a tank top I'd get bad looks as well. I just don't get it. Apparently if we aren't covered they assume that we are prostitutes or something, which is just silly because the Ann Taylor Loft dress Gabby wore the other day, and floor length dress I wore is nothing any prostitutes I've seen would wear. Plus, do they really think that white patent leather boots are stylish?

Anyways, I'll stop with the rant. Weather.com said it was going to be a high of 72 today, but laying in the sun at the park, sweating, I feel like it was at least 80 today. It was gorgeous. We packed lunches, drinks, blankets and books and spent a few hours getting some color for our ghostly pale bodies and relaxing since our trip to Naples was canceled. We then treated ourselves to gelato and made our way home. The park was packed with tourists and locals, as well as many street performers and bikers. Despite all the locals around our neighborhood, on the tram and on the street giving us looks, they tan in their bras so they can't be giving us looks, I'm sorry. It's just not fair. There were many different aged women around the park who had simply taken off their shirts to tan. Such as in the picture, the group of 60 year olds. Nonetheless it was a really nice, relaxing day in the sun and I even may have gotten a slight tan. Tomorrow we'll probably do the same but do homework and do it on our balcony. For now... dinner time!

Momma Bear Comes To Rome

Probably one of the only things that got me on the boat back from Greece was the fact that at the same time my bus got to Rome, my mommy would be landing at Fiumicino Airport for a week of fun. I have yet to be homesick while I'm here, but I was definitely looking forward to her visit and showing her my life in Rome. We got dinner Sunday night and then played all the way until Friday night. She left this morning (Saturday) because I was supposed to be going to Naples with a group, but the trip got canceled. But we definitely made the best of her visit here.

On Monday I had a lot of class, so my mom and Phil met me at my school between my classes for lunch in the garden, then I showed them my apartment, we got cappuccinos and caught up on my last few weeks since I didn't have much email or phone access. I showed her my grocery store, my coffee shop, the park near my school... basically most of the aspects of my daily life. Then I went back for my afternoon classes and met up with them for dinner at my favorite restaurant, Le Fate.

Tuesday I was only supposed to have one class, which got canceled, but we spent the day shopping and walking around the city. Once Gabby got out of class we took her to the Campidoglio and Jewish Ghetto, which they had never seen either despite coming like three times in the last 5 years or something. The weather was gorgeous their whole visit, so it was nice to walk around without a jacket or rainboots, and made for some cute pictures.

Wednesday I only went to my writing class, where we went to the Protestant Cemetery. Then my mom and I spent the afternoon walking around the city, grabbing lunch and I took them to the Aventine Hill where they could see through the keyhole and we relaxed in the Orange Garden. Then it randomly started hailing so we made our way home for rest time till dinner.

Thursday Gabby and I skipped our one class we had and we all took a family trip to Tivoli. It was a bit of an adventure to find the villa, and our timing wasn't the best so we only saw one villa, but I will live in Villa d'Este one day. It's happening. There are hundreds of fountains, all different and all around the gardens. Big ones, small ones, even lining the stairs were little fountains. It was a gorgeous day so we got to wear sundresses and get some sun. Unfortunately many of the people here think you're a prostitute if you don't wear turtlenecks, jackets and pants all the time, and despite the fact my father would probably like me to wear that often, I was about to start sweating in a dress and I'd rather the 50 year old women think I'm a prostitute. We then went back to Rome and went to Dar Poeta, which may have been some of the best pizza ever, and the dessert which is a nutella and ricotta calzone.

Friday was the final day of mommy and Zoe bonding in Rome. There was an all transportation strike, so we got a bit of a late start, but we went to the Villa Borghese gardens and walked around the shopping area one last time (what else do my mom and I do on a nice day? outside shopping is definitely the best option) We went to one final dinner and one final gelato, I helped them get money from an atm and then we said our good byes. It was really nice to have her here, I probably won't see her till August, so we definitely made our time together worth it.

Today it's supposed to be 72 and sunny so I'll be frolicking in the sun some and the next things to look forward to are Amsterdam on Friday and when I get back Daddy will be here!