Need to get out of here!

That's all that needs to be said. I hate when I don't shower in the morning, it's a ritual. But I have no motivation and probably wont shower today or tomorrow.
Yesterday I slept on the couch and my movie is a day late to the rental store.

Broke, friendless, paper due

All my friends left today\yesterday woooooo!
I have nothing to do for the next week. Yesterday everybody yelled at me and asked me for money. I don't have any.
I return to America on the 14th of May. All I want to do is melt in the sun and drink cold beer. Maybe grill some burgers.
Hopefully work at a hardware store.
Hopefully build a fort in the basement.
Make some tables with lion paws as legs.
Read the bible and the golden legends.
Generally vegetate.

Against my better judgment

Last night I was going to study for my Italian final.
Instead I partied with a bunch of 31 year old Italians.
I should be writing my final paper on Franz Marc
Instead I am updating my blog.


Tonight is the night of party. Mstrkrft at Branca I am so excited, not that they are any good or anything. Bloody Beetroots also playing and I think I get in for free yay friends!

Something not stupid (I hope)

I get pissed off every time I see that American Gothic bullshit painting.

It wouldn't even be that annoying if people didn't think completely wrong about it. You see it in adds, you see it on novels, you see it in satyrical writings. And they don't even know how idiotic they are all being. A complete misinterpretation.

It's used in the way so to 'mock' the American midwest. People often modernize, maybe these people are made to be listening to ipods or using crest whitening strips i don't know. The only thing I know is that they are wrong.

Grant Wood made this thing and didn't mean to make fun of midwesterners or make the couple look boring or old fashioned, and (one of the more interesting interpretations I have heard) he didn't try to make the man look like the devil!

In fact Grant Wood was an Iowa-born Iowa-raised Iowa-lover.

The fact that this is the only painting he is known for prompted me to take a look at some of his other works. Guess what... they are all about midwetern genre scenes. They are tributes and memories of his childhood which he saw disapearing before his eyes as Iowa gained population, suburbs, East coast customs he tried to show the hard won individual midwestern culture that had developed on those lovely plains.

Here is some sweet young corn he painted. Wood was in love with the idea of the Victorian past of the Midwest. When children played with home-made toys and there were feasts for every harvest. The beauty of man working together with nature in the fields.

He was trying to make history, tradition, in a location that is often overlooked and devalued.

So back to American Gothic. 'Gothic' because there had been a neo-gothic movement in the midwest that made houses with peaked windows (as can be seen between the couple.) Pointed pitchfork because it is a traditional farming tool that was later replaced by tractors and mechanized devices. Also because of the longstanding midwestern tradition in portrait photography where people stand in front of their homes and hold items of their trade.

The people pictured are actually his sister Nan and his dentist, who he held friendship with.

This made me remember when Mrs. Mackheart said it was her favorite painting. She would fucking puritan. Still pisses me off... worst thing ever made. Grant Wood big conservative shithead.

Illness

I am soooo sick. And also a creep. In the back of the computer room caoughing so no one is coming near here... that's a good thing. On Friday I felt sick but I took some Tylenol and then went out.
I fell down in front of Elmo (who I made out with once before when I was really drunk) Somehow every time I see him I a) am ridiculously drunk and b) embarrass myself somehow. The first time I accidentally spilled a pitcher of water on him... my bad.
So Saturday I had the great idea of ignoring my fever and venturing out into the rain to see the Cy Twombly exhibit at the Galleria D'Arte Moderna. Sunday I actually couldn't even move out of bed so I called in to the library sick. Today I should still be in bed but I have a meeting with a professor. So I think I will go home after that. I have four Tylenol to last me until 3.
I need some tea.

Did I do anything recently?

Unable to remember. Probably not. Tuesday was boring. Some guy with a microphone descended into the crowd and started singing and encouraging people to mosh. The only people who did had annoying haircuts.
Talked to some tall dude. I told him he was too tall to be Roman. He laughed at me because I am stupid and then agreed by saying he was German.
I have a presentation about the history of Sicily in about two hours and a test in "The Legal Environment of Business" (Businessy chuckle after reading that is necessary) which I am obv going to fail.
So today I went about my normal business of meeting with a friend and getting cappuccino and tramezzino at the local bar. After getting them and securing a table in the sun I went to ask if they could cut my chocolate. It is in a huge brick form and therefore you need a big bread knife to cut it. Alessandro kindly took it and cut it into four smaller pieces. Some guys yelled at me.
"Perche sirvi a questa ragazza prima di noi"
"Lei fa bella figura e per questo noi dobbiamo aspettare di piu"
So basically they were mad because he served me before them because I look nice. Really, it is only because me and Alessandro are tight, like good buds.
I really appreciated when Gaetano came into this little situation (He is really big and scary) and yelled at them because he was in the process of making their order.


Anyways sorry for this useless blog... Nothing exciting but I am excited for Friday party @ Lanificio and Saturday possibly @ Brancaleone and work work work at the library this weekend (no I am not excited for that last part)

Drugged by a mysterious pen

Today has been so strange. I think my brain was shaken. Probably, there have been so many earthquakes recently.
The final death toll in L'Acquila is 293.

Today I walked into the student lounge and there was a mysterious pen in my hand. I had never seen it before. I didn't remember picking it up... it was strange.

I had just been holding my yellow pen, but this one was black. I looked at it for a very long time trying to remember... but there was nothing.
Then I looked in my other hand. There was my yellow pen. But since when had I been holding it and why was I holding two? It didn't make any sense. Five minutes ago I had one pen in my hands and it was the black one. Suddenly out of nowhere my yellow one had reappeared and now I had two.

I then proceeded to sit down and try to underline my text for my Law class. I clicked the black pen to make the tip come out. Out came the tip, but also a very strange yellowish brownish liquid. It squirted onto my photocopy and I was in deep disgust and confusion.

I clicked it shut again.

Was I dreaming? How could this happen to a pen... so innocent. A tool for knowledge. How can it become so corrupted? Mysterious.
I looked at the unknown black pen to see if there was any trace of liquid inside the mechanisms. Nothing was there. It looked like a real enough pen, I must have been dreaming.

I clicked it on again. The same yellowish brownish liquid emerged. It spilled onto the ground.

Oh how I felt like vomiting.

I threw the pen into the trash can across the room in anguish. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN TO ME?! Out of some luck it went directly into the can, I don't have any aim, how could I accomplish this feat? Then I figured that that's where it belonged. That's where it wanted to be. That is why a liquid which was not inside the pen appeared out of nowhere. Like the pen itself... it appeared out of nowhere.

It must have been sent by Satan. Some sort of warning. I don't know for what. I have been feeling very strange all day. Jittery. Shaking. Unable to concentrate. Uncontrollable body movements.

I am going to go drink some wine and prosecco now. Then I will try to dance this off at L-Ektrica. Holy God I hope I'm not destroying my body or hallucinating.

I am sitting down at the desk where i work with glazed eyes and dehydrated like nothing else. At 11.45 this morning I miraculously woke up and started freaking out because I start work at 12. Somehow the trek to school which usually takes 40 minutes only took 30 and I arrived exactly 15 minutes late smelling like alcohol and sweat because I hadn't showered.
This sux.

Yesterday Ellen Alien @ Brancaleone. It was probably more packed than the 64 bus on weekdays at 7pm. Olga kept freaking out, she said there would be so many people and we might not get in. After accidentally missing the bus stop we walked for about 30 minutes through the suburbs of Rome and finally reached Branca. Of course before we could see it all we saw for miles was the line of people trying to get in and failing. Lucky me, if you're on the list you don't wait and you don't pay.

get a long island ice tea, this is after drinking half a bottle of vodka on the bus. I was still sober so I made the mistake of getting another.
You know, when you think back and are like 'there... that was the end, that was just it.' My god. This bartender actually put in 90% rum.

Whatevers, it was fun. Got hit on by a lesbian, ran away.

Friday night was 'everybody and their mothers.' I have never been in a room with so many people that I know in Rome. awkward.

Okay I have to stop. I feel so shitty.

A couple days ago i went to a club where i met certain funny characters, here's a little bit of background:

My friends Olga and Ellen were friends with Giulio last year. That is, until they went to a party at his house and stole his pants. Then he got mad. They went on his bad list. Giulio happens to be very good friends with a guy named Simone, they party together.
The first time I invited Ellen and Olga to my house for a dinner party they were surprised and confused. They said they remembered this place. Giulio used to live here.
Creepy things... I sleep where Giulio used to sleep. They stole his pants out of my closet.

So back to a couple days ago when i went to the club near Tiburtina station. I met Giulio. I complimented him on his pants: they were the ones that were stolen.

I met Simone.

I later friended Simone on facebook only to see that we had a very strange friend in common. My friend Sandra from England who I am meeting tonight at 2120 at Termini station. She is staying with me because originally she was supposed to stay with someone from couchsurfing, but their father was coming this weekend so i will host her until Monday. Turns out Simone is her couchsurfing guy.
Tonight after I retrieve Sandra from the train station I am bringing her to a club called Lanificio. Simone will be there, Giulio will be there, we will all be there.

Sometimes things are just meant to be.

Slovenia; magical country

When you've had enough of Venice. All that needless spending (they took away the euro menu from McDonald's!!) all those annoying tourists (I think this was the King's palace, while looking right at St. Mark's cathedral) all the gondola men trying to shove you aboard, (no I don't want to pay you 90 euros OR look like an idiot)
YOU GO TO SLOVENIA
Yes Venice was actually awesome. It was beautiful, the Adriatic flows so close to you and you can feel your heart fall off the bridges as you walk across. But it is ruined by the monster of tourism.
Tourism has never touched the minuscule Slovenian coast.
Which is why we ate an enormous Slovenian meal for 3.82 Euros. Also why we got there by bus from wonderful Trieste for only 4 euro. yes, everyone looked like a freak. they had strange Slovenian symptoms of improper hospital care.
But the central gatehring of old Slovenian men having a sardine BBQ and the small Slovenian girl exiting her house on K-mart rollerblades was a sight to be seen.
I can't wait to return to SLOVENIA

Vegetable Oddities

My roomate Becca is making sausage and peppers for dinner tonight. It smells like heaven in the kitchen. My dad brought some Catalan sausage from Barcelona when he came to visit last weekend. We bought sweet olives at the Trastevere vegetable stand. There is half a bottle of 5 euro wine left on the table. Best night ever.

The curious part happened when I tried to get the skin off the onion. It was all misshapen and the skin was very attached. We then figured out that it was a twin. It was two onions within the skin of one. A VEGETABLE ODDITY!!!!!

It is a sign of good luck.

Today a man named Tad is coming to view our apartment, he might be our new roomate. Tomorrow I am heading to the airport early in the morning. My flight leaves from Rome and goes to Munich. I will visit my father but first I will see the modern art museum with works by Paul Klee and Kandinsky.

My birthday is on Sunday. I will probably spend it sitting in a biergarten with my dad gaining a belly.

Jane comes here on Thursday. I am so excited.

How i spent a great day in my life with only 20 euro

Saturday was one of the most absurd days.. ever.

Friday night I went out on the whim of the moment regardless of the fact that i had to wake up early. I got about half an hour of sleep before I was up to shower and on my way to Termini station at 8:45. I met with Andrea and Alex, and another friend Luca was to meet us at our first destination. A little lack of sleep never hurts me so I was happy, had my four cups of espresso at home.
A day trip through the wonderful province of Lazio was planned. A regional ticket to Attigliano from Rome was only 4.25. We were even lucky enough that it was rather empty and therefore we were able to sit in a first class compartment without the vigili kicking us away. A warm and sunny day, perfect.
On arrival at Attigliano I spent an odd euro on a bottle of water and asked at the bar how to get to Bomarzo. After all our trip was in dedication to seeing the 'parco dei mostri' a garden filled with grotesque mannerist sculpture. Then we found out that it was 8 kilometers away. Our only option was to walk for one hour to reach it. But we had other... sketchier plans.
First we walked around Attigliano. Real shit place. Four houses, four cats. That was all apart from the station. We then proceded to the nearest highway intersection and stuck our thumbs out for a ride to Bomarzo.
An old bearded man who slightly smelled of tuna stopped and was kind enough to not only drive us to the town, but to right in front of the entrance to the garden. There really are kind people left in the world.
Bomarzo is really a special place, it would be amazing if the statues were made of better stone or better preserved it would be much better. Monsters with large mouths which contained halls inside and a crooked house were great places. The purpose was to entertain and provide a place in which gentlemen and noble ladies could wonder and get lost in.
Explorations of Bomarzo (the town) provided the view of a nice medieval town with lots of cats and not too many people. Probably because there was no place at all in which we could buy food. we had to hitchhike to the nearest retaurant and ate very well for only 10 euros each. mmm tonnarelli al porcini..
and hitchhiking was again required to reach the 'bel posto' of Viterbo. Another medieval town with the palace of the popes. had a small sicillian cannoli. great! The bus back to Rome was only 4 euro and that concludes the spending of the day.
But not the partying!
After arriving back home to lovely San Lorenzo I got ready to go out. Met my friends Hannah, Olga, and Ellen at the N4 stop at Piazza Venezia and made my way to our favorite club ever. Deep Session at Brancaleone.
half an hour before I got there I got a text from Claudio, who happened to be the local dj that day opening for some brittish dude who is apparently a big deal. I got my extreme party on.
Went backstage with Claudio several times for free booze. jeeaahh Keglevich! Never got home, never want to talk about it.

A last week at home

Dude where are you!? I haven't seen you in such a long time!
I am sooooo good at time management.
No really, there are so many people I have not seen while I have been in the USA.
So during this final week maybe I'll get things accomplished and maybe I wont. So it's great being back to visit la famiglia and so on, but it's getting a little out of hand just sitting here and spending most of the time trying to decide what to do with one conclusion, the same one every time: dude, there's nothing to do except for broin down. I've spent pretty much every waking moment with my bff Jane and when I wasn't with her I was knitting my Slytherin scarf.
It is supa rainy out and I'll just have to walk to town through it.

I like trash

I really don't know where this comes from. I'm not a messy person and I think that a dirty house is quite disgusting, but I love it when there is tons of trash in the street!
Living in Rome you think I'd get sick of it, the countless plastic bags, cardboard boxes, smashed bottles of beer, and fresh dog turds. But no. I love it. And abandoned lots full of sleeping bums, don't even get me started. Those are great when you just really need to pee by the side of the road!
I guess this contributed to my wonderful new years eve. Went down to North Philly with my BFF. Walked down sketchy alleys (probably some of the most sketchy places I've been to yet) we were both, I must admit, freaking out a little. But it was thrilling. Occasional piles of rubbish were everywhere. It somewhat resembled the location when a bum assumes a nomadic lifestyle after living on the same corner for a while. You can see the grease smeared against the corner of a building, some paper maybe some cardboard, and that tell-tale half-eaten bagel that shows he left his place of living in a rush.
Maybe you don't agree with this, but spending dancing time in a big old warehouse is only possible in a place like this. So by association or by pure aesthetic illogical attraction I feel at home only when I am comfortable throwing my mayonnaise napkin or empty cigarette pack on the ground.
Let's start littering!