exhileration + frustration = rome.

shall we start with exhileration first? my housemate monica, who is fascinating and laid back and wonderful, wandered into the jewish ghetto, which is sort of along the tiber river and not too far from out apartment. four of us decided to explore it for dinner possibilities. it's one of those places where you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, there's no food around, and suddenly: !!! very exiting. gold mines of food (including traveling violinists!) on small, winding streets. we ate at il giardino romano. the waiter was very friendly and brought us all the way to the back of the restaurant, in which was a small room (3 or four tables) with no ceiling. it was as if we were eating in a glorified, crumbling, painted & decorated chimney. we ate mussels and clams, blackened radicchio, carbonara (bright yellow from the yolks, the bacon unbelievable) , roasted lamb & potatoes (monica's dish- the winner) , some sort of smoked salmon with a spicy green, and saltimbocca (veal + proscuitto + butter + sage). we drank very dry prosecco and a bottle of the most incredible, rich, full wine called primitivo, which is a certain way of preparing the grapes. the waiter encouraged us to only speak italian (HARD) and was extremely helpful in getting us on the right track. patient and kind and attentive (rare for rome waiters.) he scolded me for having a phrase book and cracked jokes with all of us. @ the end of the meal, he was shocked we were leaving in under two hours, so gave us free dessert (berry tirimisu of sorts) so we would stay longer. when he found out we'd only been in rome three days, he was impressed...so...success! it was the best night so far.

and...frustration! most of the american students here have never read anything about italy, make no effort to speak italian in shops or with the locals, wear jeans and t-shirts, complain about their classes/teachers, and automatically revert to judgement about things they don't understand. and then wonder why they don't fit in, why the waiters are rude, and why people stare at them. the most bizarre part is that they have no clue that their actions may be the problem. it's ridiculous. the lack of respect that some students have is just as eye-opening as the roman culture.

as far as classes go, thank god for survey history, as frustrating as it was. my film class is 30 pages reading per night, tons of notes, and all about memorization of facts in order to understand the films we watch. sound familiar? today was obsession, directed by...let me look in my notes... luchino visconti. my italian culture/language class is half spoken dialogue in italian/botched italian, and half discussion about the culture: why this, why that, etc. both teachers are great- passionate about what they do, demanding but not too much. both were born in the us but have lived in rome with their families for years, and hearing them speak perfect english + american dialect followed by italian + roman dialect is fascinating. ah- another fun fact about italy- they could care less about copyright laws, and because i was not able to get hard copies of my books (one was out of print IN ITALY and had been for years, one ran out over the course of the day), the teachers arranged for them to be copied at a shop in rome. two books = 30 euro = 40 dollars. ruminate on that for a bit. there are other things that are very inexpensive as well- un caffe (a shot of espresso) is about 50 euro, or 65 cents, and a pastry is about 1 euro. if you want a cappucino or latte, the most you'll pay is 1 euro as well. breakfast is not considered a meal here in italy...more like an appetizer for the day, hence the low cost.

wow. many things. too many for one to read on a computer screen. i got carried away! hope all is well, much love, thanks for reading!