Falling in Line

Ciao everyone. It’s been a few days now and my sanity has slowly returned (well, sanity relative to my natural state, which isn’t very sane anyways). I’m finally figuring out how to get places w/o getting lost, and let me tell you, it’s pretty sweet to not have to keep walking in circles to eventually find your place of residence.
I’ve taken a fair amount of pictures so far, however, I failed to remember to bring any sort of connecting device for my camera to transfer pictures onto my computer. Yea, I rock. However, I do have a few pictures from one of the state kids I met, so I will try to find a place to put them online soonly.
Since I last wrote, I’ve done some sight seeing. I’ve figured out where ‘important’ places around my apt. are (i.e. every pizza place)…basically all you have to do if you want pizza or gelato is to walk ten feet and you’ll find somewhere that sells either or both. I’ve also visited the Coliseum twice, once at night and once during the day. I do have to say everything I’ve seen at night is way cooler than during the day…you just can’t go inside at night.
I also saw some other very impressive and cool buildings by the Coliseum, though I haven’t the foggiest as to what they are. One in particular was absolutely amazing, a very old church of the most ordained quality I’ve ever seen. The entire ceilings were covered in gold and everything was hand carved, from the marble to the wood to the statues and tombs of priests and cardinals. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the building, though I was tempted, but thought better of it seeing as it was a house of God and if I disobeyed a direct church order, I thought I might be struck dead or plagued with leprosy or something.
As soon as I figure out how to transfer pictures, I’ll put them on the web for all to see and marvel in my…I MEAN, the ancient structures glory.
Our 4th roommate moved in the other day, which is an interesting story in itself…not really, but I’m going to pretend and tell anyways. He moved in the first day we arrived…for about an hour, and then figured out how to fandangle a way he could live w/his friends from St. Maries (the school he attends) who live behind us. So we all went out that night, him and his friends (who just happened to be of the female type). Then, the next day, as we awate our roommate, he apparently slipped to John Cabot that he was living with two gurls, they didn’t like that, and put him back here with us. So, it’s pretty nice because we already knew him and he’s a great guy so far, so no worrying about who the next roommate will be and how weird is he going to be.
Anyhoo, his name is Chalan (Shaw-Lann) and he’s from the Island of Maui in Hawaii. Yes, I know, this makes me by far the most boring person in our apartment. Hakan, from turkey (who may actually be of direct royal discent…i.e. he’s a prince…still trying to figure that one out); Lars, from Norway but studying at the University of Denver; Chalan from Maui who is studying at a small school (St. Maries) in southern California; Jon Boy, the loser buble kid who lives in a outside blinded suburb of Detroit in Michigan who’s never been outside North America. How can you compete w/that? You can’t, at all. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to swoon the ladies with my….crap, I’ve got nothing, lol. No worries, I’m having a blast.
Lastly, it’s somewhat creepy how much this place feels like Disney. Reality hasn’t quite sunk in yet due to the fact that we don’t have classes until Monday. I just look outside our window down onto the narrow cobble stone street at the buildings and it’s very surreal. And then at night it’s as though Vegas has taken over and everyone comes out to play. This place bumps every night. We were out until 1am last night and didn’t even realize it ‘cause it seemed (crowd wise) like it would be equivilant to 7pm at The Village or maybe 10/11pm in Ann Arbor or downtown Nashville or something…people just stay out and hang until the wee hours, it’s really sweet.
Anyhoo, enough of my blabbing, I’m going to go attempt to find the market/grocery/food place with the roomies. Talk to you all later…keep me informed on what everyone else is doing.

P.S. my phone number (incase anyone feels really gutsy) is 011.39.335.773.9363. Yes, it’s really long, just like your bill will be when you call.