City Living!

Buona sera, tutti!  I moved into the city!  

Things are going swell so far.  My place is clean & quiet, so is my new flatmate!  We are getting along great!  I have one friend from school who lives very close too, unfortunately she is a Parisian journalist & is returning to France in a week.  Now that I can hang out in the city in the evenings I'm planning to attend a couple of ex-pat type social events this week.  ALSO, I am going to go to a yoga class tomorrow!  I am thrilled & hoping for the best.  There is an ashtanga studio close to the Colosseum that was recommended to me.  I've been slacking off a bit on my home practice.. :(

My friend & I walked all around the Trastevere area last night, it is such a different scene in the nighttime, especially on a Saturday.  There were about a bazillion people dining outside in the piazzas & milling about.  People were playing music on the bridges & in the squares, it was very charming!

Campo di Fiori

the Tiber

mob scene at the trevi fountain.  you could spot about 15 people taking photos of it in this photo.     

Then we went to a movie.  I wanted to look at Ryan Gosling for a couple hours so we picked DRIVE. I thought it would be in English because the listing said OV (original version) but... joke's on me...  I asked the commessa (ticket lady) if it was in English and she said no & smiled smugly.  Well, I went anyway!  At any rate, there is not much dialogue in that movie so I was able to follow everything pretty well.  I thought it was really good!  Did anyone see it?  A bit violent but, more important, Ryan Gosling looked good!  Anyway, that was fun to understand the movie in Italian.  Also, the theater had big leather armchairs, luxurious!  Italy style.

I went to a massive flea market I had heard about today.  Has anyone ever been to that Ashby Bart station flea market in Berkeley?  It was like that, times one million!  After looking at crap for about 15 minutes it all starts to look the same.  Sure, it was cheap but it was also overwhelming.  It is called Porte Portese & goes on for about one mile.  I bought a couple of old timey flower postcards & got the hell out of there.  

Grocery stores (and most other stores, non-tourist oriented) are closed on Sundays, I am looking forward to stocking up tomorrow & cooking for myself.  I am super into making... polenta!  I think I am pretty much going back to vegan, except for that greek yogurt.  I had a super cheesy pizza a couple nights ago & felt nasty.  

Oh, I also went to a seminar on shoulder injuries as a part of my networking with physical therapists for when I start working.  It was all about shoulder biomechanics used in sports like tennis & baseball.  The guy who was speaking has done surgeries on a bunch of tennis players like R. Federer & A. Roddick.  Are you impressed????  What I am getting at is that I could understand almost everything in the presentation, all in Italian!!!  I start a new language course tomorrow!

As well, I am visiting my new clinic location tomorrow & hoping for the very best!  I have seen it from the outside but haven't been in yet.  

I talked to my mom via skype today, it was so nice to hear her voice!  I had hoped to be skyping more but unfortunately haven't had decent access.   Also, my cat Circe is doing well in MN, catching a ton of birds apparently.  She doesn't even have claws, she is a wonder!    I miss my cat.  In other parental updates, did I mention my dad did make it up Half Dome?  He wore JEANS!

Here are a couple of sights in my new vicinity:

il Piramide!  Some ancient ruler dismantled an Egyptian pyramid & had it shipped here.  He reassembled it to impress his wife!  Hope it worked!

an ancient temple of Vesta, in which vestal virgins would watch over the hearth fire to make sure it didn't go out. 

this is the Circo Massimo (circus maximus) where the gladiators used to fight!  kind of a crappy photo, there is a raised area in the center & you can imagine it as an large, cylinder shaped track.

tramonte on the famous Gianicolo hill

view of Roma from the Gianicolo

I will try to take some photos of my new place, really it is nothing fancy.  However, you can officially come to visit now.  You are invited!

I will sure miss this little guy from where I was staying in the country.  Nero, the black cocker.  He was super sweet!!!  Also, note my Italian sandals, the only fashion purchase I have made in the 5 weeks I have been here.  Also note, they broke after wearing them 3 times.  Strappy sandals can't stand a chance with all my hard core walking.  

All for now!  I am missing Americans & home.  If anyone wants to send me some Sriracha, please do.  There is a lot of great food here but today I wished for a Trader Joe's.  And, I need to get a blender because I haven't had a smoothie for like, six weeks.  Still though, every time I hear American tourists talking loudly @ restaurants & on the street I enjoy pretending I am Italian.  (just generalizing, sorry about that)  :)

I do miss you.  xoxo