The Work & Whimsy of Mike Reis

I'll keep this one brief and let the pretty pictures do the talking.

The plan for today was to meet up in groups and visit three sites: Palatine Hill, the Forum, and the Colosseum. The weather was beautiful, and my housemates and I were eager to do some REAL touristing; quite impressive considering the fact that we were up until three last night, lost, walking in the streets of Rome.

Our tour guide was the over-caffeinated Professor Corrado, a woman really clearly passionate about Rome, architecture, and history. Despite her auctioneer-like rate of speech, she managed to spend about an hour on top of Palatine Hill (the birthplace of Rome) giving us a history lesson. Though the information was interesting and necessary to fully appreciate our surroundings, everyone quickly grew weary of her long-windedness. Eventually, we pushed off and got to see some beautiful ancient ruins, but by the time we got done with the Forum, the Colosseum had closed. Another day, perhaps.

I'm still not sleeping very well, but as long as there is cappuccino in this town, I will survive. Tomorrow morning is my first day of Italian lessons. I've been placed in group 5 of 8, so even though I've only had one quarter of Italian, I am ahead of most of the pack. Hopefully by this time next week, I'll be a little better at grocery shopping and I can stop hopelessly missing Trader Joe's. I keep walking up to my refrigerator expecting to be able to pop some frozen rice into the microwave and have a quick meal, but then I remember that you can't GET frozen rice here. Oh yeah, and I don't have a microwave.

It's not all frustrations, though. There are aspects of Italy that I prefer tenfold over their American counterparts. For example, there are very few chain businesses here, and even fewer American chains. I saw my first Blockbuster yesterday, and have only run into a couple McDonalds'. Every commercial block has several "bars," where you can grab a quick bite or an espresso drink. They all seem to be privately owned, and theres a very personal, local feel to this town. They could really use a Yelp.

Well, time to get to class. Stay tuned, amici.