Roma..

Buongiorno,

This past weekend, I headed to Rome, Italy with my friends, Alan, Irshad, Sameer, Lydia, and Leo. It was a fantastic weekend!! Two days isn't nearly enough to see the Eternal City, but it's definitely enough to fill up this email with a mini novel!!

We arrived on Friday night to our hostel (called the Pop Inn Hostel.. clever, I know). We had two rooms of three each. They weren't air conditioned, but they were very colorfully decorated: purple walls with interesting cartoon art plastered all over them.

We started out early on Saturday morning and headed to the Vatican after our free breakfast. I had my first italian caffe latte, and it was delicious! I didn't even miss Starbucks (that's pretty significant). We hopped off the metro and followed the masses of people toward the Vatican. We got in line for the Vatican museum... the entrance was down the block, around one corner, down that block, and around another corner. Oh boy... I was thinking, "We only have two days in Rome and we're going to spend hours in this line.. " But then there was a charming young fellow who was recruiting people to take guided tours of the Vatican, so I asked him about it. We found out that we could skip the line for the museum, get the tour of the museum and Sistine Chapel, skip the long walk around to St. Peter's Basilica, and get the tour there too for a reasonable price. Plus, he asked if we had student IDs (which most of us did.. mine is even still valid!) and we got a 20% discount off the entire deal!

Our tour guide was a very overweight, old gentleman, with salt and pepper hair, and an easy-to-spot straw hat. He was extremely passionate about the art, the history, and the no flash picture policy. He got fired up about all three. It was funny when we had to climb stairs because the tour guide would get out of breath really fast, and we could all hear it through the headset walkie talkie things we wore to hear his commentary. It was interesting to learn about all the art we were looking at. He knew a ton about the life of Michaelangelo and the drama that some of his works caused in the religious community. Apparently, some Cardinal was upset by all the nudity in his painting, The Last Judgement, in the Sistine Chapel. The Cardinal told Michaelangelo to paint clothes on them, but instead the sassy artist painted a portrait of the Cardinal in the condemned person section, with donkey ears and serpent wrapped around him. Haha! The Pope saw it, and sided with Mike... good man!

The Sistine Chapel really is amazing! The entire room is just a masterpiece. Each painting is impressive, and when you put them all together, it's truly phenomenal. St. Peter's Basilica is also quite the sight to see. It doesn't really feel like a church inside to me. It felt more like a museum. It is massive though. It's just cavernous space after cavernous space, covered in gold, works of art, marble, and decorated with flawless, larger-than-life sculptures. It was different than most other cathedrals I've seen here in Europe. There were no real stained glass windows and no church pews. Nevertheless, it was a very impressive site to see.

Outside the Basilica, we encountered our first Roman fountain. I realized that there is no reason to ever be dehydrated in Rome, or buy more than one bottle of bottled water while in the city limits. In every piazza (plaza), there are fountains with fresh water continuously flowing out of them. It's so drastically different than spending two euros every time you want to buy a bottle of Evian in France.

After the Vatican tour, we headed out to go find ourselves some good Italian lunch. We were walking around, trying to stumble upon a nice place to eat, when this random lady on the street, who must have heard us talking about pizza, told us she knew where the best pizza in the area was. We decided to follow her to a little, non-airconditioned, hole-in-the-wall pizza place. It was off the tourist beaten path, and there were only 2 other people in the restaurant, but it wasn't as sketchy as it sounds. We could see the open hearth where they were firing the pizzas, the food looked good, and the lady was a friendly chatterbox, so we decided to stay. Miss Chatterbox proved to be right- the food did not disappoint. We were all very pleased with our first taste of real Italian food. Mmmmm... pizza.

After lunch, we stopped for gelato (DE-LICIOUS!) on our way back on the metro (which, by the way, is 10,000 times less complicated than the system in Paris). We headed to the Colosseum next. We got off the metro, exited the station, and WHAM! it was right there across the street! That kept happening while we walked around. You would turn a corner and get smacked in the face with some amazing architecture or an ancient building, or something else that photo-worthy. I was getting annoyed with having to pull my camera out all the time- I would put it away, just to have to pull it out one block later. Haha.. it was actually great :). Anyway, we got talked into another guided tour of the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill. This one was actually way better than the Vatican tour. I was eating up all the history- gathering tidbits of information to impress people later :). I won't bore/amaze you with all that history here (for the sake of space, plus.. how would I impress you later if I told you all my knowledge now?)

We went out for dinner in a tour guide recommended location. To get there, we had to communicate with the Italian bus drivers. That was an interesting experience. Imagine a Brazilian guy speaking Portuguese and a guy from Trinidad speaking Spanish with some Italians who spoke neither of those languages. The Romance language similarities proved to be stronger than the differences, because we managed to make it onto a bus that took us where we wanted to go. The specific restaurant we chose had some good pasta, but some bad service. The waiter was rude, but there was a guy playing the accordian that was walking around who played for us. I also sampled some authentic Italian tiramisu.. yum yum! That night, we walked around, drank at various bars, and enjoyed some serious people watching in the colorful, well-lit piazzas. Later in the evening, a random guy walked up to me and handed me a red rose.. for no apparent reason. I was just sitting in front of a fountain with my friends. I guess I looked pretty good.. haha. I started getting teased by my friends that they were going to sell because I could get stuff for free or discounted prices based on my charms. I pretend to be appalled every time they talk about it, but really I think it's hilarious.

Speaking of free and discounts... On Sunday at breakfast, the guy behind the bar who made me my fantastic latte was rather flirtatious. He told me to look at the bus tour brochure and said, "For you, no charge (wink)." I said "Gratzi, but no thanks" and It was all I could do to not laugh about it until I could go tell the rest of the guys who were standing outside already. They just shook their heads and claimed that they were going to rent me out again. Another time, I stopped to buy some souveniers. The smiling vendor said, "Special deal just for you: blah, blah, blah." I talked him into a better deal after that with a smile. Maybe he says to everyone, but I like to think it was just me :).

Sunday, we stopped by the Trevi Fountain, and threw some coins in to make sure we would return to Rome some day. That was one of my favorite sights. We also hit up the Pantheon, which looks way cooler on the inside than the outside. It's crazy that I'm summarizing these major sights in a sentence.. but this email is too long already.

By this time, it was time to head back to get the train to the airport. We stopped at the train station to buy our tickets to the airport on the way to the hostel. We bought them twelve minutes before the train left, and we still had to go get our bags that were at the hostel two blocks away!! We were speed walking through the station and down the street, up the stairs, grabbed our bags, and headed back. We started to run once we got back in the train station. It was a very "Home Alone" moment- you know when they're running through the airport, trying to catch the plane? Yeah, like that. :) Anyway, we made it with 2 minutes to spare!! We got on the train and found it to be un-airconditioned. Now, it was a hot day, and we had just been running all around. You can imagine that we were a bit warm.. sweating bullets to be exact. The train had no windows that opened and no AC!! Can you imagine? It was one hot 30 minute train ride to the airport. Ugh.. we were so relieved to get back to the outside temperature, which wasn't even that cool!

We arrived back to Paris, and the airline had lost my luggage! Seriously... it was all my stuff, my instructor's Lonely Planet travel guide, my friend's bottle of alcohol, another person's souvenier t-shirt, another girl's sunscreen, another guy's shot glasses.. something of everyone's basically. The airline gave me a mini bag of toiletries and told me they would reimburse me 100 euros. I bought some Dolce and Gabbana perfume, courtesy of Air France :). I got my bag back on Wednesday, so that was relieving!!

Alright.. that's all for now..

Arrivederci,

Long overdue update email about Paris, etc (part deux)

Why hello there again!

So here at school, being on the training rig is really fun. The driller and the derrick man are both from Holland and hilarious! As they pull pipe out of the well, the derrick man lets out a big "Yeehaw." You can hear it all over the training center sometimes. I get along well with them, and I think I've convinced them to come country western line dancing at Disney Village tonight! It should be fun. They're constantly making fun of each other (in Dutch), and I have fun trying to guess what they might be saying. Sometimes they tease me too, although as far as I know they do that in English only… at least I hope so.

You really are the same person wherever you go. I have always had issues with waking up in the morning... I just love that snooze button way too much. (Just ask any family member or former roommate about my oversleeping skills- I'm one of the best around!) Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I woke up feeling way more rested than I was expecting to be (That's really never a good sign). I looked at the clock and realized that it was 10:45am, and the busses that take us to school leave every morning at 7:15am. I thought for sure that couldn't be right, so I checked my cell phone and my watch, and they each confirmed the tragic news.. I missed the bus. I had to call the school and let them know that I was alive and on my way. Then I had to call a cab and pay for myself to get to the school on my own. I had to shell out 100 euros for that darn taxi ride!! It was rough! I walked into the classroom after lunch and got quite the round of teasing from my classmates. I ended up getting sick the next day, so I figure that's part of the reason I slept so long. Since my "teachable moment", we've have a call-a-thon every morning to make sure everyone gets downstairs to breakfast and onto the busses in time. It's like a relay of phone calls. They've saved my butt a couple more times, and much to everyone's surprise, I've saved a couple people now and then.

Being sick was no fun at all. I got hit with an intense fever, right when I started studying for my exam the next day. I was sitting in my Lydia's room, in a sweatshirt, wrapped in a blanket, holding hot tea, and literally shaking with cold. I barely slept that night and still felt horrible the next day. I went to school anyway to take my exam. I had to take periodic naps during the exam to stay awake for the rest of it. I would open my eyes to see Lydia looking at me, wide-eyed, freaking out that I was sleeping while I was taking our timed exam. Haha.. it turned out well though. I did pretty well... very well considering the circumstances.

What else is new?? I've had lots of admirers... but that's not too new anymore. My friend, Lydia, used to tease me about the guys in my life, but lately, she's been getting hit on all the time. She's begging me to take my skills back- she doesn't like all the attention. I'm sitting back, laughing, and loving it.

My instructor, Quentin, is nicknamed Jackie Chan by a guy in my class. He's Asian and in good shape. He can pretty intimidating sometimes to some people, because he's kind of intense and doesn't smile much when he's in teacher mode. I really like him- he's well traveled, realistic, and Canadian, so he makes North American English jokes (sometimes subtle ones or ones about Ferris Bueller's Day Off) sometimes, and I love it. Anyway his cell phone periodically rings during class, and it cracks me up every time. His ring tone is "Dancing Queen" by the band, Abba. He answers it with a straight face, not missing a beat, as if there's nothing funny about it. I love it!

We had two exams this week, so Quentin is giving us tomorrow afternoon off. I'm capitalizing on my long weekend with a trip to Rome, Italy!! I bought my plane ticket last night. Woohoo!! I'll be going with five other people on an adventure to the land of pizza, pasta, leather boots, and expressive hand gestures. I've been practicing speaking Portuguese in an Italian accent and moving my hands a lot. Maybe they'll understand me?

Alright.. you're probably sick of reading these emails by now.. so I'll be quiet and save more stories for another day. I'll try to send an update sooner than a month from now. :)

Thanks for caring about my life!!

Long overdue update email about Paris, etc.

Bonjour!

I figured it was about time for another update... Okay.. it's embarrassingly late, but here it goes: (Actually this is going to come in two installments. I think it will make it easier to read if it's in two emails instead of one massive one.)

I don't remember how many weekends ago it was now, but I headed off to Paris once more. This time I went with two girls from my course on Saturday. We went to the Notre Dame and the Sacre Coeur as the highlights. The Notre Dame is beautiful... there is something profound about being in a building where people have worshiped for centuries. Granted, during the Revolution it was turned into the Temple of Reason or something opposite of sacred like that, but it still feels like a holy place even when it's full of tourists. I still want to yell SANCTUARY when I'm inside and pretend I'm in the Hunchback of Notre Dame movie. (Don't worry.. I restrain myself.) The Sacre Coeur is more beautiful from the outside, in my opinion. Inside, they don't let you talk or take photos, so it feels much more like a real church rather than a tourist attraction. We paid 5 euros to climb the 295 stairs (yes, I counted them- they told me it was 300, but they lied) to the top of the dome. The view was awesome! We were able to walk around all 365 degrees and see all of Paris from the second highest point in the city. (Just the Eiffel Tower is taller.) We girls had a blast all day, taking imitation model photos, shopping (and getting free key chains from the store owner that flirted with us), and eating nutella crepes.

That Saturday night, I met up with the brothers Calderon. Luis and Jesus are good friends from my college days at U of M... I say that like it was soooo long ago. :) It was just over a year ago. Anyway, we had dinner at a pub and watched Portugal play Turkey in the EuroCup (that's basically the European World Cup for soccer). I got the run down on players, teams, strategies, and how to cheer properly from Luis. I decided that I'm now a Portugal fan. They speak Portuguese, have the coolest jerseys and Cristiano Ronaldo is my favorite player. (Ladies, look up his picture!) What's not to like? (Since I started writing this email, Portugal lost, and Spain beat Germany in the finals.) We hung out by the Eiffel Tower at night, which is cooler all lit up at night than in the daytime. Jesus was taking nonstop pictures, and Luis was the most popular subject :). One of the highlights was Sunday evening when we went to my favorite bridge (Pont des Artes). We sat down on a bench, and we were talking and munching on some delicious chocolate. Three guys sat down behind us, and started speaking... in Portuguese! They were speaking about personal stuff (juicy gossip).. so after a couple minutes, I turned around and asked them where they were from.. in Portuguese. I felt funny eavesdropping when they probably assumed that nobody could understand them. They just about freaked out when they realized that I could understand them! We ended up becoming friends and talking in Portuñol (Portuguese and Spanish) for about an hour and half until I had to catch the metro back home. It's so cool to meet people from other parts of the world. Every time I meet Brazilians, they are so friendly and cool. I love it! About halfway into the conversation, another girl from the other side of the bridge said hello and apologized for eavesdropping… she spoke English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Who would have guessed: a bridge full of Portuguese speakers on a bridge in Paris! It was great :)

Two weekends ago, a big group of us spent our Saturday at Disneyland Paris. It was fun. Honestly, it's nothing compared to Disney World in Orlando, FL, but we still made it a good time. We made our way from big rollercoaster to rollercoaster, getting as many fast passes as possible, and stopping on the way for overpriced cheeseburgers and waffles topped with chocolate. I paid prices for food that appaled me. The number value would have made the food expensive in US Dollars.. and then I started converting to Euros in my head. I had to stop before that went to far. :) Those darn exchange rates cramp my style... Anyway, it's always fun to run around with other adults and feel like a kid again. Skipping, dancing, and singing Disney songs at the top of our lungs in a symphony of accented English are all perfectly normal activities within the magical world of Disney. The highlight of the whole day was one particular bridge that bounced like a trampoline when you jumped on it. We must have spent a collective hour jumping on that bridge- we crossed it at every possible opportunity. Everyone would be bouncing across, and every couple jumps, you would catch some else's bounce and get launched in the air. It was impossible not to giggle the entire time. The act of bouncing across the high traffic bridge was hilarious feeling, everyone else looked hilarious in their bouncing, and it was just plain funny how easily amused we all were.

There is really so much to talk about... I really need to update more often. Anyway, I'll just summarize the school part of my life quickly. It's funny that's it's what I spend most of my time doing, but really, it doesn't make the greatest stories. I've lead a job on the practice rig, worked as a roughneck (kinda like in Armageddon... but not really.. haha), and taken multiple exams (and done well so far). I've received multiple nicknames, including: Soupy (short for supervisor- from the first job we did), Miss Michigan (apparently I wear lots of U of M apparel), Jessie (despite my efforts to make everyone call me Jess or Jessica, Jessie is apparently the easiest to say on the soccer field), and Double T (my friend called me a Teletubby- those furry, colorful, round-bellied characters as a joke. I was appalled, but I think my adverse reaction made the nickname stick harder.. darn).

Until the next chapter,