Welcome back

We finally got back on our plane to Rome.

All went well, until the pilot said something like ‘ready for landing’ at that exact point Gaby started coughing and told me se saw starts in front of her eyes.

Then out of nowhere she made these sort of almost puking gestures, I got her some water and the lady next to me gave her like a coughdrop thingy or something.

She started closing her eyes a lot and generally stopped responding to anything, so I just kept shaking her and talking to her, hoping that the cough thingy wouldn’t cause her to suffocate..

I had pressed the stewardess button thingy and finally someone came, she came back with some sugar and water and then told us she had to strap herself in for landing…

Isn’t that just ridiculous? I thought those people were there just for these kind of things?

Anyway, after we landed, Gaby got hauled into an ambulance, leaving me with both our bags and not one bit of information about where they were taking her…

Finally after an hour or so I found her by going through several stupid procedures with multiple people who spoke English well enough so they shouldn’t have had problems directing me..

I found her at the first aid post inside the aiport and stayed with her a bit. Then she got transferred to some kind of weird hospital near the airport. I wasn’t allowed to come with her and I had no idea where they were going.

Only hours later I finally got off the airport myself, and when I got home and reached Gaby even she didn’t know where the hell she was.

Right now, she has to stay there till tomorrow, I need to go pick her up by then, it’s an hour by train, and we’re both not quite sure about the exact location of this hospital…

Another one bites the dust

Here we are again, another chance at a good year.

I hope you all seize your chance, me for one, I’m hoping to get my degree, land me a job and roadtrip the USA in summer. Then I want to start saving up to buy a house once the bells ring for another new year.

Gaby doesn’t quite agree to that yet, but we’ll get there. And from then on it’s ‘bye bye student life, hello working class’

Anyway, it’s been much fun being here doing my thing but I’d like to return to Rome, I really miss the LIS classes and missed my first one today, I hope I don’t get behind on them..

It would really make my year if I get my paper done in time…

Ok, thanks for your time byebye

WoW it’s been ages

Hm.. I just can’t be bothered to update this thing much… Such a shame..
Moments often pass where I think “This would be a wonderful addition to my blog..” but then they slowly fade from memory, and I start asking Gaby things like “Do you remember that one time when this thing happened and I said I should put it in my blog???” she goes.. *sigh* and I let it die off in a dark corner of my wardrobe.

Quick update and on to more serious stuff, or well, other stuff..

Uhmm lots went by, Eric and Idzi had a brief stop-over, about 5 days, well 7 in the end, because public transportation was striking and Ryanair crashed some stuff…

My parents came by as well, onnnn Thursday, I think, we had fun, but on Saturday my mom fell down and had a lot of trouble walking for the remainder of the trip..

Uhm…. oh I made a website proposal for the Roberto Wirth Fund, if it gets accepted I’ll have a job here for the last months of my stay, pretty good, hope it works out.

Sign language classes are still awesome.

We ate some very good mozzarella today.

Almost Sinterklaas, we’re celebrating with Inge, Vasiliki (?), Kate, Gaby and uhmmm me.

What else…. Ooh, Kate got kicked out of her apartment because she couldn’t pay rent because she hadn’t been paid in forever, so last night she stayed at the Hassler hotel, which is Roberto Wirth’s hotel, and tonight she’s secretely sleeping in her own house and tomorrow she will be bunking with us.

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft, when the expansion hit the stores I vowed not to get it that same day, but voilà, we went out into the rain to find an Italian game store, the guy went “Did you pre-order?” I raised my eyebrows and shook my head.. “Well…. let’s see if I can find one…” And behold! We got us the last copy

I bought a leather jacket, Gaby bought a fake fur coat… It was all my dad’s fault…

She now wants to give it to homeless people.

Which brings me to the heartwarming fact that the other day, there were people at the Tiburtina train station, close to our house, feeding the homeless. A big pan of Spaghetti, big doesn’t quite cover it though… Warm drinks and… new clothes! They all looked like unwashed rich people!

Also, every morning, before I start work, I go to this bar. We call it “the corner bar” due to lack of creativity… So every morning I go there, have a cappucino, sometimes a cornetto (a croissant, but sweet… Some have glazing which is called “semplice” and some have stuffing… I usually have one with marmalata, which is jam really…). I sit outside and watch people rushing around me. Then every morning, this lady comes by and asks for a cigarette, so, a couple of days ago, I figured I’d buy her a pack of cigarettes! Why not?? She was always a nice beggar and never rude or pushy… So I bought her the pack and a lighter, but for the life of me I haven’t been able to find her anywhere…

Errm, let me think…

Oh, today I got scolded during sign language class… I understood nothing of the story my teacher was telling because I couldn’t get some of the Italian words… So she told me “I should practice my Italian more.” She’s right of course, so when I returned to the office, I wrote her a lengthy e-mail in Italian, telling her that she was right. I hope she thinks that’s enough practice.

Secret Santa next week, bit of trouble with that, I’m supposed to write a poem and buy a gift, but… omg… a gift up to €3…. So yeah, dunno what to buy, but we’ll see…

There’s probably a lot more to tell, but I’ll leave you with this:

We bought tickets to return to Holland for the holidays, don’t call us we’ll call you, no not really, please do call, I feel so lonely! We’ll be flying in on the… 18th, Eindhvoen Airport, be there or be square, please bring a car so we won’t have to do the train ride.

Byebye

Up and down, back and forth

So My mother’s aunt, Tante Jet passed away last week. May she rest in peace.

Yesterday I flew back to Holland and was just in time (read: 3 minutes late) for the service,
due to a badly timed purse-loss in the Burger King that was on the way from the airport to the service.

It wasn’t a bad service. Or well, I did have some trouble with the last speaker. There were three speakers, her brother, who is just not a very good speaker, my aunt, who has taken care of her for the last years, and her niece, who surprisingly decided to end her speech with a prayer, while all who knew Tante Jet, know that she would not have appreciated that.

Anyway, it was a good enough service and we shared some great memories.

Today I’ll be flying back, packed with Dutch foods, Halloween and Sinterklaas stuff. I hope I can get the food through customs. I think it’s a load of crap that you can bring whatever you want if you drive your car there, but are restricted if you fly. I mean, it’s not explosives or anything, it’s just cheese and bread…

Trastevere

Ok, so last Sunday we went to Trastevere, to experience the Porta Portese and go on from there.

It was quite interesting, mostly because some of the people at work had said that it was soooo crowded… But when I got there I didn’t think it was that bad, it reminded me of Koninginnedag or ‘braderie’ which is like a street sale. It also reminds me of De Haagse Markt, but it was less crowded than that because there was more space. There were some sales people who sat or stood up on the tables, shouting out bargains:

Then after we went there, we were just so tired, but we went on!

We wanted to see La piazza della Santa Maria di Trastevere.
Where the chiesa della Santa Maria di Trastevere is situated, obviously…

Anyway, we took a random bus, which got us completely lost. But we managed to get out at Trastevere station. Here, seemed unfriendly and just not interested in conversing. But we managed to get a woman to point somewhere, while mumbling some random Italian words. From that we derived the fact that we should go that way. Which we did.

If we had walked on, that would’ve been the end.

We ran into a tram stop though, it had a little map and showed us that we should wait for the tram to come and be on it before it left again. So we went on the tram, and my excellent map skills got us off at the right stop.

Then I saw a little tourist booth and knew we should take that street.

By this time we were both fairly hungry, so we decided to look for food. This street was full of little restaurants, but those were completely crowded.

Then we came to this sign:

It was intrigueing and the prices were right. So we walked the 20 metres and were surprised by a lovely little restaurant. The inside was interesting, it was obvious that the owners wanted it to remain like it was, but with the benefits of modern technology. So they had the original, very cute, brick oven but it was connected to a lot of metal pipes and things. The waitress was amiable, but not intrusive, which I find to be the perfect mix. The pizza was just delicious. I was shocked by the mere taste of it. I would like to eat that every single day of my life.

This is the place it was at:

So yes, go there and rejoice. (Oh, I almost forgot, it cost us less than 20 euros for two pizzas, a bottle of water, a coffee and a bruschetta)

So after wonderful, wonderful pizza.. We went to see the chiesa della Santa Maria di Trastevere.

I didn’t realise I had been there before until we went in.. but yes it’s quite a wonderfully overly decorated and way too shiny church. Interestingly commercial too. The altar at the end is wonderful, but it’s only lit when you put money in the little box next to it, hehe, behold:

At some point it seemed like mass was going to start, and the signs had politely asked us to leave during mass, so we did.

Then we almost bought stamps, but the woman was out of international stamps, meh..

We walked around a little and wanted ice cream, so we found this gelatteria, which, for a change, wasn’t called blue or red ice… The chocolate ice cream was just delicious, but crema… I will never have that flavour again.. :S So this shop was run by a funny Asian man, and I got his picture.

I asked him to smile, and he tried…

Arrivata a Roma

So, we’re in Rome, yay for us.

The room is humonguous very big, he said two wardrobes, I suppose he’s right:

2 wardrobes…

And uhm yeah, our new friend Maria-Christina led us around the neighbourhood and took us shopping for breakfast and some sheets for the bed. She lives in the room next to us and studies Aerospace engineering something something, ruimtevaarttechniek dus.. Which is cool because I need some of her expertise for my own project

So, I’ll finish with: Shit.. We didn’t actually bring outlet converters so my laptop’s battery is already dying.

And some more pics:

2 wardrobes…

Hurray

So, yes, Gaby is coming home tomorrow from the Perugia course!
I am so happy!

I will hug her till she dies (metaphorically..)

So amscray with the cigrays and the boozray  hurray and woohoo and don’t call us, we’ll call you.

OF course this means no more going out and getting drunk we’ll be watching CSI and other series non-stop

Public Transportation Strike

So, Gaby left for Perugia last Sunday.

She got the 3 o’clock flight and was in Rome by 5 or 6. Then she got to the train station (Termini) by 7-ish. At 7:30 I received distressing news, the trains were on strike. An apparently calm Gaby told me this, and she seems to have remained calm throughout this entire endeavour. Quite the surprise.

So yes, she found a hostel for the night and way early in the morning she caught a train supposedly going to Perugia. But the train strike was still going, just not during rush hour… So when she got about halfway the train stopped and everyone had to get out. Then she had to wait at that crap station till the next rush hour.

Needless to say she wasn’t happy, but a few hours later when I called she was playing cards with a random stranger, so I think she’s fine.

Anyway, she finally got to Perugia last night around ten I think..

Travelpod entry #2

YES! Finally we’ve found a room!

A beautiful awesome great room which I’ve already made a deposit on!

It’s great it’s near a train station and bus stops and metro stops and all that jazz

Anyway, so yeah, happy happy joy joy.

 

Update:
Sorry, I didn’t even try to help you guys find your own rooms! 

Okay, so, I tried craigslist, I tried Googling stuff but omg, that didn’t work at all…
I didn’t find some very expensive ways to spend short vacations in Rome though…

Yes well, English sites obviously did not work.

BUT… I tried some Italian sites. Much better, since the room I found now is good location and furnished and roughly around 600 euros a month including utilities and adsl connection. (This is for a doppia, which means there are two beds, or at least two spaces to sleep, some have double beds, some have two separate beds.)

So yes that’s 300 euros a month I saved from last time I looked… (Hellooooooooo dinner!)

So, a few good sites I’ve found:
Easystanza.it (Italian version of Easyroommate.com)
Home4students.it (Commercially run I think, but I still found some good stuff there)
Roma.kijiji.it (It’s in the left column, Case in affitto)

Well those are the ones I used to finally find something, once I found those I had about 10 good rooms in a day, and it took me 2 days after that to have a contract. So yay, I particularly (spelling?) recommend Easystanza, it’s easy to use and has lots of stuff.

Okay, so you need to know some Italian to read these things and the people you need to e-mail might speak some more Italian even… HELLO YOU WANT TO LIVE THERE… try learning some 
If that’s too much work just crack open Altavista’s Babelfish and interprate whatever it tries to tell you.

Ktx.

Travelpod entry #1

Yes, so.

Welcome to my humble little space. Just after summer I will be writing from the lovely city of Rome. This makes me very happy, but also anxious and stressful.

My girlfriend, Gaby, has been stressed for months. I haven’t but yeah, to each their own. Fact is though, she does have a problem at this point. She still has to do 2 exams before being allowed to go to Rome. But she also wants to do a language course in Perugia.

Not a good combo, or so it appears, the only places left in the language course are in the same weeks as the exams… (Perugia – Nijmegen… distance: 1.417 km)

So, two options are given:
1. Stay home, do exams, learn your own damn Italian.
2. Go, study Italian, try and get them to give you an oral exam. (over the phone?..)

Anyway, I suppose we’ll go for the first since she wasn’t that keen on going there without me anyway. BUT HOW THE HELL IS SHE SUPPOSED TO LEARN ITALIAN ON HER OWN?!?!?!

So yes, that’s made of win.

I, on the other hand, am doing quite well, thank you very much.

I have FINALLY finished all my schoolwork and only have 7 weeks left before summer.
During these 7 weeks all I have to do is get my points for this course and get my graduation assignment approved.

Bah, ah mere triviality (is this an actual word??), of such commonness (again, word??) that I will not stress at all.

Meanwhile, finding an apartment in Rome is made of hell. Cheapest for two people I can find comes to around €900 a month. I will not be paid for my internship. How am I supposed to pay rent? Ah well, it’ll work itself out, right?

For now I am hoping the Italian lady understands the word utilities…