Viva bella

Well again I've waited too long to catch up on blogs so here I go attempted to cover 5 days of activities.

Wednesday night we stayed in and made ourselves dinner then ended up going to an Irish pub we had heard about called Scholars. It was the least Italian place we've been to so far! It was pretty empty when we walked in but we knew it would fill up later seeing that it was karaoke night. But I'll get to that in a minute.

We ordered some cider beer which I'd never really had before and it was deliciousss. I had talked earlier in the day with an Student Ambassador Alum Manu who was going to be in Rome that night! He was meeting up with another SA alum, Stevie, so I told them that the girls and I were heading to the pub and they should meet up. Manu and Stevie got there a little before karaoke started so naturally we all signed up.

I've only done karaoke maybe once before in my life on a cruise ship...Mom you remember how that one went. Jessie's Girl will never sound the same to me again haha. Well Manu and I signed up for a duet and the book of songs was massive. We found a Maroon 5 song featuring Rihanna, "If I Never See Your Face Again" and signed on up. Welp, little did we know we were second to go. The crowd had gotten pretty big by this time and my friends were in the front with the video camera at the ready. There was a TV screen behind us with the lyrics and a TV on the opposite wall for us to look at. I thought I knew this song a lot better than I actually did so I had to toss in a few awkward pauses letting Manu take over. By the way Manu did acapella at JMU so he was carrying this team. I threw in some dance moves, the staples such as the hip thrust the wobble the moonwalk. I think I showed Italy what America's all about the white girl way. It was such a rush getting up there that my friends and I signed up later on for one more song. We had to pay our homage to the queen herself, Whitney Houston. We sang "I Wanna Dance with Somebody". The song has literally been stuck in my head since and I don't hate it haha.

Me and Manu!

It was such a fun night and the next day at school actually flew on by. Some funny anecdotes from Thursday at school:

Ucheoma and I walk at the end of the line whenever the class needs to go anywhere. I stay at the back to keep all the kids in line and have them follow Ms. Tanya, the TA. Ucheoma is assigned to the back because he can't control his body and needs to be at the end so he can flail around a bit. At least that's why I think he's assigned to the back. He always grabs my arms and wraps them around him and we kind of waddle together sometimes. One time we were waddling away and he started singing, "Walk this wayyyy, walk this wayyyy." I asked him how he knew that song, and he's like, "What song?" I swear he was singing it the same exact way as Aerosmith.

Again, another love connection blossoms in Kindergarten. It was quiet time and I was alone in the room with the kids. During quiet time they can sit wherever they want and they can read and draw. Ucheoma and Maria-Cecilia were sitting behind the bookshelf on pillows reading a book and I walked around the room checking on everyone else. I walked around again and peeked over the shelf, there was no longer a book in sight. The pillows were pushed together and there was Ucheoma and Maria-Cecilia spooning. Her head was on his chest and his arm was around her. I watched as he leaned over and kissed her. Oh and her skirt was up. Coincidence? Dear goodness I hope so. I ran over and told them to separate and pick up a book. Naturally I stood by them basically for the rest of quiet time making sure they were keeping to their own personal space.

Update on Francesca and Alexanders love life: we were watching videos from Disney's Fantasia (which is really good by the way I forgot how much I liked it!) and there was a scene where a hippo was lifting up another hippo dancing ballet and Alex goes, "I could do that with Francesca." Hahaha and he stood up and I swear was about to try and pick her up and swing her around like a ballerina.


Thursday night we had a group dinner at the coolest restaurant I've been to so far. It was such a hole in the wall place that Max had told us about. We followed the lead of Tour Gyle (what we call Kyle when he's leading us around, get it tour guide...tour gyle) Anywho, we ended up at this little place where they were awaiting us. They welcomed us announcing that this was a legit Roman restaurant with Roman food and music and drinks. We sat down at two long tables in the dim lighting. There were pieces of paper covering the walls with notes left by tons and tons of people who have come to the restaurant as well as some Roman mementos and memorabilia. The music was pretty loud but it was so much fun and upbeat, the waiters would start clapping to the songs and we all joined in too! I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. MK even got the name of some of the songs so we could look them up later. I felt like we ate an entire pig this night, sorry Babe. We had like 3 different types of antipasti's that were different types of pork. We also had one that was sheep intestines. Well, you only live in Rome once! I tried it. At first I put it in my mouth then spat it out because I got scared. But I was determined so I chewed it up quick along with a cherry tomato. I don't think I'll be doing that nonsense again. We then got a course of some pastas that were absolutely mouth watering. Then we got a round of tiramisu which I have had multiple times this trip and am now in love with, including the gelato flavor. After dinner they gave us free lemonchello shots, they drink them a lot here as digestives after dinner.

My table at dinner!

We walked over to the Spanish Steps which we've been meaning to see for a while. Well, I got a little distracted because there were 4 horse and buggies nearby and the horses looked so sweet. I took a little detour to pet them all and speak to them in Italian as best as I could. After my horse whisperer moment I turned to the Spanish Steps which are apparently the widest steps in Europe. They were hugeeee and so many people were sitting on them. I ran up humming the rocky song with Dana and we took a seat on a step to look at the view. While we were sitting one of the many street vendors came up to me and gave me a rose. Well obviously he wanted some money and he had handed it to me so I had to give him something so I gave him all the change I had...22 cents. Then we ran away back down the stairs and I tried to see if the horse buggy men would let me feed the rose to the horses, they didn't think it was the best idea. I ended up giving the rose to an older woman walking down the street on our way home. It was actually a really beautiful moment, she kept saying "no you are young, you take it" in a thick italian accent, but I insisted, then she said something along the lines of "Viva bella", which translates to live beautiful or beautiful life. I almost cried. It was a beautiful evening and I took some mental images I think I'll have for a long time. And of course we ended the night with Old Bridge gelato. Wouldn't have been complete without it :)

Me and Kelly in front of the Spanish Steps!

Me with the Italian horse!