November

Almost a month without posting...
Anyhow, forgive me for neglecting to update but here it is ;-).  University is in its normal (Italian) rhythm now.  Unfortunately for me, that means getting up early since most of my classes start at 8h30 or 9h30.... I realize again how hard it was in high school. On the other hand it does give me the time on some days to go to the library or to work a bit in general for my thesis (which is behind schedule).
Two weeks ago, Nathalie, Jan (her boyfriend), mama and one of my grandfathers were here. It was super to see them again and to have a bit of Belgium back in my life.  I hope they enjoyed (I sure did). Following their visit filled with presents and lovely dinners,  another friend: Krisztian, was here for a visit. By now school was completely on a run, so we couldn't meet up the entire day, but the time we could I enjoyed! Thanks for the visit! During the weekends I still try to do some activities outside of Rome or something relaxing.  So we went to the Vulcanic Lakes south of Rome, near Rocca della Papa , where one of the vacation houses of the pope is located.  There's even a doorbell with: Swiss Guard :).  Lovely day with a great picnic!

Another weekend (when Krisz was here) we visited the Etruscian hills of Cerveteri. Amazing to know how old these constructions are. After a friendly hitchhike back and forth to the site, we ended our visit by a walk at the sea.  Although it wasn't warm enough to swim, it was still amazing to walk on the beach barefooted, in a T-shirt ! Don't get me wrong, it does rain here (sometimes very heavy) but if you're lucky the weather is like spring in Belgium!

Last monday Eline was so friendly to cut my hair lol because as you can see it was a bit of a mess :)

This weekend we went to a free concert in the Rumanian Academy. First we tried the Belgian one but it was full (just like the Castello di Sant Angelo). Jazz, blues and some soft rock... After that the "giro" continued to Piazza Colonna, but it was over-crowed, so the decision was made to finish the day in a bar.
I also met up with Diletta last friday, I girl I met 6 years ago on one of the international camps I attended. Crazy that by some luck she found out I was in Rome. After having dinner in a very nice typical Roman bar with delicious food, we had a stroll around Rome, and caught up with the stories! Great to see you again ;)
This week I'll have to work significantly for my thesis! So fingers crossed ;)

Oggi

So today was finally D-day. Classes started...... but as you could guess, this is Italy so that implies ...CHAOS. I went to school at 8h30 (felt like high school...).
Rather early in my opinion but I shouldn't complain, I can take a metro virtually in front of our apartment and then after the metro it's another 10-15min walking through a park. I've heard other stories.

Once arrived and with renewed courage after waking up so early; the first disappointment: a note on the door saying that the first lesson I picked would only start the 5th of november. The next lesson no-one appeared and the one following that, had students in the classroom (an improvement compared to the previous one) but no professor.
So after a couple of hours, of no lessons what so ever, we had lunch (thx to Stefaan).

The afternoon started more promising. A course about restoration that seemed interesting. Unfortunately I didn't really understood it so well because of the lack of Italian, but I hope that'll change in the future.
All by all, a first victory. After this success I had one more class to check out...but....the hours were changed (it was written somewhere->not at any defined place, that would have made to much sense) and it had already started. After waiting a bit (by then I got used to it) I decided it had been enough and went with Marion, my flatmate, and Eline to see a movie:
La Dolce Vita...
      (a bit ironic if I look back at this day. For 1,5 h of lessons I spend almost a whole day at the faculty...I hope tomorrow will go better. The schedule is even worse so fingers crossed!)
                     ...a classic, that surprised me a bit. A very hectic one, but maybe that is what it should be, after all, it's an Italian movie ;)

Domani

Tomorrow the classes will start... or that's what they say. I'm curious how it will be like and happy in the way this will hopefully help me in the quest to learn Italian. The days the past weeks were like I wrote before filled with visiting things.
Rome is an amazing place (for architects). So I discovered that one of the churches on walking distance from our apartment is actually a very famous one (my history classes are stocked away deeply in my brain ;)): San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (for the interested ones, it's by Borromini).

For the rest I can most definitely recommend Tivoli, and a busdrive away form it, Villa Hadrianus!

Furthermore our apartment became a new meeting point, but I don't mind. It's nice to have people around even if sometimes our apartment is more crowded then an average market, or let's say, "louder" :)

This weekend I decided to go to Venice to see the Architecture Biennale and also the city ofcours. Uni didn't start yet so there's no reason not to go!

It was a bit hectic in the beginning because the place I could sleep at first eventually turned out to be a "no-go"... (but more about that later)

First off all I have to say that Venice is different then any other city I have seen so far. The moment you get out the train station (after a 6h ride from Rome if you take the "cheap" option) you realize that this is something ells. The comparisation; "city X" is like the venice of "country Y" is, so far as I discovered, ***.

It's a city build on water and not a city where water flows through.

It's amazing, beautiful,... but also very defining for the daily life. Everything happens by boat, and that has a big impact. I really understand why it has it charms but I couldn't live there... (a massive amount of tourists, there are only 60 000 people living there, and the island(s) itself(ves) is/are quite small).

The second day Eline (who gave me the idea to go for the weekend) and I went to the Biennale. Because she knew someone studying at the architecture-school of Venice, we could follow a motived guide through the first part. It was also on this meeting where  I met 2 very friendly people who helped me out...

Like I mentioned my overnight residence was canceled so the first night I had to stay in a hostel, but for the second night it was fully booked. Luckily these people offered me a place to stay. One for Saturday night and one for Sunday, so not only did I see the city I also saw some city-live behind the facades. Thanks a lot ! It's the living prove that there's always a solution and a friendly person nearby.

All together, the biennale was very interesting and really lived up to my expectancies.

It was huge so at the end (at 18h it closed) we couldn't see it all anymore and made a selection. Although it was a pity we had to specify, it had been a long day too. Never the less, it was most definitely worth it. 

Sunday it was Venice-time. We did some walking around town, visited the jewish quarter with some synagog's and some other tourist-must-seen things. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side so it rained all day. Although every city looks better with sun, Venice is probably one of the cities that can pull it off to have a rainy day too... my shoes on the other hand not.

Let's say they smelled worse then hell :p

The final day was, besides from more rain, blessed with a "spectacular" sight. It was aqua alta and San Marco square was flooded... So also this day presented me with wet feet but like the biennale, it was worth every raindrop !

il turista

As the strike continues I started my touristic tour around Rome. Going from il colosseo, la Basilica di San Pietro, the new Maxxi museum of Zaha Hadid (way better then I thought it would be BUT not a state museum so you have to pay entrance even as an architecture student: TIP: if you're younger then 26 take a friend, he can join you for free)...

Zia maria e il sciopero

No D-day yet... but I should start with the start.

Saturday (3 oct) I went with a fellow Belgian student to Ostia and met with some Romanian people. Nice folks.

Ostia used to be the harbor of Rome, but do to the silt the coastline evolved and the city died out. Anyhow, it's just a beautiful place with a vast amount of ruins. If you ever have the chance to go. I advice you, and if you're an architecture student it's even free for you (like many museums actually).

As Ostia was so vast, after almost two hours and only having seen half, you do get bored of it a bit. Or at least you start to think:"this all looks quite alike". So I made the decision with my new Romanian companion to leave it for now and come back later to see the rest.

As Ostia (i should say Ostia Antica !) is not too far from the seaside we continued to the coast. There I was surprised how black the sand was. Don't know yet why exactly (Volcanic? the Deep Horizon?... :p).

Although the beach is great, I do advice to go a bit further by bus if you have time. The stop with the train isn't the nicest seaside-spot, but at the same time, who cares :)

After our visit to the sea I arrived home and i was told that my german and french flatmates invited some people for dinner. Perfect, then I don't have to cook and always a good way to get to know new people.

After a nice dinner with a fare amount of wine and very nice people including a german who I got to know before and who, I quote: "was half german, a quarter italian and a quarter english", we continued our evening to San Lorenzo. Where some more wine was consumed. The perfect way to end Saturday and get into the atmosphere of Sunday....

Sunday = Marino. A small village in the neighborhood of Rome that has a yearly event: a wine festival. Many event of the day is the fountain of the city that in stead of water starts poring wine =) So everything in the city is wine and panini (little bread with delicious "fresh" pork meat). 1,5l wine = 3 euro.... you can imagine you take more then one sip :p

It's a nice little village were I got to know two funny old women. As I was sitting on a bench they joined us and started speaking Italian. As far as I understood the story, I reminded her of her husband when he was younger (she was 76), a story of their marriage followed and we were offered some juice (the tetra-kindergarden-like cardboard drinks, hilarious, sitting there in the sun on a bench with two older ladies). After some talking (or more listening from my way) she decided I should call her zia Maria (=aunt maria). I guess that's "la dolce vita", making new friends on a bench in the sun...  :)

Today=monday (supposed to be D-day, but lets say that didn't really work out). There was a meeting at the school to see what to do with "il sciopero" (=strike). I heard about stories in France where either it's holiday or the schools are on strike.... but maybe it's just something southern. Anyhow after listening (and that's different then comprehending) an hour I decided it had no use and left the meeting. In short: "strike=no lessons till a still undefined day". So my italian classes (i'm in the beginners level, but also there the date for my group isn't know yet, normally i'll know more in 2-3 days) will probably start before the real one... Anyhow to make a short story shorter:

I'm experiencing the Italian way of living :p

Appartamento & Camera

Il nostro appartamento...

 .....e il mia camera.

C-day

Today I had the Italian test... disaster :p The first part was ok but then... SO I have a very long time to go.
Hopefully hearing Italian enough will help me out. Monday it's D-day. First classes in Italian. Unfortunately the schedule isn't available yet, so still have to decide which classes I'll take.
Good news is that I'm registered at the faculty (for 10 months, so that worked out eventually). Administration so far isn't as bad as I thought it would be (besides queuing  for 2h to get the stupid codice fiscale). But like I said the hard part still has to start.

Anyhow less boring things: yesterday we had a nice dinner with some friends from the German flatmate. The two french girls arrived as well. I think they were a bit overwhelmed yesterday with the company (=combination of having to travel all day + bunch of people drinking wine + loud people :p).
They seem nice and I've got the feeling their level of Italian is a lot higher then mine. As they are going to the same faculty, Valle Giulia, they can maybe help me out form time to time.

Sunday there'll be a trip to San Marino to taste some Italian wine, I'm curious how that'll be. Now I'll have lunch with the flatmates and then catch some sleep (as yesterday it was rather late combined with an early (painful :p) Italian exam). Ciao x