Pretty cool weekend, a couple guys and i went down to the Non-catholic cemetery in Testachio with our Philosophy professor to see Anton Gramsci's (a founding member of the italian communist party and we read one of his books in our "Philosophy of Communism and Fascism in Italy" class) grave. We also saw Keats and Shelley's while we were there, and then there is a Pyramide stolen brick by brick from Egypt that one of the Emperors is burried in. Afterwords we were going to go out for drinks, but it was still kinda early so our professor had us over to his house (a couple blocks away) and we ended up just hanging out there and talking philosophy, music, JFRC life and a ton more. After that my friend Scott and I went to a concert. We saw the Cold War Kids, a band i had never heard of, but Scott really liked and they turned out to be really cool, i even got my ticket signed by a couple of the guys in the band after the show, and then we hung out at the bar the concert was at for the rest of the night, good times.
Last night, one of the SLA's knew a guy that owned a bar and so a bunch of kids went there around 12 after we had all gone out to separate places, which was a lot of fun. The bar kinda sucked, but it was good to see all of the JFRC kids out having a good time and smoking was ok inside, which was awesome. After we left there, we went to get Kebap's (and opening a Kebap Stand near campus is how i plan on making my first million) but there wasnt enough room in the cab for all of us, so my friend Nick and decided to take the night bus, but instead of hopping on the close one, we just walked around the city talking for awhile, it was really cool.
Sunday was lazy, just hanging out, so i thought i would give you guys one more little insight into my life here in Rome. Big week coming up for me, and then thanksgiving break, and then its already december (or as we are starting to call it, november 31st, november 32nd, november 33rd.....). This semester has been so awesome, but i miss you guys back home almost as much as i miss rubbing the biliken and consoling Tim. Drop me a message or email so i can see how you guys are doing wrapping up the semester. Have fun out there.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Another regular update
Hey guys, sorry about the fact that i completely forgot about this blog, hell, its only been a month since i have written. This semester got me a little out of the norm (which has been awesome) but i never really set down time to send stuff out. There have been a lot of things that have happened in the mundane, day-to-day life stuff that means a lot to me but wouldn't make a shit bit of difference to you. Just to let you all know this semester has been amazing and i have loved it so far, but at this point i am just going to give you all the highlights of the past month, if you want to know more about any of the things i write about, just drop me an email (jwarmuth@slu.edu).
It is insane to me that i have not written since my day in Rome, and that the one before that was after the first calcio game, that is just impossible for me to understand. I will try to do my best, but even my journal has holes that need to be filled, because it is so hard to remember that i won't remember everything.
I pretty much left off right before fall break. Nothing really happened except for a losing, yet valient effort from the Brewers in the play-offs. it was really nice to know that they could shit the bed for an entire month and the mets would still collapse for us.
Fall break started off with a bang. Emily (Harig, who I traveled with over break)and i got to the air port early enough and we were ready to check in, when all of a sudden i get a phone call, Fly Baboo (our airline) canceled our flight due to lack of passengers. They canceled our flight 65 min before take off. So we got to take the next flight which didn't leave for another 9 hours. Sweet deal. That meant we got into Geneva, Switzerland really late, and i was all for finding a hostel there and salvaging our night, but in the end we decided to take the late train to Interlocken, and we didn't get in until 1 am. Sweet.
Interlocken was a really beautiful city, really small and kind of a flat plain in the alps where mountains rose up on all sides. We met up with our friend Matt McNichol, and his friend Paul, and then Emily and I rented some bikes and explored the beautiful city. There was a bit of a bike path into this amusement park looking place, but when we rode into there a dude yelled at us in German to leave, so we followed his truck with Llamas in the back out the way we came, it was pretty hilarious.
After that, we traveled to Lucerne with Matt, it was another just picturesque town built right along a river with these amazing centuries old bridges. Matt and I spent a couple hours walking down the row of unbelievably expensive shops, laughing at the watches that were less then $30,000 and wondering why anyone would ever need a watch that has loose diamonds just rattling around inside the face. That night we went to the Coop, a grocery store that also had other outlets that looked more like H&M. They had coop brand beer for 65 cents per liter, so we grabbed a bunch of those and drank on the banks of the river for awhile. At night, we went back out to the river to hang out some more, and saw a rat, which we then proceeded to chase with beer cans full of water in an attempt to capture the filthy rodent. There is a video of us taken on Matt's camera which is hilarious, and i should probably repost it so you guys can see it.
After Lucerne Matt went to Amsterdam and we went to Cologne, Germany, a really really cool place. I loved the fact that it was this sweet college town that had this bizarre sense of identity and architecture because the Allies had literally bombed the place to rubble. There are pictures of Cologne from during the war and the only building left standing is the old (and really awesome) church, at least Yossarian had good aim. So they kind of patched the city back together with as many funds as they could find after WWII (read: none). The city was great though, and i met a bartender from Pittsburgh who informed me that they had a shot called the "Green Bay" which is peppermint schnapps and bailey's stacked to be green and gold. I had like 5, it was awesome (and chris, i also ordered a shot of the cheapest whiskey they had, just for you)
After Cologne was Salzburg, Austria, where we did this really awesome "Ice Caves" tour. It is the largest Ice Cave on earth, and it sure seemed like it. The place was so awesome and it was such a cool experience being down in there, and we had this hilarious Australian tour guide. After we were done with the tour, our tour guide and some of his Austrian friends were going to a hockey game, and invited us along. it was so awesome to see hockey again, and the Salzburg team was really good, having won the last two league championships (teams from Austria, Hungary and one other country (i forget) are in the league) and then beat the team they were playing 7-0. After the game everyone went into the bar that was connected to the stadium. One of the guys from the tour was from Salzburg, but claimed to be the "Biggest Green Bay Packers fan in Austria" a claim with I do not dispute. We talked Packers all night and he kept buying me drinks cause he loved the fact that he met someone from Wisconsin. We got pretty shitty, it was great.
Then on to Vienna, probably my favorite of all of the cities we visited. It just embodied a certain time in history so well, it seemed put together all at once by the same architect. and also to be in the same place where Meternick ran shit and the waltz reached perfection was really awesome.
After Vienna, Emily went back to Rome to meet up with her Mom who was in town, and i took a train over to Budapest, Hungary, to meet up with some of the other guys in our program, Matt again, Scott, Mike DiMario (known to some of you as a SLU student and to others as Will's cousin), Paul and Patrick. We all met up with Scott's friend Peter, and went out on the town. It was great traveling around and seeing the sights, but at least i got to spend one drunken night out with the guys. Peter instructed us to get as drunk as possible because he had the perfect hangover cure. The next morning we went to the Hungarian Bath's. Amazing, comforting, relaxing, everything that you could want from a hangover cure, this place had it. I would recommend a trip to Budapest just to use the Baths, it was unreal.
Well that is about it for trip stuff, since then i have had a great time hanging around here in Rome, a city that i have fallen deeply in love with. The weekends are just great chances to go out and see the city, and i dont know how much more traveling i will be doing because i can travel any time i want, but this will probably be the last time in my life that i will live in Rome.
Paddy McShane visited this weekend and we had a great time. It reminded me what a great time SLU was and what amazing friends i had back there, and really gave me my first twinge of homesickness. Plus, I officially missed SLUperbowl, which really sucks, congrats DG, you guys probably deserved it.
Calcio has gone well, we lost a game, but i think our team is poised for a big second half of the season, and there is no doubt we will lead the league in goal differential. Ok, now i am just getting into stuff you guys don't care about.
I hope you are all having a great semester, and feel free to drop me a line anytime.
It is insane to me that i have not written since my day in Rome, and that the one before that was after the first calcio game, that is just impossible for me to understand. I will try to do my best, but even my journal has holes that need to be filled, because it is so hard to remember that i won't remember everything.
I pretty much left off right before fall break. Nothing really happened except for a losing, yet valient effort from the Brewers in the play-offs. it was really nice to know that they could shit the bed for an entire month and the mets would still collapse for us.
Fall break started off with a bang. Emily (Harig, who I traveled with over break)and i got to the air port early enough and we were ready to check in, when all of a sudden i get a phone call, Fly Baboo (our airline) canceled our flight due to lack of passengers. They canceled our flight 65 min before take off. So we got to take the next flight which didn't leave for another 9 hours. Sweet deal. That meant we got into Geneva, Switzerland really late, and i was all for finding a hostel there and salvaging our night, but in the end we decided to take the late train to Interlocken, and we didn't get in until 1 am. Sweet.
Interlocken was a really beautiful city, really small and kind of a flat plain in the alps where mountains rose up on all sides. We met up with our friend Matt McNichol, and his friend Paul, and then Emily and I rented some bikes and explored the beautiful city. There was a bit of a bike path into this amusement park looking place, but when we rode into there a dude yelled at us in German to leave, so we followed his truck with Llamas in the back out the way we came, it was pretty hilarious.
After that, we traveled to Lucerne with Matt, it was another just picturesque town built right along a river with these amazing centuries old bridges. Matt and I spent a couple hours walking down the row of unbelievably expensive shops, laughing at the watches that were less then $30,000 and wondering why anyone would ever need a watch that has loose diamonds just rattling around inside the face. That night we went to the Coop, a grocery store that also had other outlets that looked more like H&M. They had coop brand beer for 65 cents per liter, so we grabbed a bunch of those and drank on the banks of the river for awhile. At night, we went back out to the river to hang out some more, and saw a rat, which we then proceeded to chase with beer cans full of water in an attempt to capture the filthy rodent. There is a video of us taken on Matt's camera which is hilarious, and i should probably repost it so you guys can see it.
After Lucerne Matt went to Amsterdam and we went to Cologne, Germany, a really really cool place. I loved the fact that it was this sweet college town that had this bizarre sense of identity and architecture because the Allies had literally bombed the place to rubble. There are pictures of Cologne from during the war and the only building left standing is the old (and really awesome) church, at least Yossarian had good aim. So they kind of patched the city back together with as many funds as they could find after WWII (read: none). The city was great though, and i met a bartender from Pittsburgh who informed me that they had a shot called the "Green Bay" which is peppermint schnapps and bailey's stacked to be green and gold. I had like 5, it was awesome (and chris, i also ordered a shot of the cheapest whiskey they had, just for you)
After Cologne was Salzburg, Austria, where we did this really awesome "Ice Caves" tour. It is the largest Ice Cave on earth, and it sure seemed like it. The place was so awesome and it was such a cool experience being down in there, and we had this hilarious Australian tour guide. After we were done with the tour, our tour guide and some of his Austrian friends were going to a hockey game, and invited us along. it was so awesome to see hockey again, and the Salzburg team was really good, having won the last two league championships (teams from Austria, Hungary and one other country (i forget) are in the league) and then beat the team they were playing 7-0. After the game everyone went into the bar that was connected to the stadium. One of the guys from the tour was from Salzburg, but claimed to be the "Biggest Green Bay Packers fan in Austria" a claim with I do not dispute. We talked Packers all night and he kept buying me drinks cause he loved the fact that he met someone from Wisconsin. We got pretty shitty, it was great.
Then on to Vienna, probably my favorite of all of the cities we visited. It just embodied a certain time in history so well, it seemed put together all at once by the same architect. and also to be in the same place where Meternick ran shit and the waltz reached perfection was really awesome.
After Vienna, Emily went back to Rome to meet up with her Mom who was in town, and i took a train over to Budapest, Hungary, to meet up with some of the other guys in our program, Matt again, Scott, Mike DiMario (known to some of you as a SLU student and to others as Will's cousin), Paul and Patrick. We all met up with Scott's friend Peter, and went out on the town. It was great traveling around and seeing the sights, but at least i got to spend one drunken night out with the guys. Peter instructed us to get as drunk as possible because he had the perfect hangover cure. The next morning we went to the Hungarian Bath's. Amazing, comforting, relaxing, everything that you could want from a hangover cure, this place had it. I would recommend a trip to Budapest just to use the Baths, it was unreal.
Well that is about it for trip stuff, since then i have had a great time hanging around here in Rome, a city that i have fallen deeply in love with. The weekends are just great chances to go out and see the city, and i dont know how much more traveling i will be doing because i can travel any time i want, but this will probably be the last time in my life that i will live in Rome.
Paddy McShane visited this weekend and we had a great time. It reminded me what a great time SLU was and what amazing friends i had back there, and really gave me my first twinge of homesickness. Plus, I officially missed SLUperbowl, which really sucks, congrats DG, you guys probably deserved it.
Calcio has gone well, we lost a game, but i think our team is poised for a big second half of the season, and there is no doubt we will lead the league in goal differential. Ok, now i am just getting into stuff you guys don't care about.
I hope you are all having a great semester, and feel free to drop me a line anytime.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
My Day Around Rome
Sorry it took me so long to write you guys, it has been hectic around here for the past week. I stayed in town over the weekend, and thought that might mean a chill weekend, but then i remembered "in town" was the Eternal City. My philosophy teacher, a really awesome guy, had a party for his two classes here at the JFRC and then some kids from John Cabbot. It was in the basement of a really swanky bar/club down in Trastevere (the premier nightlife section of Rome, if you afford it). There were a ton of people who didn't even have Stefano's (as our teacher likes to be called, because he says hates the way Americans pronounce his last name) class that came which made it this awesome group of kids, who like i said before, have really come together over the last week.
Then Friday we stayed in and Saturday went out to a bar, much lower class then the party, but the whole weekend it was just like, "go go go." then monday, my worst day because i take 4 classes, one of which is 3 hours long, i didn't even get a chance to catch my breath, and the whole time i took every 3 min opportunity to check milwaukeebrewers.com
There has also been some problems with the whole class coming together, because that means that guys and girls are becoming closer and it has lead to some tense situations when things don't work out the way people want them too. Also, people that came in couples have had their relationships tested pretty strongly, because it takes a pretty big step in a relationship to go abroad together, and now they are in a completely foreign environment which adds strain. So there have been some pretty intense H2Hs going around and it has lent an air of stress to the proceedings here at the TWRC.
Tuesday was one of the best days of my life. I felt like i needed to get away a little bit from the every day routine that has kind of built itself up around here, and i don't have any classes Tuesday, so i got my shift covered at the Library and set off to re-see Roma. I left the compound at around 8, and walked down to the Vatican Museum. I forgot how beautiful it is there, so much amazing art work and history in one building. Also, i feel like i could go there every day for the next 3 weeks and get an entirely new experience every time. I really loved the Fresco stuff of Raphael (especially the School of Athens) and Michaelangelo when i was there with my family, and i really loved that stuff this time too, but i spent a lot of time in the contemporary religious art section and it was unbelievable. I will post some links to the paintings i loved the most later, but i left my journal up in my room.
I didn't end up going into st peters because i was not in the mood to wait in line after how great of an experience i had, so i just started walking around Roma. I walked past the Castello d'San Angelo and then around that neighborhood until i stopped for lunch. Then i grabbed a quick cab up to the Spanish Steps.
The Steps were probably the biggest surprise of the day, because i remember not thinking too highly of them when i went with my family. But to see it just full on a random Tuesday afternoon was great. There were people around the 'Sunken Ship' a fountain at the bottom of the steps, as well as sitting on the famous steps themselves. I went up to the Shelly and Keats museum (located on the steps) that is housed in the apartment where Keats died and it was just a random piece of england in the middle of Rome. The guy who worked there looked, acted and talked exactly like you would expect a young, English, museum worker to. The shops were all really really nice, and designed so well with all of the coolest, most expensive things the stores produced on display that they were almost like museums themselves.
I then went to the Trevi Fountain, which is cool, but not in my top 10 favorite things in the city, so after spending some time there, i went to the greatest building in the entire world, the dome that inspired all domes, and the building that speaks to me more than any other, the Pantheon.
I just sat outside of it for half an hour looking up, then walked around it and then finally inside. I jotted some stuff in my journal and then prayed about everything that had been going on this week (in a building created to house all of the gods of the Roman relgion, there is now an alter and some pews set up, its an interesting place to pray to say the least) and left. I asked when they held services there, but i'm not sure if i am going to be able to go back to that place this semester, because it cannot even begin to ever hold the same significance for me now as it did at that moment in my life.
I got dinner and wandered around some more, walking mostly. I stopped by St. Peters, even though it was closed, and just looked around inside the square. By the time i got back to the center it was after 8:30 and i was in such a good mood and my head had cleared nicely. It was more than i could have ever expected out of the experience. It was just such a wonderful day and everything, i am so glad i got the opportunity to do something like that in the place that i live. Thinking about it now, that is really the main point of studying abroad, the weekend trips around Europe are nice, but to be able to have that kind of experience in the place that i live really made it much more special.
Then i had to deal with three unearned runs and players i love chasing changeups for 8 innings, but it still bolstered my confidence for the rest of the series that we could play that poorly and have a chance to win. As always, i would love to hear from any of you just leave a comment or send me an email (jwarmuth@slu.edu) or a fb message. Hope you are all having great weeks and have cought october madness. sorry again for the giant blog post, but i guess you guys are just gonna have to start learning to live with it. Ciao.
Then Friday we stayed in and Saturday went out to a bar, much lower class then the party, but the whole weekend it was just like, "go go go." then monday, my worst day because i take 4 classes, one of which is 3 hours long, i didn't even get a chance to catch my breath, and the whole time i took every 3 min opportunity to check milwaukeebrewers.com
There has also been some problems with the whole class coming together, because that means that guys and girls are becoming closer and it has lead to some tense situations when things don't work out the way people want them too. Also, people that came in couples have had their relationships tested pretty strongly, because it takes a pretty big step in a relationship to go abroad together, and now they are in a completely foreign environment which adds strain. So there have been some pretty intense H2Hs going around and it has lent an air of stress to the proceedings here at the TWRC.
Tuesday was one of the best days of my life. I felt like i needed to get away a little bit from the every day routine that has kind of built itself up around here, and i don't have any classes Tuesday, so i got my shift covered at the Library and set off to re-see Roma. I left the compound at around 8, and walked down to the Vatican Museum. I forgot how beautiful it is there, so much amazing art work and history in one building. Also, i feel like i could go there every day for the next 3 weeks and get an entirely new experience every time. I really loved the Fresco stuff of Raphael (especially the School of Athens) and Michaelangelo when i was there with my family, and i really loved that stuff this time too, but i spent a lot of time in the contemporary religious art section and it was unbelievable. I will post some links to the paintings i loved the most later, but i left my journal up in my room.
I didn't end up going into st peters because i was not in the mood to wait in line after how great of an experience i had, so i just started walking around Roma. I walked past the Castello d'San Angelo and then around that neighborhood until i stopped for lunch. Then i grabbed a quick cab up to the Spanish Steps.
The Steps were probably the biggest surprise of the day, because i remember not thinking too highly of them when i went with my family. But to see it just full on a random Tuesday afternoon was great. There were people around the 'Sunken Ship' a fountain at the bottom of the steps, as well as sitting on the famous steps themselves. I went up to the Shelly and Keats museum (located on the steps) that is housed in the apartment where Keats died and it was just a random piece of england in the middle of Rome. The guy who worked there looked, acted and talked exactly like you would expect a young, English, museum worker to. The shops were all really really nice, and designed so well with all of the coolest, most expensive things the stores produced on display that they were almost like museums themselves.
I then went to the Trevi Fountain, which is cool, but not in my top 10 favorite things in the city, so after spending some time there, i went to the greatest building in the entire world, the dome that inspired all domes, and the building that speaks to me more than any other, the Pantheon.
I just sat outside of it for half an hour looking up, then walked around it and then finally inside. I jotted some stuff in my journal and then prayed about everything that had been going on this week (in a building created to house all of the gods of the Roman relgion, there is now an alter and some pews set up, its an interesting place to pray to say the least) and left. I asked when they held services there, but i'm not sure if i am going to be able to go back to that place this semester, because it cannot even begin to ever hold the same significance for me now as it did at that moment in my life.
I got dinner and wandered around some more, walking mostly. I stopped by St. Peters, even though it was closed, and just looked around inside the square. By the time i got back to the center it was after 8:30 and i was in such a good mood and my head had cleared nicely. It was more than i could have ever expected out of the experience. It was just such a wonderful day and everything, i am so glad i got the opportunity to do something like that in the place that i live. Thinking about it now, that is really the main point of studying abroad, the weekend trips around Europe are nice, but to be able to have that kind of experience in the place that i live really made it much more special.
Then i had to deal with three unearned runs and players i love chasing changeups for 8 innings, but it still bolstered my confidence for the rest of the series that we could play that poorly and have a chance to win. As always, i would love to hear from any of you just leave a comment or send me an email (jwarmuth@slu.edu) or a fb message. Hope you are all having great weeks and have cought october madness. sorry again for the giant blog post, but i guess you guys are just gonna have to start learning to live with it. Ciao.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Cusano Mutri, Karaoke, Benny and Calcio
Well, this has been one hell of a week, one of my favorites so far, and that is saying a lot.
This weekend i went to cusano mutri, a tiny little mountain town where they hold a mushroom festival for 3 weeks a year. The first thing that sticks out in my mind about the trip was the amazing food. Mushroom veal, chicken, spaghetti, and some delicious sausage and bread. The three meals i ate at the festival are among my favorite meals of all times, even including the one i almost died during because of the most brutal hangover i have ever experienced. I met some really cool people i hadn't had a chance to get to know too much yet, and the group in all was just awesome to spend time with. There were two paleontology museums we went to while there (something about an ancient lagoon that lead to perfect fossilization. It was really interesting but looked like a 8th grade science project. apparently there isn't a lot of funding for tiny mountain town paleontology museums in the world.
Tuesday night was one of the most fun times i have had in my entire life. There was karaoke in rinaldo's, the snack bar and rec room area of campus. They gave out two beers per person, but most of us could afford to spring for our own alcohol for such an event. It seemed like the entire campus was down there, and everyone was singing along to every song, while dancing like it was 1897, but at one of the seedier establishments of the gilded age. girls were twirling and dipping and singing and generally looking great, while the guys were sweating and shuffling our feet and trying not to look like we possessed two left feet. it was so much fun.
The hits just keep on coming, because a lot of us woke up early and went and saw his holiness the Vicar of Christ on Earth Pope Benedict XVI. It was a great great experience to see how much he meant to all of the people there, and i really have never seen anything as impressive as st peters square full of people cheering, with a full papal entourage in front of the most impressive church i have ever seen and il Papa sitting right there. The woman in front of me burst into tears and the audience was incredible. They did everything in 5 languages (italian, german, french, english and russian) and the man who spoke in english had one of the coolest voices i have ever heard in my entire life. The experience was one i will truly never forget.
wednesday night was our first calcio game, and was it ever awesome. Calcio means soccer in italian (or so i've been lead to believe) and there are 10 teams made up of JFRC students, SLA's, administrators and teachers. The first games were interesting, because it seemed like everyone was so rusty or had never played soccer before. Based on my history of body building and marathon running, it was decided i should probably play goalie. I was nutmegged for the first goal against my team, but after that i kind of held my own. it turned out that i was not that big of a factor in the decision, as one guy on my team had 5 goals, and another had a hat trick. We ended up winning 11-6, and no other team scored more than 5 total. I had a really flukey goal about a min and a half into the game when i lofted a kick down the middle of the field and the other goalie didnt judge it right and it went in. it made me feel bad for the other goalie, but hey, i got my goal for the year, so i'll be fine.
tonight i have a party set up by my philosophy teacher down in trestevere (the bad spelling continues) which is one of the coolest places in rome for late night partying. i am really excited about it, but i am disappointed heading into the weekend because THE snoop d-o-double-gizzle was supposed to play rome on saturday but the show got canceled today. bummer. I am still going to stay in town this weekend, so maybe i won't bore you to death with another monster post like this next week. Hope you are all having the time of your lives like i am, and feel free to drop me an email (jwarmuth@slu.edu) or a fb message any time.
This weekend i went to cusano mutri, a tiny little mountain town where they hold a mushroom festival for 3 weeks a year. The first thing that sticks out in my mind about the trip was the amazing food. Mushroom veal, chicken, spaghetti, and some delicious sausage and bread. The three meals i ate at the festival are among my favorite meals of all times, even including the one i almost died during because of the most brutal hangover i have ever experienced. I met some really cool people i hadn't had a chance to get to know too much yet, and the group in all was just awesome to spend time with. There were two paleontology museums we went to while there (something about an ancient lagoon that lead to perfect fossilization. It was really interesting but looked like a 8th grade science project. apparently there isn't a lot of funding for tiny mountain town paleontology museums in the world.
Tuesday night was one of the most fun times i have had in my entire life. There was karaoke in rinaldo's, the snack bar and rec room area of campus. They gave out two beers per person, but most of us could afford to spring for our own alcohol for such an event. It seemed like the entire campus was down there, and everyone was singing along to every song, while dancing like it was 1897, but at one of the seedier establishments of the gilded age. girls were twirling and dipping and singing and generally looking great, while the guys were sweating and shuffling our feet and trying not to look like we possessed two left feet. it was so much fun.
The hits just keep on coming, because a lot of us woke up early and went and saw his holiness the Vicar of Christ on Earth Pope Benedict XVI. It was a great great experience to see how much he meant to all of the people there, and i really have never seen anything as impressive as st peters square full of people cheering, with a full papal entourage in front of the most impressive church i have ever seen and il Papa sitting right there. The woman in front of me burst into tears and the audience was incredible. They did everything in 5 languages (italian, german, french, english and russian) and the man who spoke in english had one of the coolest voices i have ever heard in my entire life. The experience was one i will truly never forget.
wednesday night was our first calcio game, and was it ever awesome. Calcio means soccer in italian (or so i've been lead to believe) and there are 10 teams made up of JFRC students, SLA's, administrators and teachers. The first games were interesting, because it seemed like everyone was so rusty or had never played soccer before. Based on my history of body building and marathon running, it was decided i should probably play goalie. I was nutmegged for the first goal against my team, but after that i kind of held my own. it turned out that i was not that big of a factor in the decision, as one guy on my team had 5 goals, and another had a hat trick. We ended up winning 11-6, and no other team scored more than 5 total. I had a really flukey goal about a min and a half into the game when i lofted a kick down the middle of the field and the other goalie didnt judge it right and it went in. it made me feel bad for the other goalie, but hey, i got my goal for the year, so i'll be fine.
tonight i have a party set up by my philosophy teacher down in trestevere (the bad spelling continues) which is one of the coolest places in rome for late night partying. i am really excited about it, but i am disappointed heading into the weekend because THE snoop d-o-double-gizzle was supposed to play rome on saturday but the show got canceled today. bummer. I am still going to stay in town this weekend, so maybe i won't bore you to death with another monster post like this next week. Hope you are all having the time of your lives like i am, and feel free to drop me an email (jwarmuth@slu.edu) or a fb message any time.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Cinque Terre
Hey guys, i figured i would put a quick post up about last weekend before i headed out for a great trip this weekend. I spent the weekend in Cinque Terre, or the 5 lands (cities, whatever) We spent the weekend drinking with australians, hiking on intense trails and loving the sweet mistress 4 roses (a sweet brand of burbon i would recomend).
We stayed in Riomaggore (spelling has never been my forte, and i dont feel like looking anything up, so just understand you are getting approximations). It was a really picturesque and we had a great time swimming and laying out on the rocks.
at this point, i feel it might be good to add that i was the only one out of the 15 of us that:
wasnt jacked
didnt know everyone
smoked
lived, or had ever lived, in the midwest
it made for an interesting time, and i got to meet some really great people though.
We ate some pizza on the street (10 euro for a gigantic pie) then got into the business of drinking four roses. me and my friend danny polished off the bottle in a hurry, which prompted my knew friends to do whatever they could to quench my thirst. a little rum here, a swig of vodka there, pour in some vino rosso for the trouble and presto! your alchemy project has netted you a drunk john.
danny and i were a little, shall we say, tender then next morning and decided, you know, we wont wake up at 9 to go hiking. In the end we finally made it out of bed at 1:30, but still managed to make it to all five cities (four by walking and the last by train). The cities were all so beautiful and the pictures i didn't take would have been great.
Other then that, nothing too much going on. There is a school study trip to the mushroom festival at Cusano Mutri this weekend, and where you find mushrooms, sans psylosiben, (you see what i mean about the spelling) you will find me. I will hit you guys back with another update sometime next week about this week, and jim, i will get back to you about that matter we discussed, the situation looks decidedly unpretty. hope you kids are having a great time in your lives, and feel free to drop me a line, jwarmuth@slu.edu.
We stayed in Riomaggore (spelling has never been my forte, and i dont feel like looking anything up, so just understand you are getting approximations). It was a really picturesque and we had a great time swimming and laying out on the rocks.
at this point, i feel it might be good to add that i was the only one out of the 15 of us that:
wasnt jacked
didnt know everyone
smoked
lived, or had ever lived, in the midwest
it made for an interesting time, and i got to meet some really great people though.
We ate some pizza on the street (10 euro for a gigantic pie) then got into the business of drinking four roses. me and my friend danny polished off the bottle in a hurry, which prompted my knew friends to do whatever they could to quench my thirst. a little rum here, a swig of vodka there, pour in some vino rosso for the trouble and presto! your alchemy project has netted you a drunk john.
danny and i were a little, shall we say, tender then next morning and decided, you know, we wont wake up at 9 to go hiking. In the end we finally made it out of bed at 1:30, but still managed to make it to all five cities (four by walking and the last by train). The cities were all so beautiful and the pictures i didn't take would have been great.
Other then that, nothing too much going on. There is a school study trip to the mushroom festival at Cusano Mutri this weekend, and where you find mushrooms, sans psylosiben, (you see what i mean about the spelling) you will find me. I will hit you guys back with another update sometime next week about this week, and jim, i will get back to you about that matter we discussed, the situation looks decidedly unpretty. hope you kids are having a great time in your lives, and feel free to drop me a line, jwarmuth@slu.edu.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
First week
Well, since getting back from our trip things have settled down a little bit. I got separated from my friends again while downtown, apparently something i'm going to have to learn to deal with.
The first mass in the chapel was cool, there is a new priest here for this semester, and he seems like a really sweet dude. Fr. Al even came into the first mass blind and just asked for volunteers to do the readings and the procession of the gifts and act as eucharistic ministers (i stepped up and did the readings).
I have stayed in since the getting abandoned (well, mostly just lost, but i like to act the victim time and again) because i spent a pretty penny that night when left to my own devices.
I have spent an ungodly amount of money in the past 5 hours actually, as i sit here writing this. i just signed up for the study trip to cusano mutri, bought books (and that hurts double, i havnt bought books in forever) and then agreed to go with a friend to cinque terra, where we will go hiking (think spring break arizona style hiking). So now i have to try to develop a whimper and a limp and sit outside the pantheon so i can afford to drink for the rest of the semester.
Actually, the vino flows like wine from the 5 liter jugs for 5 euro (even better than 5 for 5.95). seriously, its the popov of europe, and its not like i know any better as to what good wine is.
Classes so far have been sweet, i have a baller ass philosophy teacher who actually moved the class outside, then once out there bummed me a cig. My italian teacher is really energetic and kind of cute, and my history teacher.... well, i wasnt quite "on time" per se, so i dont know too much about him.
Other than all of that, all is well. if you guys have any extra money laying around, i'll take it, but an email or fb message would be just as good. jwarmuth@slu.edu
The first mass in the chapel was cool, there is a new priest here for this semester, and he seems like a really sweet dude. Fr. Al even came into the first mass blind and just asked for volunteers to do the readings and the procession of the gifts and act as eucharistic ministers (i stepped up and did the readings).
I have stayed in since the getting abandoned (well, mostly just lost, but i like to act the victim time and again) because i spent a pretty penny that night when left to my own devices.
I have spent an ungodly amount of money in the past 5 hours actually, as i sit here writing this. i just signed up for the study trip to cusano mutri, bought books (and that hurts double, i havnt bought books in forever) and then agreed to go with a friend to cinque terra, where we will go hiking (think spring break arizona style hiking). So now i have to try to develop a whimper and a limp and sit outside the pantheon so i can afford to drink for the rest of the semester.
Actually, the vino flows like wine from the 5 liter jugs for 5 euro (even better than 5 for 5.95). seriously, its the popov of europe, and its not like i know any better as to what good wine is.
Classes so far have been sweet, i have a baller ass philosophy teacher who actually moved the class outside, then once out there bummed me a cig. My italian teacher is really energetic and kind of cute, and my history teacher.... well, i wasnt quite "on time" per se, so i dont know too much about him.
Other than all of that, all is well. if you guys have any extra money laying around, i'll take it, but an email or fb message would be just as good. jwarmuth@slu.edu
Thursday, September 4, 2008
A tour de Italia
just got back from my orientation trip a couple hours ago, and we had so much fun.
We started in Verona (where i couldn't stop channeling my inner mercutio) and saw Aida, an opera about an Ethiopian princess falling for an Egyptian general. the singing was great, but the main part that i loved was opera was held in an old roman amphitheater, which actually predates the Colosseum by 50 years. The acoustics were so amazing that they didn't even have to mike the performers, and i sat where people sat almost 2000 years ago. The second night we decided to dominate the hell out of the hotel bar, and pretty much ransacked their wine celler. oops, guess the american in us doesnt fade easily
We then went to Sienna, a really beautiful city that reminded me a lot of Galway, with the gothic architecture and the small, college town feel. I started getting hit pretty hard by allergies, so i didn't get to go out and see the city at night, but a couple of new friends and i shared a bottle of wine out on the veranda over looking the beautiful city.
we finished up in Assisi, which puts san Francisco to shame with the number and grade of the hills. the people of the city must have the most amazing quads this side of the atlantic ocean. I got a chance to see the final resting place and churches of St. Francis and St. Claire, and hear a little more about their history and their impact on the Umbria region and beyond. It was a pretty moving experience to be in the presence of someone who had such a huge impact on the world.
The bus rides were pretty crappy and my allergies were annoying and all, but i feel like the trip was a month, not 5 days. Going out like that really let me key into the culture more then just a couple trips into Rome would have.
let me know what is going on back home, it would be great to hear from some of you. jwarmuth@slu.edu
We started in Verona (where i couldn't stop channeling my inner mercutio) and saw Aida, an opera about an Ethiopian princess falling for an Egyptian general. the singing was great, but the main part that i loved was opera was held in an old roman amphitheater, which actually predates the Colosseum by 50 years. The acoustics were so amazing that they didn't even have to mike the performers, and i sat where people sat almost 2000 years ago. The second night we decided to dominate the hell out of the hotel bar, and pretty much ransacked their wine celler. oops, guess the american in us doesnt fade easily
We then went to Sienna, a really beautiful city that reminded me a lot of Galway, with the gothic architecture and the small, college town feel. I started getting hit pretty hard by allergies, so i didn't get to go out and see the city at night, but a couple of new friends and i shared a bottle of wine out on the veranda over looking the beautiful city.
we finished up in Assisi, which puts san Francisco to shame with the number and grade of the hills. the people of the city must have the most amazing quads this side of the atlantic ocean. I got a chance to see the final resting place and churches of St. Francis and St. Claire, and hear a little more about their history and their impact on the Umbria region and beyond. It was a pretty moving experience to be in the presence of someone who had such a huge impact on the world.
The bus rides were pretty crappy and my allergies were annoying and all, but i feel like the trip was a month, not 5 days. Going out like that really let me key into the culture more then just a couple trips into Rome would have.
let me know what is going on back home, it would be great to hear from some of you. jwarmuth@slu.edu
Thursday, August 28, 2008
here i am
Hey guys,
I just made it in today, and already have slept through a mandatory meeting. I have met some pretty sweet people, and we have just been hanging out getting to know each other for most of the day. Our room is one of the biggest (411 for those of you who know the area) on campus, and our floor is the only one with balconies. Smokers porch? i think so. We leave tomorrow for the beach, then bus around italy, hitting up Verona for an opera, Ostia and Assisi. I hope school is going well, and i'll try to get you guys another update soon.
John
I just made it in today, and already have slept through a mandatory meeting. I have met some pretty sweet people, and we have just been hanging out getting to know each other for most of the day. Our room is one of the biggest (411 for those of you who know the area) on campus, and our floor is the only one with balconies. Smokers porch? i think so. We leave tomorrow for the beach, then bus around italy, hitting up Verona for an opera, Ostia and Assisi. I hope school is going well, and i'll try to get you guys another update soon.
John
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Four Days Remain
Hey all, this is my inaugural blog post for y'all. I leave here in a couple days and i figured this would be a better way to communicate than just an email list, (well, kirsten figured for me, but that's besides the point.)
I have avoided packing as much as i can, and have just spent a lot of my time hanging out, a big surprise i know. There is not much else to tell you about my life right now, but if you need to contact me while i am abroad you can email me at jwarmuth@slu.edu or just post a comment under the post. Thanks for visiting, come back soon and have a great semester/fall.
I have avoided packing as much as i can, and have just spent a lot of my time hanging out, a big surprise i know. There is not much else to tell you about my life right now, but if you need to contact me while i am abroad you can email me at jwarmuth@slu.edu or just post a comment under the post. Thanks for visiting, come back soon and have a great semester/fall.
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