Running past the Colosseum...

Before my clock turns to midnight I need to write!

Today's been relatively productive. I'm still trying to avoid getting REALLY sick, keeping my throat and head to a dull ache is the goal, so I turned off my alarm this morning and tried to sleep a little longer than usual. I ended up not really sleeping past 9AM, so I read homework under my two wool blankets - it was cold last night!

Class, turned in a paper, came home and made lunch and dough for sourdough bread (it ended up being a complete flop, but the house smells wonderfully sourdough-ish... It just didn't rise), then worked on the presentation I'm giving tomorrow. I had some trouble finding sources, so I'm trying to pull this thing together still now, at quarter to midnight. I did take a break and go for a run, though, and my route took me by the Colosseum. It was pretty much dark by the time I left, but I'd never actually been by the Colosseum after dark. They have lights inside and spotlights on it, so it's quite lovely (you can check it out on google images - I didn't have my camera with me, obviously)... Keys, ID card, phone, and iPod shuffle are about all I care to try holding.

I copied the image above off google because I liked the overview of it. I ran on the far side of the building - the area where the cars don't drive. My route brought me up along that main road from the left, but I broke off from the road about where the road becomes visible as it leaves the treest. It's all a pedestrian area behind the colosseum, and then I joined up with the road again on the right side and followed it as it fades off into the distance on the top right of the photo.

In other news, Orbitz is having sales on flights... $650 round trip tickets from PDX to Rome for the dates I typed in for March... Anyone want to come for a visit? :-)

The long (but authentic?) way

I think one of the greatest challenges, but also sometimes the most rewarding part about living is Italy is when it comes to my cooking habits. I love to cook. Or bake. Or do anything that involves making food because I like to EAT food! No, wait, actually I really dislike making salads, for some reason... You know, like rinsing the lettuce and tearing it up and grating carrots (I HATE grating carrots!). Which is odd, because I do like to EAT salads... Anyhow, my solution to that is to buy baby spinach all the time because you don't have to tear it up!

Grocery shopping is a challenge in Italy. It's a fun challenge. Since I can't read the language very well, I have to sort of just guess juding by pictures. We have a market every morning outside my front door, though, which works for getting produce. Here's a picture of one of the stands this morning:



The only thing I don't like about market shopping is that I don't know the proper custom for doing things - do you just pick through and hand things to the marketstand person? Or do you ask for them to pick it up? It stresses me out!

To my knowledge, Italian grocery stores don't carry yeast. You know, like breadmaking yeast? Anyhow, I brought a jar back with me from the states for when I want cinnamon rolls or bagels, but I also decided on Saturday to attempt to make my own sourdough bread starter. Here's a picture of the stuff in my jar sitting on our window sill... Now, the window sill might not be the best place for it, because it has to be kept fairly warm, but there is a radiator right under this window sill, so the jar gets the heat from it.



It's starting to get bubbly, which - I presume - is a good thing.

Also, you can see that there is laundry drying outside at our neighbor's apartment across the way. The Italian apartment-dwellers are really quite ingenious! We live on the 2nd or 3rd story (it's kinda hard to tell...) and they just string their laundry out the window. I'm not really sure how yet. We have a rack in our kitchen that we drape clothes over... and drape them over the cupboard doors... and over the bedroom door and bathroom door... Sometimes it's like a laundrymat here!

Time is an interesting thing here. It's a city, so people still walk really fast talking on their cell phones even faster and waving their hands like they're painting in the air in front of them, but dinners are long, drawn out affairs. And classes usually start a little late if they're taught by Italians because, as my roommates say, the teacher's "can't be bothered" to arrive on time. I like that part, though, because I'm always trying to do one more thing before I walk the half mile to class... Like feeding my sourdough starter! I'll let you know how that goes!