Beware of the Zingo...

Ciao Rega!

Come state? Tutto a posto?
(These are the usual introductory phrases being used in a standard Italian meeting.)

Some time has passed since my last posting and some people might think I have been busy...but guess what, I have been lazy as fuck...this Erasmus semester is becoming a 4 months holiday...nothing compared to the stressed work&uni life I used to have at home...
However, here some news...

Friday we went to see the Stiff Little Fingers at Forte Prenestino...it was fun, they were playing really well, sound was good, they played most of their hits (except for Dead of Night, which pissed me off!!). But to be honest, I had the impression they were a bit arrogant...maybe Im wrong...I dunno..
Saturday was another show, Forty Winks *clickme*, an amazing & in my opinion totally underrated Italian rock band from Bologna, who played at Traffic. There, a friend of mine introduced me to this strange drink called rhum e pera - you get one shot of rum and one shot of pear juice and you drink the rum first, followed by the pear juice...it's sweet and after 6 of them, I was a bit tipsy (Grazie Stefania!!). The good thing is that my Italian gets better with every drink which is a nice side effect!
The night ended with some crazy Guitar Hero gaming in my room with the whole Forty Winks gang who slept at my place since they had no other place to stay...

The day after we were supposed to go out for lunch with the band& some friends but being a bunch of lazy cats, we didnt...we really wanted to but at about half of the way, we decided to go somewhere else...and we rode through town....here some pics of things you see when you ride through Rome on a Sunday afternoon...

We ended up close to the Vatican in a place called "Mondo Arancino". There you get strange food from Sicily called arancini (which means "little oranges")..these are fried balls of rice with vegetables, cheese and/or meat inside....here you see me with one of them...

On Monday, I went to the usual, pretty interesting uni course on "Lexique de l'informatique et des nouvelles technologies", but the day after, things started gettin weird. As I have mentioned before, Italian universities and schools are on strike these days because of a new law that has been installed. So when I arrived at uni for the Italian course, there was no one there and I went home again. Yesterday was the sciopero generale, general strike of all schools and also the uni. There were several manifestations all over Rome, one even got out of hand - see here. So I was not sure if I should even go to uni. I wrote some postings on the uni forum, no one answered. In the end, I stayed at home because the people I asked about it, told me they highly doubt that there were any courses....
Today, I would have to go to one course (a very boring one)...but I got into this sciopero thing and now Im sympathizing with the poor Italian students....(Im being ironic here...)

Maybe it's also the fact that this afternoon Im going to buy a acoustic guitar!!!! I can't wait...after 6 guitar-free years, I'm back again!
However, this morning I burned my right index finger while brewing coffee and now it's a bit difficult to write, so I better shut up...

Have a nice afternoon, Baci

SELLING!!!!

a pair of T.U.K creepers ballerina, size 39, which look like this for 20€!! I bought them 1 day ago over the internet but unfortunately, they dont fit me!!!

Send me a message if you want them....

Agli italiani piace scioperare

This afternoon, I went to uni for my usual French course but there was no one there except for another student wondering why there was no course...
I realized that the course didn't take place because the Italian universities and also some schools are on strike because of this !!! (*click me*)
Berlusconi warned the students that if they continue to occupy the uni, he will send police forces....what a nice premier!!!???
Some students claim that this strike will even get worse and that in some faculties no courses might being held...If this is the case, Im fucked since I need to follow some courses...
However, my flatmate Valentina told me that at this time of the year, university strikes are usual and I should not worry because until November, the situation will have calmed down again...
Im happy today that I didn't have to listen to Prof. Dumenil's boring monologue....

Tonight, we go to see the Stiff Little Fingers, another old punk band from Northern Ireland, who play at the Forte Prenestino...
I'm really happy to see them since you can never know if you will ever have the chance again....they are as old as my parents and I think at some point they might consider to retire...

All lost in the supermarket...

I can no longer shop happily...
This The Clash song perfectly describes how I felt yesterday evening, when Francesco&me went to a big shopping center (si chiama Porta di Roma) close to my house to buy some stuff....and we ended up buying some food in a huge supermarket called Auchan. This store is so immense that I felt totally lost and confused...it's full of special offers, which are no real offers if you recalculate, and basically they have everything there, even an Auchan SIM card....but who buys all this shit??? How do people get the money to buy all this?
The prizes in Rome are freaking me out - everytime I go to buy the basic stuff you need everyday like milk, salad, yoghurt or cookies, I pay at least 20€, although I check the prizes and do not take the expensive stuff. One thing that shocked me was that as a girl, you should never go to Italy if you're having your period because buying tampax will ruin you!! I payed 6,65€ for one paket of a standard brand for 32 pieces...(Im sorry, boys, if you don't care about buying tampax but unfortunately Im a girl...Im awefully sorry)
This is what I looked like after the horror trip in the supermarket!

Another interesting but very disgusting thing happened to Francesco's car. He parked it under one of these tall cypress trees that are growing everywhere...and after one day, he went back to his car and found it all covered with bird shit. My friend Corina warned me about agressively shitting birds in Rome and I somehow couldn't believe it. I asked my friends here and they agreed - so NEVER stop or hang around under a tree unless you like being shit on!!

My friend Kurt (Thank you again, if you read it...) sent me a book called "Macht und Rebel" by Mathias Faldbakken, a hilariously nasty misanthropist from Norway...if you like reading Irvine Welsh, you will love this guy too!

Today is Wednesday, my diploma thesis day that I can spend at home investigating the American Dream...if anyone has found it yet, please give word...

Tonight, I'll go out to Traffic since it's the cheap drinks night there...4€ a cocktail (which basically are super strong since the skinhead guy behind the bar doesn't know how to mix for real) and 1€ the shot or shotini how they call it here...Francesco will provide the music so it might be fun...

Anyway, another useless blog from me, I hope you enjoyed...leave me some comments...it makes me happy...
Cazart...

Rome City Rat...

Ciao belli!!

This weekend I basically did nothing. Except for hanging on the internet, listen to music, watch videos and sleep. I didn't feel like going out or running around. I dunno. Sometimes I need to be alone.
However, I fell in love with the last The Distillers album called "Coral Fang". If you have the chance, listen to it.
And also the DVD on Hunter S. Thompson that has been released some time ago called "Gonzo - The life and work of Hunter S. Thompson". It made me realize that, in times like these ruled by beserk confusion and currupt politicians, we would need some people like Hunter S. Thompson to keep up the hope that there are still some honest guys in this world.

I decided that I need a new hairstyle and made some experiments. (see pics)
I also have a new friend - his name is Tommy Toe and he looks like this (see pic)
Yesterday, Francesco and me went to the Circolo degli Artisti because they had a Vintage market there. It was ok but I wasn't in the mood to scrabble about in huge boxes of old stuff. But I bought a Leopard fur photo frame for 3.50€!!!
Ok, today I booked a flight for my Mum, my aunt Elisabeth and my little sister Anna-Lisa who are coming to visit me in Dezember and Im really happy about this.
And soon I need to go to uni to a very boring course....ahhhhh....

Mi mancate...

Eat

this...

here we go...

Ciao ragazzi!

Some days have passed and I again feel ready to give you some new information concerning my daily Roman life...
Last Friday I went to a funny university course - It's a II anno specialistica course which means last year of studies. The teacher is a young French woman who doesn't speak a word Italian and this confused most of the course participiants because they were not really able to understand her. I had to laugh because the teacher seemed to have expected a way higher level of French...and ended up in a class like this...good for me since I didn't have any difficulties in understanding her and I was actually the only one asking questions in French...Brava Sonja!

Saturday afternoon I went shopping with Sarita. I needed to buy a new pair of jeans and found out that the new boys' jeans from Zara fit me perfectly well...so I bought a nice pair for only 25€! After that, Sarita and me had some delicious ice cream from a gelateria called "La Palma" close to the Pantheon which you can see on the pictures...and then, we went to visit her friend Alessandro who works in a tattoo store...as you might be able to figure out *g*...
When I came home I only had the time to change clothes because I went to a free The Cure show on Piazza San Giovanni. There were about 500.000 people and the place was more than crowded, so I could barely see Robert Smith on a videowall!! They played the whole new album which was a bit weird but in a second part they made us all sing along their hits like Boys Don't Cry or Friday I Need Love...Later that night, we went to San Lorenzo to the bar with the cheap shots (si chiama Tirabouchon) I have already mentioned before...and we had a "crêpe con nutella e burro d'arachidi" (Nutella and peanut butter)...so fuckin delicious!!
However, the day after I had stomach cramps but since Francesco brought the Guitar Hero game, I quickly forgot about them and we (Gerry, Simona, Francesco and me) spent the evening playing like blazes...
Yesterday afternoon, I went running for the first time in 5 years...I felt like my lungs were falling out...and I ran so much, my socks died...

Ok, enough for now, I want a cornettone con nutella (and therefore, I'll need to go running again tomorrow!!)
Cazart!

Borring, borring, borring

Ciao a tutti!

Im gettin a bit bored here. Which mainly has to do with the university courses here - they are very, very boring. But I need to be happy since I found 3 courses in French, yes, believe me! So now I have found everything I need. But I need to go there...boring...ahhhh

I should take more pictures but Im actually too lazy or feel too stupid to bring a camera. But here are some pics of my flatmate Simona & me (her boyfriend Gerry (il grande) is unfortunately not on these pics) when we all went out together to a bar in San Lorenzo, which is the student area with lots of bars and pubs. There they have all kinds of shots for 1,5€. I had one called Shotgun (sour) and a Blowjob...yes the shot's called like this..according to its name it's a sweet one...

One thing I consider is funny is that Italian people are always standing in front of clubs and bars, even when it is freezing cold, which has to do with the fact that you are not allowed to smoke inside. So in the evening you see crowds of people outside, standing together like penguins or even sitting on the floor, with drink or without, talking (a thing they like to do very much!!). And then my friends wonder why I get bored so easily when they take me to go out....
Another weird thing is people on scooters, even women in highheels (a phenomenon you see quite often here), smoking while driving...or doing phonecalls...some, if they have a clamshell phone (ein "Klapphandy", des wird sonst zu speziell..), tuck the phone inside the helmet somehow and talk casually in the insane Roman traffic!! Sono tutti pazzi....(= they are all crazy...)
One pic of the traffic from inside of a car...sometimes you are stuck for more than one hour on the "tangenziale", a highway around Rome, without any obvious reason...
Well, I guess I need to bring my camera...for some more interesting pics...
I don't know if I go out tonight..we'll see...since my brother gave me some work to do...I could also stay at home and watch the new documentary on Hunter S. Thompson...
Music of the moment: The Clash - Straight to Hell, M.I.A - Paper Planes (who uses a sample from Straight to Hell), Die Hunns - You Rot Me, The Libertines - Can't stand me now...

In a contemplative mood

Hello again...

Days are passing fast when you are busy. And even if you're not, time is mostly too short. My last days have been marked by various difficulties: no money (which fortunately has changed now, I got my study grants from Vienna for this month), chaos&disorder at university and a mind full of weird thoughts that sometimes make me hate myself.
Actually some things are going very well here - my flatmates Gerry&Simona are really super nice! We have already been out together twice and they are always helpful if I have questions, e.g.: about the cheapest supermarket here or buses or pasticceria or pizzeria - they know it all!

Nevertheless, the thing that freaks me out the most is this madhouse they call a university here - no one can really tell me which courses I can take or not. And funnily enough, 99% of the language courses are being taught in Italian which sounds kinda insane to me! They want you to learn French and English by talking about it in Italian!? How weird is that? Up to now I have only found one French course which is actually taught in French and which seems of a acceptable standard...
To solve the problem of my other courses I complained via Email to a French lector who fortunately has decided to help me with setting up the rest of my study plan.
For my missing English course, I will do one on American Literature with a nice professor to whom I talked today...we'll see...he told me it'll be easy for me...no pain, much gain!

However, behind all this academic mess Im generally pretty weird these days. Im in a new city, a very interesting one, but I feel a bit lost. Im not in the mood for going out or even exploring the town. I spend most of my days in my room on the internet, like a fuckin nerd, wasting time while outside life is rushing past me. I still feel a bit disconnected with all the stuff around me and I have no idea how to change this. I ask myself if this is going to change soon or if it's me who needs to make an effort to get into this semester abroad!?
It seems like Im in a strange period of my life, a phase full of questions to which I haven't found any answers yet. Maybe everyone is going through something like this at some point in life, but I guess it's the way we cope with it that makes us see through the spiderweb of insecurities and uncertainties....Im getting way too philosophical here...yuck!

Anyway, so much from me for today...pics will be added soon...in the meanwhile I advise you to read more Hunter S. Thompson and learn how to cook because this might be useful somewhere down the road.

Saluti dall'Italia

Gotta gotta gotta get addicted!!

This university is a mess! I found out that 99% of the French courses are being held in Italian!! And there is no help for Erasmus students because the people from the Erasmus office send you to someone else who then is not there or who doesn't know anything helpful. But in the end I realized that the best thing is to go to some of the courses who might be in French, talk to the teacher and let him decide if I can do this course...because no one can tell me what to do...so I found 3 courses - they start next week...we'll see how it works..if they let me
Additionally, I wanted to check for my Italian exam results - they should have been indicated on a bullentin board together with the starting dates of the Italian courses. But what I found in reality was a mere list with my name on and a little paper saying: Starting dates for the Italian courses will be indicated on the October 8. Ma che cazzo???? (Meaning "What the fuck??")
One good thing is the food here...im gettin addicted to the pizza of a little pizzeria a taglio (which means you only get slices to go and not whole pizze)in viale Somalia - if you ever come here, go there!!
And today we (meaning Francesco & me) cooked the first pasta in my flat in Rome. It was very simple but good...even though my flatmates (who cook immensely well) secretly laughed at us I think...
And im checking out the city...always a nice little ancient thing to find...