Scut Farcas and his Todi...

Internet is touch and go here. Currently Mike and I are in a british pub having "the big american breakfast" which is disgusting. There are kidney beans all over (which actually are good despite my surprise that they now count as amercan) Its a fixed menu, so I couldnt get what i wanted, insalate caprese (Tomatoes and Mozzarella) The french toast is ok so i'm focusing on that, all for 10 euro (like 12 bucks)

I last left off on thursday waiting for orientation. THere are alot of kids here from other schools but alot are real lame. Most of hte americans wear very american things, i cant tell you how many are rocking philadelphi t-shirts. Oreintation was lame because so many of these kids are fresh off the boat and traveling for the first time in their lives they need such hand holding. THe pizza at orientation was disgusting as well, we came all the way to rome and they provide us the equivilant of domino's. Mike David and I dipped out early and met up with Josh, Ina, Lauren, and Nancy and had dinner in a southern part of the city whose name i don't know. We had the traditional european dinner of wine bread primo, secondari and such. Then we went ot another bar and stumbled on home.

Friday was alot tamer because we had to be at the bus to go to Todi by 7am and Mike and i didn't know how to go get there so we knew we would have to wake up real early. Mike and I got lost heaing to orientation because we couldnt find the TIber River as our land mark and we didn't know the italian to ask for it. We do now (Fiume Trevere)  SO we showed up 45 minutes late and after being at orientation for 15 minutes we decided to leave again. All they talked about was how to do this or that in the residence hall which we arent living in and so cared nothing about. When they started talking about how to order coffee we had enough and left with our little posse of josh, ina, lauren, nancy etc.  We got lunch at a pizza place that wasnt very good and then got lost walknig home. It took 3 hours in the rain to find our way but it was still fun. Later that night Mike and I plodded around to get our bearings and check out Campo di Fiouri and some other neighborhoods. We found TIber Island and the Sacred Area which is osme old structures that look like the forum. Its cat city there. THe people of rome feed the cats that live in the ruins and there are calanders every where with "Il gatti di Roma" (Cats of Rome)   In america we have pigeons, russia was dogs, rome is cats. 

Mike and I found the bus ok without a map, we were lost but it worked out. THe bus ride was hella long and they refused to unlock the bathroom on the bus because the driver didnt want to clean it.We stopped at a rest stop and just was we were about 5th in line a woman asked if her daughter could cut ahead and of course we were like sure. Then a whole busload of little girls cut ahead so we went from 5th to 25th in line. Painful.

The roman country side is amazing, so pastoral. It looks just as it likely did 1000 years ago with sheep on the hills and little villas. It is sad my camera can not caputre the majesty of the views here. First we went to Todi, which is this mountain top village. It was not very exciting, but the views were amazing. We were only there for 2 hours then we went to a resort thing (agriturisamo) to have an 11 course lunch/dinner thats all made there. It was great! first we had pizza and bruschetta  then what was like macaroni and cheese pie but with out hte noodles. Then we had boar sauce over noodles, lamb, salad, asparagus rissotto, tons of wine, tiramasu, biscotti, caffe, potatos   i dont know i lost track of it all. The bus ride home was miserable because this time we didnt get a rest stop at all and everyone had a bunch of wine so it was a mad sprint for the restrooms of the city. We just chilled with some 1 euro bottles of wine and bullshitted for a few hours then plodded home. Rome is so easy to walk around in, i havent messed with the buses or metro, id rather just walk. We have the day off today before classes tomorrow  so i think we are going to visit some fountains or something. We're both a little hungover so we arent looking for anything to strenuous. I'll post some pics!