Pretty pictures

These photos were taken in Amalfi.













































And these were taken in Perugia.

This is how it goes when things are going well

Up until this point I've been working part time at Jack's job--The American Institute for Roman Culture. They have actually needed a lot of help, so part time has turned into practically full time. This has been ok, but I'm not a very good secretary, and I don't like being in a job that I'm not very good at. I secured two speech therapy clients through craigslist. One lives over an hour away. Not doable. I visited them once for an assessment, and that was all. The other lives in Frascati (20 minutes away). They pay for my transportation, time spent on transportation, and time in therapy. This is not bad--at least I'm doing what I'm good at, but it's really a pain. It takes 3.5 hours out of my day. I was starting to wonder whether I'd made the wrong decision accepting this job when I went to a meeting at the child's school yesterday.

The girl's neuropsychologist was there as well. She has a studio (read: clinic) in Rome. At this studio they have SLPs that speak German, French, and Italian but they really need one that speaks English. Oh...and one that has experience with children with autism. YAY!!!!

ah, napoli--seedy napoli!

naples is incredible: crowded, chaotic, beautiful, old, full-of-treasures, busy, bustling, scary, and smelly. it really has its own unique smell--not bad, but not exactly pleasant. like a warm beer on a hot day. just kinda tolerable.

excuse the lack of long explanations of the photos or the witty observations like those made by brandy. it's been too long since i've posted here and i want to gently get back in the swing of things. i'm pacing myself.



this is the galleria across from the museum. it isn't used much anymore (no A/C maybe?) and now is a wonderful place to kick a soccer ball.





here's an artsy picture of the cathedral in naples where once each year the blood of the patron saint who's buried there turns liquid again. yep, that's right. they believe it too. if it didn't happen, all of naples would freak out and mt. vesuvius would blow again.





here's a market near where i got my lunch. naples is the most densely populated city in europe and this store holds more selection than a big fresh plus type store. finally found some good spicey peppers and the freshest buffalo milk mozzarella. mmm...




in italy this doesn't mean "hook 'em horns." no, ma'am. it means "dear sir, i am having sexual relations with your wife and there's not a thing you can do about it and don't you feel low you sad, sad man?"

don't flash the hook 'em sign in italy.





here's a typical napolitano: they relax and talk alot. and that's compared to the rest of italy, an already chatty nation.

The Everything You Want to Know About Nora post

Her school
I hadn't been able to post anything about her school really because I didn't really know anything. Unfortunately I still don't speak Italian (and her teachers still don't speak English), and I'm not sure if you all remember this, but when you ask a child questions about school, they answer "Nothing." and "I don't know." and "Ok." You try piecing together the mystery of School In Italy from these clues. I have recently had a few revelations, and I now know a few more things. I can't remember if I told you all this before, but by law all food served in a school must be organic. If I'm repeating myself, excuse me, but I'm still blown away by this. They have snack two times during the day, and they are served little pieces of pie and sometimes fruit. For lunch they have a two- or three-course meal, prepared by the school's cook. Made fresh. From all organic ingredients. Sorry...but I just love picturing the face of the Italian kid's first lunch in an American cafeteria. Cardboard pizza. Fruit cocktail swimming in syrup. Mushy peas. Mound of pudding. Buon appetito.

Not only is Nora learning Italian, but she's also learning to write in cursive. I guess that's taught in the 1st grade here, so add that to the list of things that Nora has to learn in order to catch up. Poor thing. But she's doing very well in both areas. She can now count to 100 in Italian, and her accent sounds good while she's doing it. (Says the American who doesn't really know anything about Italian accents.)

So far we've had no communication from the school. None. They feed her everyday, and we were told that the school would communicate with us how much to pay. So far nothing. No welcome letter from the teachers. No calendar of holidays or menu for the cafeteria. So...I can't give you any information about any of this. But I suppose telling you that schools in Italy don't communciate with parents is information in itself.

We learned from a parent recently that there will be a meeting sometime this month where the teachers will tell all of the parents about the school year and the schedule. Every year they plan a different schedule, and I'm not sure if the planning is done AT this meeting, but it doesn't take effect until after the meeting. So at this pont Nora has not had art, P.E., music, English (ha), or Catholocism (actually she'll never have this one, but some kids do). After the mysterious meeting, I guess, she'll start having these other classes, but I'm really not sure about that because I just made them up based on US classes. I know they do English and religion. I know US kids do PE, music, and art. I also know that one shouldn't ASS U ME anything, and so far when I assume things here based on my own cultural experiences I've been wrong. I'll keep you posted after the mysterious meeting (where they will speak to me in a language I don't understand, so I can't promise I'll know any more then than I do now).

You might think that I'm going crazy with frustration about not knowing anything, but you'd be wrong. I've spoken to several American parents here who have told me the best advice they can give me is to simply trust in the school system. The kids come out well educated, and the parents have no idea about how it happened. "You'll drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out, and you'll never get anywhere." SO...I just bring her every day at 8:20 (or 8:23 sometimes, but we're never the last ones there. Not even close.), and I ask her questions about her day, and I get "nothing" in response. But she's making friends and she seems happy.

Her first birthday party
It was at McDonald's. There's a McDonald's very close to her school, so it's a popular choice for a party location. In fact we went there on Wednesday for this party, and we've got another one there today. (Wednesday's was the first party we went to, but Nora had been invited to two parties before this one. We weren't able to go to either for different reasons. Four parties in two weeks. Obviously Nora's making friends, and it seems very likely that Italians like to give babies as Christmas presents.

The birthday party was sensory overload. I had been warned that Italian parties were like this, but I was not prepared. 15 children, their moms, and a pimple-faced party organizer in a small room (with a terrible echo). The party activity was to design a dragon (drawing). Nora spent the alotted 30 minutes designing an intricate dragon. The other 14 children designed a dragon for 3 minutes and spent the rest of the time chasing each other around the table, flinging markers and pencils at each other, seeing who could punch the hardest, and screaming. Always screaming. The children were scolded twice for getting out of control. Obvious cultural differences over where the line should be placed for when a behavior is flagged "in" or "out" of control. I was feeling a bit like one of my autistic kids in an overstimulated moment when the mom's raised the out-of-control flag.

Good things that came out of the party: 1. We learned that the moms pool their money and get the child a big present that he/she really wants instead of 19 small presents that get thrown away in a year. This is great for us because a.) it's cheaper b.) we don't know what kids want or where to buy what kids want c.) we can't tell whether the kids are girls or boys (One kid is named Andrea. Long, curly hair. Bit of a tomboy Nora told us. Apparently Andrea is a boy's name here. Oops.
2. We also got all of the vague information about the school meeting from the one mom who speaks English. It's always nice to feel a little less in the dark. 3. We had a little giggle about the way the food was served to the parents. It's funny to see McNuggets and Fries in two large serving bowls. 4. The cake was yummy. 5. Nora had a blast, and the kids really do seem nice--just a little bit rowdy.

Webkinz
Ok...I know that Webkinz is really frustrating, but let's not lose sight of the fact that it's a website for children. We're bigger than them. Surely we can figure this out and beat them. In order to buy things, you must go to the menu and select the store option. In the store you can buy food and furniture and entertainment items for your pet. In order to feed your pet, simply drag the food (with your mouse) to the head of your pet and it will eat it. Easier than feeding a baby. To get more money (and to keep your pet happy) you have to play games. Go to the arcade or to the trivia place and play. I find that the trivia option is a very easy way to win money--what happens to water when it gets very cold? BUT if you miss a question can be very embarassing.

That's all for now. I've got to run. There's a bus strike and a demonstration going on, which means I get to walk to the train station. yay.

A post with very little organization, but at least it's something

Things I see/hear during my days that make me smile:

1. On the way to work, after dropping Nora off at school, I cross the Tiber on Ponte Garibaldi. I should back up a bit. There's a lot of graffiti in Rome. Some people actually cite graffiti as one of the reasons why they don't like Rome--it's dirty; there's graffiti, etc. Personally, I think it's useful. When the shops close at night, they pull down a big metal door that covers the door, windows, and often the sign of the building--effectively erasing all of the features I use as landmarks for direction. For example, I used to know to turn left at the window with button-down oxford shirts and that alley will lead me to the Campo de' Fiori. At night--no window. No shirts. I'm lost. Now I use the graffiti, and I turn left at Te amo, Sofia. Very useful. Anyway...I don't know what any of the graffiti says because I've never been good at making sense of labyrinthine letters, especially if they're in a foreign language. But there's this one tag on Ponte Garibaldi (this is where I started the story) that makes me smile. I've forgotten to take a picture of it, but maybe a description will be enough. The tag is in red and it says "Mommy." Such an ironic, vulnerable word to see painted by some (I picture) ruffian on a bridge. And I guess the ruffian thought it was a little too vulnerable too, so instead of a normal "y," he gave it a forked trident. Like the devil's. Making mom's all over gush.

2. I just finished teaching a 3-week English course for some architecture students. (I'll talk more about that later.) Their school was located on Via Cavour. As I said, the course is finished, so I don't walk home on Via Cavour anymore, so I don't see this next thing every day anymore, and again, I haven't taken a picture of it, but hopefully the following description will help. I'm walking along on the way to class, looking in shop windows as I go. Fashion is great in Rome, and window shopping is something I do often. Anyway...looking in windows...pet store, underwear store, men's suit store, and then the hugest shoes I've ever seen in my life store. "Those are big shoes," I think to myself as I step back on the sidewalk to glance at the name. "Big Shoes" the sign says. Why does this make me smile? I can't quite say. Apparently I find humor in irony and obviousness. Why is the sign in English? I don't know that either. Apparently, though, business is booming for Louis, owner of Big Shoes, and he's taken his enormous shoes to the wold wide web:

3. My office is located above the Campo de' Fiori. Every day in the Campo there's a market. Not a cheap market, but a market. For some reason there are many Americans in and around this area of Rome, hence the overpriced produce. The market is not without its merits, however. It's alive every morning with the most colorful fruits, veggies, flowers and people around.

One man has a stall that sells spices. Every day he has to pour his spices from large bags into smaller containers. This makes him sneeze, and his sneezes are even louder than my Papa's once were. (For Non-Windham's read: Louder than anyone who has ever lived. Ever.) And he doesn't sneeze once. He sneezes four, five, six times in succession. With every jarring sneeze, cheers erupt from the other stall owners, and so it goes for the spice pouring process.

The crowd also yells in unison when someone is blocking traffic (because small cars and silent buses(!) can drive through the sides of the market), when something falls and creates a loud racket, when someone does something funny, or for no reason whatsoever. Perhaps if I understood the language I could give better explanations for the nonsensical yelling, but I enjoy the morning chaos as it is. For a while I thought that the stall owners just put on a good show. To give the tourists what they pay for. But the more markets I see and stories I hear, I think that this is the way of the Italians. Loud, entertaining, and willing to make the most out of every situation.

Another group exists in the Campo. These people don't come out until after the market is closed. NB: What follows does not belong in the category of Things that Make Me Smile. This tirade would be better suited for the I'd Rather Poke Myself in the Eye with a Hot Poker Than...column, but I haven't started that one yet. So... I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a hot poker than listen to the musicians of the Campo de' Fiori for another day. Promptly after the market is closed, out they come. Accordians, violins, cellos, harpsichords, singers. Many types of instruments. One playlist. Volare. Somewhere Over the Rainbow. My Way. I'm sure that these people have done loads of market research, and this research has conclusively told them that if you want to squeeze money out of the tourists, My Way and Somewhere Over the Rainbow are the way to go. SO...I'm begging you, American Tourists, demand a change. They won't listen to me if you keep oohing and aahing and dancing and singing and paying and ENJOYING THIS MUSIC THAT THEY PLAY REPEATEDLY EVERY DAY RAIN OR SHINE DIRECTLY BELOW MY WINDOW. please. Maybe request a Beatles tune. Or Brown Eyed Girl. Every American tourist likes that. Right?

And now some pictures.

I get to go on great field trips with my job. This is a picture from an old Greek temple (yes, Greek. In Italy. It's that old.) in Paestum. Very little restoration work was done to this temple at all. It's just been standing there in a field for thousands of years.





I like to include pictures of Fernet whenever I can. This picture is on the side of the Antico Caffe del Moro, a cafe in Trastevere near our house. I like to call it "Civilizing the natives. One shot of Fernet at a time."






YAY!!! We got a new bird!!
Boo--They must have forgotten to snip
his wings.
His name is Roamy. Or maybe Romy or Rome-y. I'll have to ask Nora. Here he is at the top of our window, making it very difficult to get him back into the cage. Does anyone know how to snip a bird's wings? (I'm looking at you, Swanky.)







Honestly, who can not like graffiti like this?






Sometimes we wear out our dear little Nora. Here she is after walking to the top of the Aventine hill. (It's not really that big.)







Jugs of wine as large as my daughter for a fraction of the cost.



More later. Love you all.

Webkinz Info

For those of you chomping at the bit, anxious to school the 7-year olds at Tic Tac Toe, Nora's Webkinz user name is: Elinore (no idea why--my child can be a bit random). Her pets' names are Chicha and Rosie. But I'm pretty sure that you just need her username: Elinore.

Things I've learned/I'm learning/I may never understand in Italy

Things I've learned:

1. There's actually a digestive bitter that tastes good! Fernet Branca is strong, and it lets you know you're drinking something serious (and 90 Proof) when you're drinking it by the way it grabs you from your insides and threatens to turn them inside out. But for just slightly less alcohol content (70 Proof), you can drink Amaro and actually enjoy it. Think of how much prettier that experience can be. (Although it's not nearly as momentous an event, since I never once questioned whether or not I was going to die.)

2. I have also learned (this one’s for you, Cam) that olives are not only edible but also almost enjoyable if eaten with a little bit of meat or cheese. I’ve always described the taste of olives as an assault on my tongue (similar to Fernet, but with no benefits), so I’m shocked that I chose to handle an assault with no buffer at all. A little meat, a little cheese goes a long way. Someday, I may even enjoy them.

That may conclude the portion of things I've learned. Well...

3. I've learned that it's not wise to make statements about a culture or place before you've learned the language. I've taken some of these hasty generalizations to heart and suffered unnecessary stress from it. SO....most of what I have is

Things I'm learning:

1. This first one is actually one that Nora is learning. She's learning that the terms "river" and "lake" are not interchangeable. I'd like to thank Austin, Texas for this one. Almost every day when we walk over the Tiber, Nora makes some comment to me about how dirty the lake is.

2. I'm learning how to cross the street. Everyone knows that crossing the street is dangerous when you're in Rome. You're prepared for that. What I don't think people are prepared for is this: if you treat crossing the road as a dangerous thing, something you're afraid of, then it really is dangerous. If you are timid, slow, make false starts then you confuse the scooters and they swerve and then it's danger all around. BUT...if you step off the curb and onto the street, wait for a gap in the first lane, and begin walking directly and quickly across the street (making eye contact with drivers as you go), then no one will hit you, and you won't look like a tourist. People have even started asking me for directions. I know it's not my appearance. I think it must be my growing talent at this street crossing business.

3. I'm learning that gas water heaters are the best inventions ever and that I should have sent thank you notes to my utility providers every month with my bill.
You think electric bills are expensive there? HA! Every morning, my general cleanliness and odor revolve around this site:
Our electric water heater that's too expensive to use all the time, but it takes at least 2-3 hours to show any movement in the gauge. At the moment that gauge shows that there is very little hot water in our tank. This means that, with the faucet pointed all the way to hot, I could get a 5 minute shower IF I use the water in shifts. Wet hair. Turn off. Lather. Rinse hair, wet body. Turn off. Lather. And so on. Also remember that the water in Rome is piped in from mountain springs. This is fantastic when you're walking around the town, and you can stop at any number of ice cold drinking fountains. In the shower...it's not as appealing. BUT I'm learning. I'm learning to turn on the heater before dinner and turn it off before I go to bed. It just takes some time.

4. Unfortunately, I'm also learning a bit about E. Coli. Nora got two parakeets for her birthday, Sebastian and Olivia. Here they are: After a few days it seemed as though those birds were getting dirty, and I had a brilliant idea "A bird bath!" Birds love bird baths. I'll put a dish of water (shallow, so they won't drown) at the bottom of the cage. The birds will stand in it and splash and frolic and clean themselves, and everyone will be happy. Instead of cleaning himself in the water, Sebastian decided to drink the water after pooing in it. Here is a picture of the bird cage now: It may be difficult to see inside the cage, sorry for the quality of the photo, but instead of Sebastian, there is now a mirror. Oliva seems to be ok chirping to the mirror, but the whole ordeal is really sad. In fact Nora just came in and saw the picture of Sebastian and got upset all over again. Anyway...the point: I'm learning about E. Coli and that sometimes birds are just dirty birds and that's all.

5. I'm also learning that people really don't drink cappuccino after breakfast. I scoffed at Jack for this one because it sounded like one of those hasty generalizations, but nope. It's true. I still drink cappuccinos whenever I want to because I'm not Italian, and I think that's a pretty ridiculous rule, and I'll have a cappuccino whenever I want. Which is truly never. What I really want is a HUGE mug of coffee that I can sip in a comfy chair at a coffeeshop that charges me the same price if I choose to sit with my coffee as they would if I chose to stand at the bar. This is actually not fair. They do charge (almost double) if you sit down with your coffee, BUT they only charge like 85 cents to start off with. It's not a prohibitive cost, and I could sit down if I wanted to, but it's the principle. And anyway...the cups are so teeny, I'd be done by the time I sat.

6. I'm also learning that Jack is "the best...AROUND" (to be sung to the tune of the Karate Kid song) because LOOK what he found for me!! That's right. That's cilantro!! Words can not describe my excitement!!

7. I'm also learning that Italian schools are NOTHING like American schools. Here are the supplies that we were told to bring:
a bag that contains pencils, markers, scissors, etc (the bag actually comes with these things in it and NOBODY just gets a bag and fills it with the items--you can tell the difference, so we had to buy this item twice); a notebook; a "diario" (assignment book/diary); a placemat; and a cup. What we were not told to bring because it's normally expected that you know is that Nora was supposed to bring a toothbrush and toothpaste to brush her teeth after lunch. The placemat and cup are used after BOTH of the snacks that the kids have during the day. Their lunch is one hour long, prepared by a cook, and consists of two or three courses every day. The other day she had veal. They only get homework on the weekends, and they go to school from 8:20--4:20. There is no sort of ISL program, but her teachers seem very nice (there are two teachers for each room), and are really working with her individually to help her learn.

Believe me, this list is much longer, but we have to go home now, so I'll add more later.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Photo Post

It's been a really long time since we've posted anything, and the longer we wait to post something, the harder it gets--because there's more to say. So I think this post will be a photo essay...with very few words. I am compiling at the moment a three-columned list: things I've learned while living in Rome, things I'm learning, and things I haven't learned and may never understand. But for now, here are photos.



I'm pretty sure this is a Hobbit house, found outside a church near our home.

In Rome, there is a big festival at the end of August (or beginning of September, not sure if it celebrates the full moon or end of summer or what) called Notte Biancha. The entire town comes out and celebrates and every store/cafe/pub/bar/restaurant remains open all night. It's like the opposite of the month of August where every store/cafe/pub, etc. remains closed and the Romans are nowhere to be found. I think maybe this holiday began to celebrate the end of tourist season, but I could be wrong. Anyway...here Nora and I are looking out of the office windows, overlooking the Campo de' Fiori.

The whole town = a lot of people.
Photo taken at 3 A.M.

A gyspy and her baby.

My gypsy baby.

Nora loves Nutella.

Nora and Jack. My little gargoyle and pensive holy man.

I apologize that this picture is not rotated, but I really can't be bothered to go back and do it now. Jack, Nora, and I went to the nearby town of Frascati a few weekends ago. Frascati is known for its white wine, and here Nora can be seen pouring wine from the wall into a 1.5L water bottle. Total cost: 2 Euros. Not bad.

We are living in Trastevere--a "hip" neighborhood across the Tiber from the historic center of town. In fact, Trastevere means "across the Tiber." Lots of people congregate here in the evenings. This attracts buskers of varying degrees of talent. Most of them include some aspect of fire juggling in their routine. Two girls do an exercise routine, in what appears to be utter seriousness, to Cyndi Lauper. These guys may or may not have been performers in Cirque du Soleil. They were fantastic and performed to the music from Alegria.

From the top of St. Peter's basilica. (the one with the Pope)

This is Nora's first day of school. And this is one of her teachers, Serena. Her other teacher is Paola. They speak no English, and Nora speaks no Italian. I have more to say about this, but it will have to wait until the next post.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Skype Clarification

Ok--go to skype.com. That website has detailed instructions on what to do. It requires that your computer have a microphone, not necessarily a headset. Apples typically have microphones, PCs probably don't. That's really as much as I know. The website has more answers than I do. My dad was able to get Skype set up with virtually no help from me, so all of you in the Computer Generation better not have any trouble. :)

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Skype

How many of you have signed onto Skype now? Remember Skype? That great free webphone thing I was blathering on about last month? I need to know your Skype names so that we can talk. I also need to arrange times to talk to you all. Remember that we're 7 hours ahead and that we don't have internet at home, so we have to come to Jack's work to make this happen. Our Skype name is: jackwaiteroma
And yours is...? Leave a comment and let us know.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

We have gas!!

Never have I been so thankful for the discovery of fire than this last week. I woke up one morning and attempted to make coffee with one of these guys:
Put it on the burner. Turned the knob. Nothing. Jack scoured the interior of the apartment (which doesn't take long) and the outside. He turned every valve he found and nothing. No gas. Also, now, no water. (Luckily he figured out which valve that had been relatively quickly.) We realized that we didn't know if the gas had even been turned on. Gettting in touch with the landlord or gas company is next to impossible right now because all of Rome is shut down for August. So for the last...however long...we've been coming to Jack's work to cook and getting coffee out. Yesterday, however, I was poking around under the kitchen sink and found a new valve!! Gas! Fire! Coffee! Pasta! I literally danced around the apartment at the sight of the blue flame.
After coffee and lunch I was washing dishes when Nora noticed a small lake forming on the floor. Apparently poking around under the sink had loosened the PVC pipe/drain and all of our coffee/pasta was washing under our sink and onto our floor.

I've got fingers in the dike of my sanity.

Luckily I've got yummy things to eat, pretty things to look at, and Jack and Nora are here. And they've got fingers too!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

We Are Here

We made it!!! Before all the craziness erupted in London (whenever that was). I have to say that I think I am in a state of shock right now. Exhaustion, hunger, language barrier, and this world being so completely different from the world I am used to will lead to shock I guess. I would love to write more now (I would love to be able to write everyone a personal email as well) BUT I have got to go get some food now. It can not wait. Also, I can not contract words when I write on this Italian keyboard because I can not find the apostrophe. Look what happens: canàt. SEE! Thatàs not what itàs supposed to look like!! But my hunger is blurring my vision and I canàt find the correct key what with all these Euro signs and § and ç getting in the way. Just remember: à = apostrophe

I will write more later. Promise.
By the way-- everything is as beautiful and amazing as I remembered. I predict my shock will subside in a few days. Iàll write more then.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Excavation of Villa delle Vignacce

this is the excavation of the area. we've uncovered a wonderfully intact bath comlex: a hot water bath (caldarium), a warmish water bath (tepidarium), and a very cold water bath (frigidarium).
















I say "we incovered...", but it's really all of the people in this picture below who did the work.

















And below are the managers of the whole thing: Stefano, Alessio, Dar, Sara, and Dora.















This is Dora--the glue of the whole thing--putting the pieces together.
















and this is the view inside the bath, which had some amazing mosaic tiles from multiple ages.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Checking Off the List

Before Jack left we constructed a list of all the things we needed to do in Austin before going to Rome. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Avenue B Grocery.
Where fresh sandwiches are made in the back and the aisles are filled with all the specialty chip and drink accompaniments one could ask for. The man who runs the place is also part of the draw. Always good conversation while he's making your sandwich. (Especially during football season if you're into that sort of thing.) Actually, when I went in there a few weeks ago, I told him that his grocery was on My List, and he told me that I was the third person to say that to him that day. Enough said.

The Dry Creek Cafe
It's called a Cafe because there are wonderful delicacies like pickles and bags of chips to choose from. There's also one of the oldest juke boxes in town and a decor that has not changed a bit in the last 50 years. The chairs are still broken, so are the tables, and nobody has felt it necessary to invest in a fan or two. We sweat there last weekend for the 50th anniversary. Said "hello" to Sarah (the 93-year-old woman who owns the place, whom I affectionately refer to as the Beer Nazi) and enjoyed the best value view in town. (In terms of value in time, money, and headaches it beats the snot out of the Oasis any day.)

Hut's Hamburgers
Jack and I used to come here every Tuesday (or was it Thursday?) for 2 for 1 Southern Fried Chicken Night. Apparently so did a lot of others in Austin, and they stopped that special. They still do 2 For 1 Burger Nights, although their burgers are worth full price. As are their fat onion rings and fatty shakes and malts.

Tamale House
The one on Airport. The one with Migas that lay swimming in a soup of cheese. They are worth every pound to my hips and arteries.

These are all places that I've been going for over 10 years, and I'm satisfied with one last trip as a final goodbye. Or a see you later. What I am not ok with is only finding out now, right before I'm leaving the country, that there are other AMAZING GEMS in this city that I don't feel satisfied with yet! For instance this one:

Little Thailand
WHY did I not know that an authentic Thai restaurant resided in a trailer under the Garfield water tower? With a free jukebox? Where a Living Will can be completed for you while you eat? Honestly, is this the sort of thing that remains secret among friends?
Or this one:









Actually the picture isn't obvious but it's of the Independence Brewery. The fact that there's a brewery in Austin is "meh" exciting. The fact that they serve their beer free the first Saturday of every month is something I should have known about before now! And the only reason that I am still coming to Rome, Jack, is because this Saturday happens to be the the first Saturday of this month.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

my touristy walk

the first stop was the Pantheon, one of the best preserved buildings anywhere. originally built in 27 b.c. by Agrippa. rebuilt in the 2nd century by Hadrian. i can't quite find words to say how amazing this building is, so i won't try.








this is apparently the best espresso or cappucino in all of rome, which of course measn all of the world. it was damn good. i still don't know why a hot espresso is so tiny, while a cold, sweetened espresso is about 3x the size. who knows...









the madness that is trevi fountain in the summer...









and more trevi fountain. it is one of rome's reasons for being so powerful for so long. they always have had pure, cold beautiful water piped in through the aquaducts. this is a monument to one of them. all of the fountains in rome--and some are as small as fire hydrants that constantly flow small stream of water--are drinkable. and this with lead pipes that don't make kids mentally retarded because they have long been coated with minerals from the very rich water. it's so cold...so good...especially on a hot day. it turns faucets foggy with its cold.






and here is one tier of the spanish steps. you can't see the other 2 from this angle. in renaissance times, sexy people would hang out here, waiting to be seen and discovered by artists who would use them to immortalized as their subjects for sculptures and paintings.

not much has changed. the sexy still congregate here, joined by tourists with fanny packs and camera straps that take away any bit of sexiness.

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