roma!

Rome was an experience: from the Colosseum to the Vatican to the Pantheon, Rome has alot of wonderful scenery to offer..(see facebook photos). Dining out is seriously an ‘event’ b/c people spend at least 2hrs literally to eat..but, when it comes to nightlife, er clubbing is sparse. And even if you end up somewhere late at nite, not even the young ppl can tell you what transportation is available!?? The Roman nighttime activity consists of ‘enoteca’ or wine bars. We did manage to randomly come across this club ‘GILDA’ –also an experience. I’ve highlighted some main points below of our Roman adventure. Enjoy! Thursday: Train into Rome, checked into our apt for the wknd, and ate mucho gelato. Friday: Sightseeing and the Ombrelli (umbrella) man - it was raining ridiculously and the ‘ombrelli man’ was everywhere- and they all ‘looked the same’ – Indian/east African somalian, whatever, they were selling ‘ombrelli’. Now, we passed one particular salesman who was like, “ u want ombrelli? It’s very nice, “ with this sly smile on his face looking directly at me holding my umbrella, so i politely declined...but please tell me yyyy the whole rest of the day after being accosted by numerous other ombrelli salesmen, it starts pouring rain, and gusty winds..and what happens ppl? Of course my ombrelli turns itself inside out—and all i kept hearing in my head was ‘u want ombrelli? It’s very nice..’ and at this point, i was desperately looking for a friggin ombrelli man,and lo and behold, behold and lo, here comes an ombrelli man walking down the same winding side streets as was i..(i was on my way to a restaurant which was closed by the time i found it, and he was probably on his way to refill on ombrelli). .. After getting lost in pouring rain and being hungry, and purchasing my 5 euro ombrelli we happen upon this restaurant that was open till 1am. Here’s the gotcha-gotcha: im on my way out of the restaurant and realise that someone has stolen my ombrelli, now you know i was hella pissed at this point. Wtf? I just spent 5 euros! Grr...so, the restaurant owner gives me another patron’s ombrelli that was left behind. Oh, but the story continues.... Saturday: Shopping, Lunch, Asian internet cafe, GILDA nite club. Gotcha-gotcha #2: Saturday – please NOTE it’s raining again and my new ombrelli gets battered by more wind and rain. But, that’s not the issue... I go for lunch and leave my ombrelli at the front of the store like the other millions of ppl did. This time, i thought i was slick – i tried to ‘hide’ my new ombrelli by placing it ‘far away from’ everyone else’s ombrellis...and whaddya know? SOMEONE STOLE THE NEW OMBRELLI THAT I JUST GOT AGAIN? I was like, no this sh*t is getting ridiculous now. So..i took someone else’s ombrelli AGAIN...(glad to say it’s still with me.) As it is impossible to live without internet even for a wknd, we stroll into this Asian internet cafe- and this one was much cheaper than the internet cafe we went to Friday nite—why?? because it’s run by Asians..i know that is stereotypical, but...Anyway, there is a big ass sign that reads ‘no smoking’ but these asian kids were smoking and ‘gaming’ as if they didn’t see any signs..but we decide to withstand the smoke cuz like i said that cafe was cheap as hell – they charged one euro for an hr. BUT the problem was that we were typing American key commands on a keyboard that had European and Chinese characters on the buttons. So when i tried to press ‘alt 1’, for example, a dash comes up, although an ‘!’ should appear.. So everything was all screwed up ?!? It took like 10 minutes to find the damn ‘@’ sign to check my email..wtf?!? GILDA: after the asian cafe we go to Piazza di Spagna cuz there was supposed to be a pub crawl, but we missed that and ended up at this ‘exclusive’ club called GILDA. First of all, it’s the night before Easter, but ppl were in there regardless...drag queens and dancers on stage, all of the Americans from the pub crawl, and some man dressed like Superman, and another like Popeye...so, we didn’t know what was goin on. But, we did meet some cool guys – (see facebook) Scotsman- Carl who kept giving hi-fives all nite and wondering where his friends kept disappearing to, and disappointed when he found out Adrienne was taken, and Tarek-aka Egypt, Carl’s cute friend who kept disappearing to smoke..LOL. At the end of the nite, he scribbles this note for me: “You are exotic, phenomenal, and fine!!” – I assumed that last word was fine cuz like i said, it was scribbled. Either way, I got Egypt and Carl’s contact info, and we are even fcbk friends now so you know it’s looking quite positive.LOL. Sunday: More Sightseeing, and the DAMN NITE BUS... We needed to catch a nite bus from Rome to the airport for 5am and OMG! The nite bus fiasco was icing on the cake! Yyyy does no one know how to catch a night bus, or which bus goes to the airport? b/c buses don’t run on a particular schedule, they just run...and none of the young ppl go out at nite i guess? So It took us half the day to get bus information which should’ve been available at the train station, but the workers at the train station didn’t know anything either. Such a headache! But of course we made the flight and continued to our 8hr layover in Frankfurt, Germany...which is another story in itself...

too much activity

heello all!
yours truly has returned. sorry, coursework just kept 'getting in the way' for the last 2 wks.LOL.
i've had a design study (protocol for my thesis' experimental design, scientific poster, NHM Student Conference, and debate on Stem Cell Research to attend to...and that sums up the remainder of coursework for this semester. heels yah.
..and amidst studying i managed to make time for cinema -'the other boleyn girl' and celebrate my flatmate bahar's bday(dinner + karaoke) this past saturday....however, couldn't make it to london st.pat's day celebrations on sunday =( it was just another excuse for me to drink anyways- but, we all know i cant give up 'the bottle'.

on 'the other boleyn girl': i liked the movie - it paralleled the first half of the novel which i managed to read before seeing the film, buuuut...maybe i'll get around to finishing the book.(ya right?)

on karaoke/bahar's bday: first of all, i decided to meet everyone @ dinner seeing as how i had coursework to do, but i ended up gettin lost, mind u, in the damn rain, and of course my umbrella decides to fall apart leaving me AND my hair wet..all that flat-iron effort for nothing.lol.
but, the better part was the karaoke..we went to this place called 'k-box' which is LITERALLY a hotel with every room transformed into private 'karaoke bars' with screen, couches and all. aaand what karaoke bar wouldn't be complete without....A BAR! yes ppl, there were a couple bars dotted throughout the hotel.nice touch- really. but, karaoke would've been better if everyone sang, and not just half the group.....

that's the run-down of the past 2wks, just in case you were wondering.

the next 6 wks promise to be even better though. here's the line-up: no lecture tomm(wednesday), rome(thurs to next monday, happy easter to me!), one lecture each next tues and thurs, and then...drumroll please.... a 3wk easter holiday!! and 2 wks without lectures to revise for exams. hahaha.

oh yah - dont get too excited yet though, because i realistically need 4 of those weeks to do some revision. i'll try not to let 'ms.procrastination' take over.

alrite guys, pz out it's naptime.
check out the site if you're interested:
EDUCATED BLACK PPL

a lack of social activity

i am absolutely ridiculous. i had no papers due this week, and what did i do with aaaall my time since wednesday? NOT A DAMN THING. i have written nothing related to coursework ppl, nothing. however, i did find time to buy 'the other boleyn girl' novel by philippa gregory (a good read thus far), watch 'juno', and 'no country for old men' (horrible!), and start planning my easter holiday. i'm surprised i'm actually writing in this blog right now....

my wknd was a flop. i was supposed to go out for drinks on fri.nite, but that was a bust b/c my friend whom i was mtng was drunk at the club b4 i arrived. sooo, she couldn't respond to any of my txts or phone call. anywho, she apologized after the hang-over.

saturday was almost as bad. i honestly don't know how i wasted at least 10hrs in the day. i woke up @ 12pm, read my novel, played on the internet, helped my sis figure out her BF's hotel arrangements?, and then...here it is...i was supposed to go to this big trini party for a friend around 10pm. that was a bust b/c during the day i fcbk'ed this guy, and called him and left a vmail, and he decides to fcbk me after i decided to make other plans. grr. i ended up going out to 'verve' bar in leicester sq. it was fun, but i was actually in the mood for some soca.

sunday, well. at least i was semi-productive today. i was proactive in organizing a group mtng for a debate against stem cell research. we made headway. we really did. hmmm...this debate is actually going to be hard since my strongest arguments are from ethical/legal/social blaaah bases. NOT DAMN SCIENTIFIC. oh well.. i get points for attempting to study this wknd...