The oh so Infamous Bidet...

Since arriving in Spain back in August, I have encountered more bidets than I can count.  The bidet is a classic for Europeans.  Not so much for Americans.  If you don't know what a bidet is used for, google it.  I'm not particularly in the mood to write about it before eating my lunch.  I've always found the bidet to be a bit daunting.  And even with the private access to a bidet in both my old house here in Priego and my new apartment, I have yet to ever touch one.

I also question just how often the bidet is used for the reason it was created.  This can be attributed to the fact that I've seen many "creative" uses for the bidet other than its actual intentions.  I've decided to share with some of these alternative bidet uses below:

1. The Water Fountain:
I teach a variety of private lessons after my school day finishes.  The children of one family in particular use their bidet as a drinking water fountain.  Whenever they get thirsty, they find it much easier to use the bidet instead of getting themselves a glass of water.  As stated above, I have not found that level of comfort with my bidet yet.

Why drink out of this when you can drink out of a bidet??

2. The Laundry Basket:
I've have been to many homes where the bidet was used as a laundry basket for dirty clothes.  I guess it's just easier to toss your dirty clothes there?? I've been tempted by this, but again, I don't like the thought of having my clothes sitting on display in a bidet until laundry day Sunday. (At least that rhyme sounded cool.)

3. A Washing Machine:
Don't feel like throwing in a load of laundry-- duh duh duh the bidet is here to help! Simply wash your clothes (especially your delicates), in the perfect sized sink  After being used as a hamper all week, what can be more convenient then skipping the hassle of carrying your clothes to the actual washing machine, right?  

4. A Home for a Turtle:
One bidet I come across weekly with my private lessons is the home to the family's pet turtle.  I kid you not.  Luckily turtles are my favorite animal, so I'm not complaining when I get to the share the bathroom with this little guy.  (If you're wondering, the turtle's name is Juan.)

 How can anyone not love turtles??

5. The "cool" way to play with toys:
I've been lucky enough to see bidets filled with all sorts of things.  The most common is toys.  We're talking Barbies, Spiderman, Ninja Turtles, boats, etc.  I guess this is the cheaper alternative to the Barbie Dream house.   

Last but not least...

6. A Cooler:
I'm sure most of us have heard about people filling hotel bathubs up with cold water and ice to chill their beverages.  While the bathtub seems like a wonderful alternative to not having a cooler, its probably inconveniet to stick your hand into a giant tub of freezing cold water just to grab a drink.  A friend was nice enough to inform me that the bidet is the much "cooler" way to go.  (Get my pun??)   Because it is not as deep as a bathtub, it is easier to access and gentler to the hands.  Heck, you don't even have to touch the water.  The drinks in the bidet are perfectly submerged so that the tops are sticking out while the bottoms are sitting in the perfect amount of cold water.  I was even able to do a quick google research to see if this was a real thing...

 The not so "cool" way

The "cool" bidet way

Okay, I'm done with my lame puns.  I leave you with this new information.  And this cat in a bidet...

 

Back in the city where it all began...

Yesterday Sara, Luisa, and I ventured off to the beautiful city Sevilla.  Like always, the adventures began before even arriving in the city.  Sara's car decided to make a lovely noise as we were driving.  Terrified for our safety, we pulled over to the side of the road.  Thankfully a Spanish man pulled up along side us not long after and was decent enough to get down on the ground and take a look at the car.  Apparently, a piece of plastic that was protecting the bottom of the car was broken and dragging on the road.  He told us not to worry; just make sure to get the car checked out once arriving in Sevilla.  How reassuring of him -_-

We finally arrived to Sevilla and headed straight to a mechanic.  The man was nice enough to remain open passed his normal closing hours to take a look at the car.  To start, I don't know whether this is old fashioned or just plain smart, but instead of lifting the car up into the air, the man removed some boards from the floor and climbed down into it.

That's Sara in that secret hidden room under the floor looking up at her car with the mechanic.  After the mechanic used some rope to temporarily tie the piece back into place (again very reassuring), we parked the car and headed off to join some of Sara's friends for lunch.  The place we ate at was seated outside right along the river in Sevilla.  It was a typical Spanish lunch filled with lots of food.

After lunch, we parted ways from the group and headed off to the center of the city.  Walking around brought back so many memories from when I was visiting back in September.  It was kind of strange being back since it was with different people.  I spent my days in Sevilla with my best friends here in Spain-- Maggie, Maura, Katherine, and Ben.  We were inseparable during that time, so being back without them brought back a lot of memories and yearning for them to be back there with me.  I was fortunate enough to reunite with my old host madre.  She was with her sister and another friend and the six of us enjoyed tapas and drinks.  My proudest moment was being able to finally communicate with her!  Back in September, my Spanish sucked.  So talking to each other was like pulling teeth.  Last night, we had full conversations about everything!  It was wonderful!  The six of us were having so much fun, they decided to join Sara, Luisa, and myself out at the discotecas.  I felt like a kid who had just turned 21 and was out drinking with her parents.  I had never seen my host madre drink before let alone party.  It was quite the sight, but a ton of fun!

Attempting to flamenco... I'm clearly really good at it...

They parted ways with us around 1:00am because they were tired.  The three of us then decided to have fun with the Spanish boys.  Sara and I essentially swapped lived-- she told them she was from the United States and I pretended to be from Spain.  These boys were rather stupid to believe us because Sara doesn't sound American even in the slightest with her spanish-english accent nor do I even look remotely Spanish.  Poor boys.

The three of us called it an early night around 3:30am.  And as for today, we made it back to Priego in one piece (thank goodness).  We even had a nice picnic lunch outside of pizza and pasta.  (You would be surprised at how good Spanish pizza is!)

 The three of us last night!

Intentional Side Post...

Photos of the week

 

 This ladies and gentlemen is the most unappetizing plate of food ever to be seen.  However it is soooo delicious and I eat it at least once (okay really three times) a week.  It is Goulas (which I haven't figured out the English word for yet), eggs, and onions.  Basically Goulas is a type of seafood that looks like gray spaghetti.  I think its the tentacles to some sort of squid?  But anyway it is delicious and mixed with scrambled eggs and some sauteed onions makes for a heavenly lunch.  Sounds gross, but you can't knock it until you try it.  Get ready Mom and Dad for me to come home make this for dinner one night!!

 I spy a lady...

  ...cleaning the road.  Yes, that's a bucket and a mop.  This is a normal sight in Priego.  And while I do appreciate the cleanliness of knowing I could drop my gum on the ground and pick it up and chew it again, it still blows my mind.  The street continuously gets dirty, but the Spanish insist on continuously cleaning it.  It's a vicious cycle.

Frozen while watching "Frozen"

Today in school, we had a field trip.  The entire school (all 140 students) ventured out into the cold (and by cold I mean 42 degrees) to the local theater-- "Teatro Victoria."  The theater was presenting the movie "Frozen."  And clearly this was somehow educational enough for the entire school to find reason to go.  The school's method of "transportation" for field trips is walking.  This method always cracks me up because just imagine 140 students, from 5 years old to 12 years old walking the streets.  Better yet, imagine 140 students walking from the Sussex Middle School to Lorenzo's Pizzaria.  That's about the same distance and the same kind of chaos you could imagine.  Walking in silence is impossible just like riding on a bus to a field trip in the States is impossible.  So we created quite the spectacle.  People came outside to watch and greet the children or they stood on their balconies and waved.  Meanwhile myself and the other first grade teacher were in charge of stopping the 1st graders (I was assisting their class today) from getting run over by cars.  Complete chaos.  But somehow we all made it to the theater in one piece.

The movie itself was really good.  I think I would have enjoyed it more if:

1. It was in English
2. I didn't have to get up out of my seat 12 different times to take the little ones to the bathroom.
3. I wasn't sitting in my seat literally frozen...

I was FREEZING during the movie.  The theater didn't feel the need to turn the heat on.  And last night was very, very cold.  So like my current apartment, the theater was colder than the outside.  I watched the movie bundled up in my heavy winter jacket, wearing gloves, with my scarf covering my neck and mouth.  And I was still freezing!   Where's the brasero when ya need one?! The 1st grader I was sitting next to, Pablo, put his arm over mine when he heard my teeth chattering.  It was ridiculous.

**I do recommend the movie though, for both adults and children!

Aside from temporarily being an ice cube, this week was really good.  I learned about a cool new celebration typical of Spain-- Saint's Day.  Actually I made that name up.  I have no idea what it's really called.  But basically, most people in Spain are named after Saints.  Each Saint has a day dedicated to him/her.  If you're named after that particular Saint, you get to celebrate.  It's kind of like your second birthday.  This past week was Saint Alfonso's day, so one of my first graders brought in treats for the class and everyone sang him a song.  I was quickly informed by one of the first graders that my name sucked and that I should change it so I could celebrate too.  (Saint Kelly doesn't exist.) She suggested that I could use her name for now since I was stuck with mine.  Oh the honesty and generosity of children...

Speaking of Saints, I have the patience of one when it comes to children and old people.  Hence why I love working with both of those generations.  But when it comes to adults, forget it.  My patience is out the door.  This was seen this past week when one of my new adult students whom I'm giving private classes to, didn't do his homework.  Teacher Kelly was not happy.  I've got all of the tricks and incentives to get children to do their homework.  But how in the world do you get a full grown adult to do their homework?!  All I assigned was for him to find two new english words and write a sentence using each one.  How much easier could it get!!?? Bah.  I'm about to make the guy stand in the middle of the streets and sing a song of my choosing as his punishment.  Alternative suggestions welcome.

Next week is "Peace Day" at school.  In preparation of the celebration, I was told to come up with a song for the students to sing.  It was suggested that I use Marc Anthony's song from last year ("Imagine" by John Legend.)  Not. A. Chance.  I instead decided on John Mayer's song "Waiting on the world to change."  (I'm basically only writing about this to make my old roommate, Kira, proud!)

And following along with the topic of songs, the last two weeks, I have had very successful private lessons teaching verbs and animals.  Two songs that they keep begging me to play over and over again (and that are now ingrained in my brain) are these...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoSq-yZcJ-4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E8xMcXmI9E

I highly recommend watching both.  Please take note of the dog dancing in the second video.  And then imagine my students recreating the same dance in real life.  Quite the comedy show.

Last, I am sad to have to say goodbye to one of my students.  Him and his sister were my first students here in Priego.  And while I dreaded having class with them (mostly because it is nearly impossible to run a class and teach English to a four year old and two year old-- they're still learning Spanish!), I adored both of them dearly.  The boy unfortunately has to have surgery on his leg which will cause him to miss to many classes.  The parents felt it was best for him to spend his time recovering, and I couldn't agree more.  We parted ways after taking these photos...

The Mom was kind enough to send these to me :)

Tomorrow, I am off with Sara to Sevilla.  I'm excited to be back in the city where my love for Spain began! 

The Andalusian Accent

I finally decided today to do some research on the bane of my existence here in Spain: the Andalusian accent.

What started this research was when a fellow coworker complimented me on understanding a student who spoke in typical Andalusian fashion.  Meaning the student spoke some fragmented sentence in Spanish, and by mere luck I was able to instantly understand and give the student an answer in English before the teacher had a chance to translate.  Literally a miracle.

Now, I've heard many tales as to how the accent (really a dialect) came to be.  The most believable tale is that the dialect developed more or less because of the constant influence from other countries. Andalusia has been inhabited by many different people from many different countries over the years (Romans, Moors, etc.) and all of the different languages kind of morphed with Spanish into the language I deal with daily today.

However, I choose to believe a different tale shared with me by one of my Mother's friends.  With a bloodline coming directly from Andalusia, she was raised to believe that the dialect was created thanks to a former King.  This ruler of Spain unfortunately had a lisp.  The people, not wanting to offend the man who was in charge of their well being, adapted their "S's" to a "th" sound so that the King was not bearing his lisp problem alone.  As time went on, the King eventually passed, but the "th" sound did not.  Hence why it is still spoken today.  As for the shortening of sentences, the same can be said in that the people of Andalusia did not want to make their King speak words with "S's" unnecessarily, so they in turn spoke in fragmented sentences.  When the situation was unavoidable, they changed their "S's" to the "th" sound.

What this teaches us:
1. The children of Spain never have to go to "Speech Class." Lucky.
2. I will never be fully fluent in Andalusian Spanish.
3. I will also never be a good speller since I never know whether the word has an "s" or actually a "th"
3. I will probably come home with a lisp.  "What's up guys!" = "Whath up guyth!"

Happy Friday!

P.S. Thank you Pamela for sharing your story :)

 

 

Teaching Epiphany

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that Spanish students are brilliant and learn material incredibly fast while American students are kind of floundering in comparison.  Don't get me wrong, American students are brilliant as well, but it takes teachers a week or more to teach a topic where in Spain I teach that topic in a day.  For example, today I taught the water cycle in a period of maybe 20 minutes to my 3rd graders. I used the book as directed.  No fluff in between.  We covered the different types of water (fresh and salt), the different forms of water, and the cycle itself.  I left school completely flustered.  I felt that it was too fast, but my students seemed to understand and tomorrow I know they'll have it all more or less memorized.  Now as I sit at my computer browsing Pinterest for more water cycle things that I can suggest as quick activities, an epiphany hit.

SIDENOTE: I'm browsing in the first place because to me teaching all of that in 20 minutes isn't sufficient.  (Even though I know it is.)  But for this particular teacher typing this blog, some comforting is needed. The activity I will eventually come up with is more to make myself feel better more than the students.

Back to the epiphany:  The Spanish students learn things so quickly and efficiently because they have to.  There is no dependence on the teacher.  It is up to them to learn and memorize the material.  And if they don't, oh well.  Which seems to work with the majority of the students, because almost all of them are flourishing.   In the United States, I think that the students depend too much on the teacher.  They know that if they don't understand the material today, there's no need to worry about it because it will be taught in some other form or matter another day.  They don't feel required to go home and study because everything will be reviewed again with the teacher.  I personally can recall falling into this pattern when I was in school.  I never studied, and simply relied on the teacher to facilitate my learning.  The only thing I can remember studying was my weekly spelling list and that was only because the spelling list was rarely discussed in school aside from introducing the words and then taking the test at the end of the week. Point Proven: I only studied what was not reviewed in school.

So there ya have it.  The mystery is finally solved as to why the Spanish students are so much smarter than American students.  Because the students in Spain study at home, the teacher can move quicker and cover more topics even WITH a shorter school day. 

Now, I am sort of bashing the education system of the United States, and I do apologize.  I also don't think I would trade my style/love of teaching for this more traditional/successful one.  My favorite part of teaching is making the lessons come alive to the students, which is a missing factor here in Spain.  But I think most teachers (including myself), maybe need to reflect on our style of teaching.  And in the beginning of the year, establish a stricter routine.  No one likes to be the mean/strict teacher.  But I think it is also possible to do so and still maintain being the fun/nice teacher.  The only change that needs to be made is training the students to own their responsibility of learning.  This can be done possibly by being honest with the students and letting them know that as a class, the whole group will move on from topic to topic quickly.  The only way to not fall behind is by spending time studying the material.  And then to go the step further and teach the students how to properly study.  (Since I think most students in elementary school don't actually know how to do this either.)  Cooperation with parents will also be necessary.  A lot of times parents complain about the amount of school work a student brings home for the day.  This negatively affects the students which in turn subliminally teaches them to dislike homework and rush through it.  If homework was treated in a positive light by parents, students would be more likely to put an effort into it (as seen here in Spain.)

A confession... this post is an entire discussion with myself more or less.  I wrote it hastily in a stream of consciousness format because I have to run out the door soon for some private lessons.  But I think it is something to ponder for the future.  I'm also open to other opinions on the matter and even debate.  This is a particular topic that has my brain going in a million different directions.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying this post pertains to ALL American students; just the majority.  Don't worry, your son or daughter is doing wonderfully in school :)

Welp It's Official

It's official... booked my flight home for June 20.  Get ready America.

I don't know how I feel about this.  I'm both excited and sad.  I'm excited because I really do miss the United States and the people and the food.  But I'm sad because this experience is passing by so quickly, and I don't want to come to terms with leaving Spain yet.  Yes, I understand I still have five months to go.  But the next five months are going to fly by faster than the past five months.  As for my upcoming plans...

Celebrating Sara's Birthday mid February: somewhere in Spain
Puente (February break): Toledo and Segovia (Spain)
Carnivale (March): Cadiz
Semana Santa (April): Hopefully Morocco.  After a beach in Spain.  And celebrating the end of the Holy Week in Cordoba.  Also my Birthday!!!
Puente (May Break): nowhere
June: Northern Spain, Prague, Vienna, Dublin, USA

While nothing is officially booked yet, most of this stuff is definitely happening and I can't wait!

The Weekly Update

So I was able to be my American-teacher self this past week.  In both 3rd and 2nd grade, I'm teaching the Solar System.  I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again... I LOVE teaching the Solar System.  First off, I love everything about astronomy.  I find it incredibly fascinating.  Therefore, when it comes to teaching it, I get super excited.  (Probably too excited.)   In my 3rd grade class, the students are introduced to the phases of the moon just like in the United States.  This is a concept that definitely has to be taught from a hands on approach.  Simply reading about does nothing since it is extremely difficult to understand what's actually happening.   Soooooo I took this opportunity to teach how I know best... with creativity.  (And by using a successful lesson from last year.)

I bring you the Phases of the Moon Oreo style.  Once again, the teacher was kind of like, "ummm why are you using food to teach about the moon?"  And the students were like, "Why are you torturing us with these Oreos??"

The face of a tortured student

And while it was a million times more difficult to teach this way since it is really difficult for young Spanish students to follow directions (me: repeating the directions six times and then actually going from each student to make sure they had followed said directions), it was totally worth it.  I say this, because during their Oral exam with me, they passed the Phases of the Moon part with flying colors.   And I didn't completely torture them; they were left with one Oreo at the end to consume.  I was also able to teach the "Waxing, waning" trick Bekki Schnetzer and I came up with last year in 3rd grade.  That too was a huge success for both the students (and the English speaking teachers.)

On another note, America's snowstorm last week...

A teacher friend of mine: "Is your family Okay?!"

Me: "Uh, yea.  They're fine?"

Teacher friend:"Are you sure???" (with mounting concern in her eyes)

 Me: "Yea.  They're sleeping at the moment.  But as of last night they were fine."

Teacher friend: "The cold though...."

So until I watched the news that night.  I had multiple conversations following this same format.  Not understanding why everyone was so concerned about the cold.

 Well let's just say the Spanish were very concerned because they more or less thought America was fighting off an apocalypse.  Not all Spanish people, but the majority.   You see, the news here in Spain made it seem like Americans were dying and that they couldn't leave their houses.  And that there was no food or water or electricity.  While this is slightly accurate, it was not to the extent that the news made it seem.  To Americans, this is just your typical winter.  Yes, it was more frigid than normal; but nothing Americans couldn't handle.  I can't really speak too much on it because I wasn't there.  But comparing the news stories to what my parents or friends were telling me, I had to laugh.  I did appreciate the concern from my Spanish friends and students who continually asked how my family was doing.  Though the concern from my students quickly vanished when I told them schools were either cancelled or delayed because of the cold.  (Spain doesn't have snow days or delayed openings.) They were a tad jealous.

This past week was also the start to having my very own cleaning lady.  I'm not sure if this is typical of Spain or not, but so far in most of the homes I have been to or seen, they all has cleaning ladies.  It was kind of glorious to wake up and not make my bed.  Or do my breakfast dishes.  I know, I know, I'm getting spoiled here.

Finally, after months and months of waiting, my idea of starting international Pen Pals has come alive.   Back in October, I texted one of my teaching friends asking if she was interested in starting a Pen Pal exchange with her students and mine.  I figured the easiest way to do this was by utilizing technology.  So I experimented with different blog websites and the new up and coming site "Edmodo."  Both her and I decided Edmodo was the best option because her school supported it.  So with the okay on my end, I had to wait for her school's approval and then wait for them to set up her class' Edmodo site.  Everything finally came through on her end at the start of January after winter break.  

So far, I'm doing this program with one of my 5th grade students who I give private lessons to.  It's going wonderfully.  I hope to soon try it out with my other private classes and also bring it into the school.  (Jose Manuel what do you think??)

My favorite question so far from one of the American students: "Do you have pizza?"  Out of all of the questions one could possibly ask, this is what he chose.  My 5th grader got a kick out of that one too.

Lastly, this past week I was invited by my bilingual coordinator to come over to his house for coffee.  His wife and daughters were there as well; It was a really nice afternoon.  We spent the time talking about different trips they have taken and showing me some of their family photo albums.  Before I knew it, it was time for me to leave to go to one of my private lessons.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time.  

I know I've said this before, but I love how the Spanish know how to enjoy their time and especially when it comes to enjoying their time with others.  For example, Sara and I have this unspoken thing where we sit and enjoy our meals together.  Some days it is only lunch or only dinner but other days it is both.  For her, this is probably a natural/normal thing.  For me, this is the first time aside from when I was a child that I have done this.  Yes, you have the occasional sit down meals with family or friends.  But this is every single day.  And I really like it.  America you need to get on this and make it happen more often.  Work can wait thirty minutes.  

Another thing that was brought to my attention during my time at my Bilingual coordinators house, was the words "you're welcome."  He was explaining to me how beautiful these two words are.  As a native English speaker you would think I would know how beautiful these words were, but I didn't.  And I don't think most Americans do either.  The word "welcome" as defined (and paraphrased) from the dictionary:

"Something gladly received"  

So when someone says "thank you" and the person responds back with "you're welcome," you are more or less saying you were happy to serve/help/receive them.  Or think of it as someone greeting someone new, "Welcome!"  My explanation isn't very good.  But if you understand what I am explaining poorly, you will be able to see how beautiful those two words are.  Other languages don't have that, for example: "de nada" literally means "of nothing."

On that note, I thank you all for reading my blog....

When in Rome IV

Sunday, January 5:

Sara and I were woken up by a crazy thunderstorm on this day.  We're talking thunder, lightning, wind, pouring rain, etc.  We had hoped to see the Pope this morning but the storm seemed to be crushing our dreams of that.  Since we had nothing specific planned for the day, we took our time getting ready.  (aka the other B&B guests were once again hogging the bathroom for two hours AND they stole our breakfast spot...

Sara and I ate breakfast every day in the kitchen because we enjoyed talking with Stefano.  Our room came with a table and chairs to use but since we were eating in the kitchen, we kindly gave it up to the other house guests.  On this day, they not only stole our kitchen spot, but they also kept the table in their rooms, so we had to wait for them to finish before we could eat.  Ugh these people...)

  Good news though, they were leaving today.  So we would have the B&B to ourselves until leaving Rome.  About the time we were finished getting ready, it had stopped storming and it was only raining.  Sara and I decided we were going to see the Pope regardless of the rain because this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  It is advised that in order to see the Pope, you arrive to the Vatican square about two hours beforehand... which we did.  Keep in mind it was raining.

Sara and I had no idea what window the Pope was actually going to appear out of and there were probably 100 windows to choose from.  Maybe we should have researched this before heading to the square... Anyway, we figured that the Pope would appear out of the Basilica.  So we waited for about an hour wondering why no one was around us...

....and why everyone was standing in masses in a different part of the square...

 It has to be one of those windows right??

...when finally a police man walked by, and I asked him if we were staring at the correct window.  His reply was a no and that to see the Pope we had to turn to a different building and stare at one of these windows...

To be fair, that red cloth wasn't there until about 15 minutes before the Pope's appearance

So, Sara and I relocated to a better spot.  That lasted about 30 seconds because soon it started thundering, lighting, and pouring again.  We ran for shelter under those pillars you see in the picture.  Except different pillars... ones that faced the window... because we wanted to get it right this time.   And we waited some more...

During the wait, some people set up giant screens all around the square.  You can see one of the screens in the picture above.  And then someone opened the Pope's window and put the red cloth in it.  That really got people buzzing.  The crowd was acting like they were at a massive concert event.  Except no one was drunk.  It was complete excitement over simply seeing the Pope in the window.  Not going to lie, I was feeling the same energy.  

Now this next part still gives me chills.  It was finally time for the Pope to make his appearance in the window.  Up until now it had been pouring and storming.  Sara and I still hadn't left our pillar shelter even though we were farther away than we wanted to be.  As soon as the Pope stood in the window, the rain completely stopped.  Within a minute or two, the sun started to come out.  It was the craziest thing I have ever witnessed.  The Pope spoke for about 30 minutes.  Even though his speech was in Italian, I was still able to understand the context of his message since Italian and Spanish are very similiar.  He also spoke very eloquently.  All in all the experience was incredible and Sara and I left with such a high.  

But as soon as we left the square, it started to rain again. Oy vey.  We were so excited to see the Pope, we didn't even realize how completely drenched we were.  Shoes, clothes, everything.  So we headed back to the B&B to change.  Once there we decided to head for some lunch, so we stopped at a sushi place nearby.  The restaurant was always packed when we passed it, and I've been going through some serious sushi withdrawals since arriving in Spain.  Before you even laugh at us for eating sushi in the pasta/pizza capital, it was honestly so delicious...

And now writing about it, I want sushi.  Someone send some please???

I should also mention that in the Sushi place, we made friends with an Italian family.  The father studied in the United States in Virgina along with traveling to Andalusia, Spain before.

After sushi, we walked to  Castle Sant'Angelo.  This castle was mainly used by the Popes as a safe haven and fortress.  It has undergone multiple renovations over time, but it still holds the feel of a castle.

We didn't take many pictures because of the rain.  After the castle, Sara and I headed back to the Gelato place we fell in love with.

And after gelato, we went off in search of dinner.  Because it obviously makes sense to eat our dessert before dinner.  For dinner, Sara and I each ordered a pizza and split some fried mozzarella and a bottle of wine.

After dinner, we headed back to the B&B to pack up on things for our trip back to Spain.

The next day was pretty uneventful.  We took a car service to the airport.  We checked in without any problems and boarded the plane.  My seat partners were two young teenage lovers who couldn't keep off each other the whole time.  I chose to nap during their love fest.

In the end, Rome was a wonderful city and encompassed both a normal city with pieces of incredible history sprinkled throughout.  I look forward to my return to there in the future.

When In Rome III

Saturday, December 4:

Once again, we woke up to a delicious breakfast prepared by Stefano.  There were also other house guests on this day.  I was not a big fan of them to be honest.  They never said hello when you saw them and they tended to completely hog the bathroom.  (We had to share with them.)  Oh and they turned the hot water off (you turn it on and off in Europe) after they had been hogging the bathroom for two hours which led to me taking a painfully, FREEZING cold shower.  I was not a happy camper.  Stefano felt really bad about the cold water situation, so he in turn escorted us to the Vatican and explained bit and pieces of its history.  The Vatican square was Enormous.  The different areas were guarded by the Swiss Guards.  There were also spots on the ground marked where you could stand to get perfect views of the buildings.

 Marked spot on the ground.  A lot of people don't know about these.

The view from that spot.

As mentioned previously, Rome was crowded this particular weekend.  Now, I'm not sure if it was because most of Europe had off for winter break still or if this is what Rome considers "non tourist season."  If it is the latter, I can't even begin to imagine the city in the Summer.  To see St. Peter's Basilica, you had to wait in a line that went around the ENTIRE square.  We're talking probably 1/2 a mile long.  Luckily, the line moved quickly and the only reason it was formed was because you had to go through security/metal detectors before entering the basilica.  Once inside, there was no crowd control.  This made me somewhat cranky because you couldn't move once inside.  It was basically like a herd of cows slowly moving throughout the space.  It took away from the enjoyment and beauty of the church.  I learned most of my history about the place from Wikipedia than actually inside.

FUN (Wikipedia) FACTS: It is believed that one of Jesus' 12 apostles, St. Peter, is buried here.  Pope John Paul II is also buried here.  There is an obelisk in the square as well that is one of the oldest ones known.

 

The really old obelisk.

 

 Too many people!

 

 One of the most famous statues of Mary and Jesus-- The Pieta

Studied this in College-- very cool to see this in person

 Pope John Paul II

 The Pieta

After the Basilica, Sara and I attempted to climb to the top of the church (the cupola).  For this you had to actually wait in a line.  While waiting in the line, there were a ton of warning signs about the amount of stairs which we found comical.

One of the many warning signs.  

These people should try climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

To get to the top you had to first take an elevator.  At this level, we had a nice view of the basilica below.  As we approached the stairs to climb to the very top, we started to panic:

1. If you desire a visit to the Vatican Museum, you can either buy your ticket in advance or wait in the ridiculous line.  We opted for the second option which involved us arriving at the scheduled time of 1:00pm

2. We were now waiting to climb to the top and it was 12:00pm

3. The stairs were so narrow that you had to climb single file.

4. When old people are climbing the stairs, you are stuck moving at the pace of a snail.

So, after staring at the line and realizing we can't walk back down the stairs if we changed our mind, we decided to completely skip it.  So sad.  Here are some photos from the part we did see...

 Cool face mosaic

 This ugly wonderful fence kept us from falling.  Thanks Rome.

 The only pretty thing to look at were these face mosaics.

 What we were trying to climb the stairs to see....

...the only thing we ended up seeing.

We headed back down in the elevator, and found some Swiss guards at the bottom.  We showed them some puppy dog eyes and explained our story.  We followed one of them through secret passages in the Basilica back to the start of the line with all of the warning signs.  The nice guard refunded our money, and we quickly power walked to the museum. 

We casually hopped the line to the front, tickets in hand.  The entrance itself was massive, and you needed a map to get to the museum exhibits.  Sara and I first stopped to purchase audio tours and for coffee. 

After coffee, we started our audio tour in the first exhibit which included all of ancient Egypt.

SIDENOTE: The Vatican Museum once housed the Popes.  Popes from a very long time ago up until now, designed each exhibit within the museum.  Therefore each room is EXTREMELY different and you can see the creative differences between each Pope.

An actual mummy.

 

The next exhibit was of statues from the Egyptian times...

 

 

And after that followed Greek statues.  Then Roman copies of the Greek statues. And then after that some paintings and stuff. Blah blah blah.  Fast forward to my ABSOLUTE favorite pieces of art and my now favorite room in the museum.... RAPHAEL'S PAINTINGS!

When I took a random art class in college, I became slightly obsessed with this artist.  Well this time period in general.  To me, this is the best art ever created.  It has so much creativity, and skill, and secrets, I can go on and on.  Andddd to make things better, the museum had my favorite painting... "The School of Athens":

 All of the great philosophers, artists, thinkers in one place.

I spy Raphael.  It is rumored that he painted himself into this painting.

While I have love affair with Raphael, I'm secretly cheating on him with Michelangelo.  Shhhh don't tell.  His Sistine Chapel took my breath away.  It even made me do bad things.... I took illegal photos.  Whoops.  But now you get to see it too...

 Look this guy was taking illegal photos too... so that makes it okay right?

You literally have to see it, to believe it.  This room is incredible. I sat on the bench for 45 minutes just staring at it all. 

After our four hour trip in the museum (we saw everything), we headed back to the B&B.  We dropped off our things, and headed to the amazing restaurant from the first night.  We decided we were going to eat as much food as possible to try the different things, so....

...we split a vegetable pizza and two separate pasta dishes;  one was pasta with salmon and sauce and the other, Caci y Pepe.  Oh and the best wine in the entire world too.  Splitting things makes it healthier....

Because we felt particularly fat, we decided to go for a walk.  We ended up back near the Trevi Fountain where we stopped for a drink in a restaurant that was very similiar to something in New York City.  We each ordered fancy (delicious) drinks.  After that we walked for around for another 30 minutes before meeting a local who directed us towards another popular bar.  This place was so full, we were kind of isolated to sitting at the actual bar.  But the bartender made us some amazing strawberry, fruit drink.  So that was okay with us.  After that, we headed back to the B&B to rest before our last day in Rome.

Part four to be continued....

More Vatican Photos:

 The room of maps

 This ceiling painting looked 3-dimensional

 Another beautiful ceiling.

 And another.

Needless to say between these painting and the Sistine Chapel, I had a rather stiff neck on this day.

 Room of maps.

 Picasso painting

 And another cool ceiling.

 ...and another

 Famous Vatican spiral stairs