Ciao friends! So for the past few weekends I stayed here in Rome and enjoyed all that Rome has to offer. As far
as school goes, I’ve been very busy with midterms and group projects lately.
Despite being hounded with schoolwork though, I have found a good balance
between work and play.
When I was here three weekends ago,
my roommate Emma and I were the only ones out of all of us roommates who were in Rome that weekend because the rest
of my roomies had gone to Paris. That Friday night, Emma and
I went to a bar called Scholar’s, which I had been to a couple of times before. We had a
blast hanging out and dancing to the music played by the live band that was
performing. The next night Emma and I went out with our friend Jessica to a
club called Art Café. Art Café is sort of far from our apartment so we had to
take a bus there, and when we arrived we found out that it is a fairly exclusive
club. Luckily, Jessica knew a club promoter that was there that night so he got
us into the club. Art Café definitely lived up to its name because it was quite
artsy. At one point, there was even confetti falling from the ceiling. We had a
great time dancing but didn’t get home until really, really late (well I
guess it would actually be considered early in the morning). We had to take a cab home
because not only was it too far to walk home but also because some of the buses stop working after a certain time.
Two weekends ago Emma and I went to
G Bar, a local bar, which I have been to many times and where basically all of
the American JCU students hang out. We just had a chill night and hung out with
some classmates. The next day was Valentine’s Day and I lost my voice so I had
what my friends like to call “my sexy voice” that day hahah. Anyway, I spent
Valentine’s Day with my friend Samantha (we were each other’s valentines and she likes to call it Galentine's Day haha). I was
happy to spend Sam’s favorite holiday with her, and it was great catching
up! We went to an art exhibition, which was nice because I hadn’t been to any
art museums in Rome before that. I enjoyed viewing all of the various pieces of
art. After we were done with the art exhibition, we left to go find a place to
eat dinner. On the way though we stopped into a few shops and Sam bought a
sweater. Then, we continued on our way to find a Sushi or Chinese restaurant.
After about an hour and a half of wandering around, we found a sushi restaurant,
which I was really excited about because I love sushi and haven’t had it in a
couple months. Both of us were starving so we devoured our sushi once it arrived
to our table. After our delicious dinner, we walked back to Trastevere and got
gelato, where we proceeded to talk about our love for Harry Styles lolz. Then I
walked back to my apartment and Rome was rockin’! I have never seen Rome sooo
busy and so many people out and about. Valentine’s Day must be a huge deal here
because it seemed as if the whole city was out on the town. The next few days I
started to get sick so I just rested in my apartment and tried to recover. I
was sick for about a week with a cough, sore throat, and cold so that was no
fun. But I’m basically all better now (minus still having a slight cough)!
 |
| The Sunset on Valentine's Day |
That next Thursday all of us
roomies went to a restaurant called Tony’s! The waiter at Tony’s treated us to
free wine, bread, and tiramusu so I was delighted. Emma and I split pollo de
Roma, and Bria and I split vodka de penne. Everything was really good. The next
day Emma and I went to the library to study, and then after studying we
wandered around Trastevere and found a cute little restaurant so we ate there.
I got a margherita pizza, and it was quite good. The pizzas were so big though that both of our hands hurt from
cutting the pizzas into bite-sized bits. Then we were on our way back to
our apartment and stopped at Old Bridge, which is a gelateria, where we bought
some yummy gelato. Also random sidenote: I found out that the guys from the
show, The Buried Life (a show that I was obsessed with in high school), were in
Rome that night so I got really excited. I was on the lookout for them, but
sadly did not see them. On Saturday, I studied some more, and then Emma and I
bought some wine, cheese, meat, and crackers. We decided to watch a movie so
we sat on the couch and watched Ratatouille while sipping on our wine and eating our cheese and
crackers. It was perfect given that the movie is about food and based in Paris.
After finishing Ratatouille (which was a very cute movie by the way, even
though I didn’t think that I would like it because it's about a rat and I'm not a fan of rats...), we
went out to G Bar and Drunkenship. At Drukenship I met a Scottish guy who lives
in London so naturally I told him that I was just there a few weeks ago. I
asked him where he lives in London and what did he say?! Clapham!!! Clapham is
where Chen and I stayed when we were in London because our hostel was located
there! What are the chances of that? Too crazy. Again, what a small world this is that we live in.
 |
| A day that I spent soaking up the sun and studying on a balcony in Roma |
This past weekend I spent Saturday
in Venice. I was super excited to go to Venice especially since it was
Carnivale, which is one of the biggest festivals in Europe! Everyone (well most
people) wear masks and some people even dress up in elaborate costumes. It’s
basically like one big masquerade party. The morning of leaving for Venice, I
got up really early because we had to be at the Termini Station by 6:40am since
that was the time at which the bus was leaving to go to Venice. It took about 7
hours to get to Venice because we also had a mandatory 45 minute pit stop. When
we arrived in Venice it was only raining a little bit, and we hopped on a
waterbus to go to the main part of Venice, which is called San Marco. Once we
got to San Marco, we walked around a little bit and stopped in a few shops.
Then we walked around some more to go find masks. I saw this black lace mask
that I liked a lot, and I wanted to buy it but it was 25 Euros so I ended up
getting a cute light pink and white mask instead because it only costed 5 Euro. We then put on our masks and
explored Venice some more until all of a sudden it started downpouring rain.
Everyone rushed to get under the building overhead coverings and ducked for cover. It was pouring the
rest of the time that we were in Venice, and there was even thunder and lightening.
We stopped into a small café at one point to grab some hot chocolate (which was
delicious) so that helped warm us up a little bit. My umbrella ended up breaking so I was
mostly using it as a shield against the wind and rain, but I ended up getting absolutely drenched.
 |
| Venice |
 |
| Carnivale! |
 |
| Kinda creepy costume... |
By the time we got to a restaurant for dinner I was sopping wet, and
my socks and shoes were soaked. It basically felt as if I had been walking in puddles of water barefoot (that's how bad it was haha). At the restaurant I got a Bellini (a mixture of
Prosecco sparkling wine and peach purée) to drink and a margherita
pizza. I could only finish half of the pizza because it was pretty large and I
wasn’t all that hungry. Bellinis actually originated in Venice so of course I had to order one. The bellini was fabulous! After we finished eating we stayed at
the restaurant and chatted for a couple more hours because we weren’t up for
going back outside into the cold, pouring rain. We finally left when we needed to
head back to the bus so we quickly power-walked back to the waterbus and hopped
on the waterbus to go to where the bus stop was. On the way back it only took 6
hours because we skipped the pit stop since a group of girls held up our bus
for an hour. Apparently they had gotten lost so they arrived an hour late so rather
than leaving at 10pm, we left at 11pm. By the time we got home it was about 5:30am
on Sunday. Luckily, I have a talent of being able to fall asleep basically
anywhere so I slept through most of the bus ride.
 |
| The Aftermath |
 |
| One of my new favorite drinks, the Bellini. |
 |
| My meal |
My trip to Venice was definitely a
memorable one, but I do think that I need a re-do of visiting Venice. I
think it would be much more enjoyable to go when it’s a nice, sunny day so
hopefully I will be able to visit again later on in life and experience a nice
gondola ride as well. I also really want to go to the island of Burano, a small
island near Venice, the next time I visit because I heard that Burano is absolutely
adorable. Apparently all of the houses in Burano are painted different bright colors,
and if the residents want to repaint their house a different color then they have to get approval from the government. Even though I still had a fun time, I will certainly need to
go back to Venice sometime later on in my life!
As for next weekend I will be
heading to Paris, France to visit my friend Chen and to celebrate her 21st
birthday! YAY! I cannot wait. However, I am a bit concerned because I don't
know any French, which will be a major problem since I have heard that the French
really dislike it when foreigners do not at least try to attempt to speak their
language, so that will be interesting. Wish me luck my friends! Ciao for now.
XOXO
Jaden Ellesse
