When Irish Eyes are Smiling

Sorry for not posting last night, but I'll make up for it by covering our entire Ireland trip in this post.

So we arrived to the Emerald Isle early in the morning after an always interesting RyanAir flight (got to love that people clap when the plane touches down). We checked into our hostel and then went for a walk along the river and towards city hall to get our bearings. We also had plans to go on the free tour in Dublin run by the same company as the one in Amsterdam, (Sandeman tours, or New Europe is what their called for anyone interested) so we had some time to kill before the 1pm tour.

The Luck of the Irish

As we walked down the street from city hall towards the Temple Bar area, we passed a venue called the Olympia theatre. Old charming theatre look on the outside, looked like a really cool place. Well as it turns out in the window there was two large posters advertising an upcoming show for the John Butler Trio, a band I've been listening to for the past year or so but have not seen live. Further investigation (reading the poster, of course) we realized the show was that night, April 8th, 2010. Shocked, surprised, and frantic, I went into the ticket office and asked if they had any tickets left for the show. They said they did, but they were obstructed view tickets, in other words a column was in the way of the view. Becky hesitated about that, but before she could contest I had already bought the tickets. 8 hours until show time.

Excited about our ticket purchase we grabbed a burger down the street and then made our way to our tour.

The tour was once again really awesome, our tour guide kept it interesting and the weather was really nice (unlike Amsterdam) so I didn't mind walking around the city. We heard some pretty interesting stories and saw most of the major sites in the historical parts of Dublin, and on our short visit, fitting it all in quickly is always a plus.

After the tour we walked along the River Liffey and all of the different bridges that cross it. There are some really cool foot bridges that go across the river, but the river itself, not so pretty (probably as ugly as the Tiber in Rome).

We headed to a pub to get dinner early before the show. I got some great beef stew (can always count on the Irish for a good meal I suppose) and we were on our way to the show.

Music is the best Medicine

Around the time we were entering the Olympia theatre, I seemed to have developed a nice little fever (don't tell my mom!). I've been sick as I've mentioned before, and I seem not so be at the peak of my sickness. I thoroughly enjoyed the opening band, Mama Kin, but I was feeling pretty miserable in the headcold department. Then John Butler Trio came on. About an hour into my set, right as John finished playing a solo version of his instrumental song "Ocean", my fever had broken. I'm pretty sure that song did it to me too, because it is about 15 minutes of the craziest acoustic playing you've ever heard (I have video, I'll post eventually). The band absolutely blew me away, and rocked the theater for almost 3 hours. And that "obscured view" that we had? Yeah it was a pillar about 7 rows in front of us and the only thing that it obscured was my view of the far right stage which was completely empty. Luck strikes again.

Today we did some shopping on the main streets and in the Temple Bar area. I say area because Temple bar (for Lord Temple who owned the Barr land of the River Liffey, hence the name "Temple Bar"). It's a nice neighborhood of pubs and shops, and with a big rugby match later tonight it was alive with fans wearing lots of (sometimes ridiculous) yellow and blue outfits. Lunch was a bowl of chicken soup which was really good, and a chicken panini, which was so-so.

We then went to the "most visited tourist attraction in Dublin". Any genius guesses? The answer would be the Guinness factory. This tour was much different from the Bruge brewery tour we went on. It was self guided, much larger, and not in the actual factory but more of a fake setup (much like chocolate world in Hershey Park, even though the Guinness "storehouse" as they call it was actually exactly that, the Storehouse where the beer fermented up until the 90's when they stopped using it). The information and displays they had were equally as interesting and impressive as the Bruge tour, and given the uniqueness of Guinness its no wonder the factory is one of the most visited places in Dublin.

After the factory tour we picked up our bags from the hostel (which was awesome by the way, top 2 I've stayed in, tied with the Barcelona hostel I used) and headed to the airport to catch another Ryan Air flight.

It's too bad we didn't get to stay in Ireland longer and go to another place besides Dublin, but we had an awesome time, fit as much touring in as we could, and even had a nice surprise last night with the concert.

Blast from the past

Today we had some unexpected visitors to the office. Two Villanova graduates, who had participated in the Vatican internship program in the fall of 2006, Gloria and Chris, stopped by because they were in Rome. We had a really nice conversation with them at work and decided we should get together tonight to talk about our experiences.

When Gloria and Chris were here, they were not part of the Saint Mary’s Program. The program was very new at that point and many of the kinks were still being worked out. Regardless, they still found their experiences in Rome to be so influential that they have both come back to Rome multiple times since their study abroad program 4 years ago.

It was awesome to hear their stories and see the love they have for the Vatican program and for Rome. When they came into the office they were welcomed as if they were long lost relatives, with hugs and kisses, everyone happy to see them.

We decided to go to dinner tonight and we invited our Italian teacher who had also been their teacher, Carlotta, to join us. We went to dinner on Roman time, so 9pm, and Carlotta recommended a restaurant to us in Trastevere, a very nice neighborhood full of restaurants and shops. It was by no means a tourist restaurant, and it helped that we had Gloria and Carlotta with us, Gloria who speaks fluent Italian, and Carlotta being a Roman native, who not only understands the language but the culture behind it all.

Our food was fantastic. Home made pastas and pizza at a great price. The tiramisu though was the highlight of the night. Though it did not look anything like your normal tiramisu, it was probably the best I’ve ever had (Chris agreed, he has refused to eat tiramisu since the last time he had been at the restaurant).

It was a special night for all of us, and one that will forever be in my most prized memories of my time here. The experiences that Gloria and Chris shared and their connection with Rome formed while they were studying here makes me certain I will be back to visit many times throughout my life. Their friendship with Carlotta is still strong after all these years. I can only hope I can come back and have dinner with future Villanova Vatian internship students, share my experiences with them, and have the same impact that Gloria and Chris had on me tonight.

Some wires

A while ago I posted a long blog post about being "unwired". One of the major points of that blog was the lack of a cell phone. Well, I caved, and now have an Italian cell phone number.

(I do warn you that this may be a very techy post, so bear with me if it's not your thing and I'll try and explain it clearly)

For the first two weeks I was attempting to buy the skype phone offered by the mobile carrier 3(tre). What I found though is that the service provider 3 is not very good in Italy. I'm a tech junkie. When I go to get a new piece of technology I do my research. I had been researching cell phones abroad for months before I left. So when I went into the 3 store, I knew what I wanted and that they offered it. The salesperson disagreed with me. I was told even though it is advertised all over their website that I could not only not purchase the skypephone, but I could not get a pay as you go plan from them at all unless I signed a 24 month contract. After a frustrating argument, with the sales person speaking broken english and myself speaking very, very broken Italian, I left empty handed only to walk a block down to the TIM store, where I purchased a SIM card (I already had the phone from a friend, thanks Tim!(not TIM the cell company, Tim the person, confusing I know))

For all the non-techy readers, cell phone contracts work a little differently in Europe than in the States. You do not normally sign your freedom away to a service provider for 2 years. You instead buy a phone(cheaper than in the U.S I may add), and then buy a SIM card from one of the providers here. A SIM card is universal and can go into any phone. It is assigned your number so any phone you put your card in automatically gets connected with your number and service provider. Pretty cool huh? Well it gets better: As I mentioned, contracts don't really exist. Instead you pay-as-you-go. You put 10 euro or however much on your phone. You have an agreement with your service provider that you will pay x amount of money per minute for all calls you make. In my case, this is 10 cents a minute for every call I make. Notice how I said every call you make, because receiving calls is totally free. When you run out, you put more money on your account, either online or buying a prepaid recharge card from any "tobacco store" (tabacchi in Italian, basically a convenience store).

Now lets compare this to the American system of cell contracts. We will ignore exchange rates because for natives of the respective countries that's not important, and I'm going to refer to all currencies as dollars or $. Right now Verizon Wireless' cheapest individual plan is $40 for 450 minutes per month. That includes no text messaging, just 450 minutes of using your cell phone's main function, talking (I know hard to believe that's what they were made for, right?). I'm sure that includes free nights and weekends, but to me that doesn't really factor in, what matters is the ability to call someone at any time.

Take that same $40 and apply it to my rate. That's 400 minutes if you pay 10 cents a minute. Very similar isn't it. In fact, Verizon might even look more appealing at first glance. I think not. Those 400 minutes I have from the $40 I placed on my account, they don't disappear at the end of the month. I'm not restricted per month. Okay, so AT&T has rollover minutes don't they? So if you only use 200 minutes one month you get to keep the extra 200 minutes (we've all seen the commercials, "those minutes are still good!") Yes you get those minutes, but you are still paying $40 again that 2nd month for another 400 minutes. Now why do you need another 400 minutes if you just rolled over 200? See what I'm getting at?

$40 dollars prepaid. It lasts for as long as I need it. If I use 400 minutes a month, poof they're gone when I've used them all. If I only need 200 minutes a month, well then look at that I really only paid $20 a month. Busy month? Lots of gossip? Simply put more money into your account, for the same rate you've been paying all along. Verizon charges 45 cents per every minute you go over your monthly allowance. I might be beating a dead horse but lets do a little math. 600 minutes in a month? If you're using my prepaid service that will cost you $60. Verizon's 450 minute contract? $40 for the first 450 minutes, + $0.45 x 150 = $107.50. In other words, for less than it costs to pay for those 150 extra minutes, you could have 600 minutes on prepaid. Not to mention you don't pay for any calls received! (Sticking with the math theme: Free incoming calls > Free nights and weekends)

Phone break? Not happy with the one you have? Just want to upgrade? Sure, pick which one you want, buy it, and put your SIM card in, none of this waiting 2 years to get a new phone.

Anyone feel ripped off by their U.S. cell contract? I sure do. I'm not going to even get into the whole data/internet on phones argument, this post is already borderline rant, but for those interested one line of stats:

On ANY phone: Verizon: $15 per month for 25mb of data over the entire month, TIM: $10 a month for 50mb of data a day (You see where the rant would come in?)

The phones are better, the plans and pricing is better, and the coverage from what I've seen is the same if not better. All those ready to switch to the European system raise your hand...

Lets answer some questions!

So I'm making this my first of many "interactive" posts. By that I mean I would really like to take some questions from the comment sections of my posts and answer them. I have been waiting for a good day to do this, and seeing as my 6 year old cousin has just posed some questions she would like answered, I figured it would be a perfect day to finally dedicate a post to this.

So to answer your questions Carly...

Q: What Kind of Instruments do they Play in Italy:
A: Great question, and it's right up my alley. One of the fun things about Rome I have found is the street performers throughout the area. Public performances in piazza's (squares) seem to be legal, even if they get pretty loud. Musicians play sorts of stringed and wind instruments, such as violins, saxophones, trumpets, and my favorite, guitars. Some even plug into speakers, their music filling up the surrounding streets. I am trying to get my hands on a guitar so I can try this out for a day, go sit in a piazza and see how much I can make off of tips (could be an interesting blog post). I haven't seen any unique instruments so far, but I'll keep my eye out for any good ones.

Q: Do you understand the Language?
A: This is where my Italian tutor comes in. Carlotta has been great in helping us all learn pretty quickly how to manage around the city with Italian. After only 5 days of 3 hour classes I feel much more confident with the language. Understanding it tends to be much easier than speaking it. Some words are familiar to the English translation, others to a word in French I somehow remember, and even more are somewhat recognizable in the context of who it is that is talking, and where I am. If I go into the cafe and try and order a sandwich, and the person behind the counter asks whether I want it for here or to go, I can understand what they are asking and answer them. If I have to ask for directions though, it is a bit harder to have an actual conversation with someone, and to initiate the conversation. Both my understanding and ability to speak Italian has gotten much better every day, and I've come a long way from trying to order regular tap water on the airplane on the way over here (I was given seltzer water twice out of three tries). Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be able to hold a real conversation in Italian!

If you have any questions that you'd like to be answered, post them in the comments of this post and I'll be sure to answer them. If they are short answers, I'll just edit this post and add them on, if it's something I think would make for a good post then I may hold off and use it for another full post like this one.

Thanks for the questions Carly!

A virtual tour to come

Sunday was an optional tour for the program, but seeing the Basilica of St. Mary Major was definitely on my list of things to do. If some of you aren't aware, part of the program Villanova has with the Vatican is to create these awesome 360 degree virtual tours of some of the most spectacular Churches in Rome.

Currently the virtual tour of St. Paul Outside-The-Walls is up on the Vatican's website (I'll link at the bottom), and St. Mary Major is another that has been captured by the Villanova crews over the past semesters to be put online.

Knowing this, I was eager to see it in person, and I'm glad I went along for the tour. It really is an incredible Basilica, so as what seems to be an easy way for me to keep these blog posts short, I'll leave you with some pictures I took, but look forward to the virtual tour soon, because it's sure to out-do my pictures.

Saint Paul Outside The Walls Link (click on Virtual Tour): http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_paolo/index_en.html

It's a beautiful day

Finally a truly beautiful day in Rome. I'm glad to see that the rain held off for 3 days and we had blue skies and warm weather for our tours today. The Pantheon, Jewish Ghetto, and a couple of other places in-between, which made for some cool pictures. So here they are:



Link for Gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/ramlax13/ToursOfPantheonPiazzasJewishGhetto

balloons

A bunch of us were out enjoying the beautiful weather tonight, walking through the Piazza Navona, gelato in hand, when we saw a group of people in the center of the piazza. They had 4 or 5 of these miniature hot air balloons, which looked like plastic bags with a large votive in them, and were setting them off one by one. Every time one launched successfully they all cheered and clapped, then set up the next balloon. Watching the balloons was a spectacle. They would just barely make it above a crowd of people, and would then quickly start to rise in the air. They all followed the same path, leaving a trail of lights over the piazza. It seemed like they would get miles away within minutes of being let go, their light still visible high in the sky. It was hard to take my eyes off of the lights, hoping to watch them travel on until they were no longer visible. A feeling of realizing where I was at that moment, being in Rome, working at the Vatican, hanging out with some really awesome people, all hit me at that moment.
These next three months are a fleeting moment. They will pass me by as quickly as the balloon takes to get out of sight. It just made me realize I have to take it all in and take notice of every little detail until it is gone.

By the way, if anyone knows of any significance of the balloons, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. For those who don't know how to comment, right below this post it will say "comments". Click on that, then type your comment and either sign into one of the existing types of accounts, or if you don't have one click Anonymous and just make sure to leave your name in the comment!

Tours this weekend, lets hope for good weather.

out of the loop

On Tuesday a 7.0 earthquake shook Haiti. The aftershocks rattled the country multiple times at around a 5.0 scale, which could very well be considered devastating earth quakes by themselves. The shockwave of the tragedy though, took until today to reach me.

It's not that Italy wasn't aware of what had happened. It's just that reading an Italian newspaper isn't exactly something I'm capable of doing every morning, given the previously mentioned language barrier, and the busy schedule. It was not until this morning that I heard anything about the earthquake, and it makes me realize how out of the loop I am.

Studying abroad is meant to pluck you from your comfort zone and put you into a different worldview. Unfortunately given the circumstances it also disconnects you in some ways from the rest of the world. With no TV and minimal internet accessible to me, I have found myself drifting further and further away from keeping up with the news.

I have a feeling that when I get back in 3 months I will have missed 3 months of pop culture and world news, and will be out of touch with global politics and events.

So instead of writing anymore, I am going to take the next half hour or so to read the front page articles on the New York Times Website, and if you haven't been up on your current events lately, I suggest you do the same with me.

http://www.nytimes.com

Paying by the pound(or Kilogram in this case)

I wanted to touch upon a cool little difference between ordering pizza in the U.S and ordering it here. I'm not going to go into the differences/which is better because that is basically an unfair fight, but I'm going to talk about instead how you buy pizza.

In the states you go out with your friends for a 'slice'. And that's exactly what you order, a slice (or 2 or 3) of pizza. You are charged naturally, by the slice. You can also buy a whole pizza and save by buying in bulk. But why am I telling you something you already know? Here's the part you may not know(and my whole reason for this post).In Italy buying pizza is a bit different. Prices are by the kilogram. 9-14 euro per kilogram is about average around here, depending on where and what type of pizza it is. I know I said I wasn't going to talk about the differences but a pizza here is not round. It has squared off corners, straight edges and is made on long trays. Ordering a slice then, isn't the normal pie slice you're used to. It is a rectangular block of pizza. So how big is a slice? That's up to you actually. Once you order the person behind the counter will ask how big, pointing a knife down at an average size, and it's your job to tell him either smaller or bigger until you have the amount you want. So if each slice is a different size, how do you pay for it? That's where the kilogram prices come in again. Pizza goes on a scale, weight and price are calculated, and it is thrown back in the oven to heat. Average price for a normal slice is 2-3 euro, and you get a nice piece of pizza.

It does seem to make sense doing it this way now that I think of it. When you go to the grocery store and buy deli meat, or other specialty foods, you pay per pound. So why not get exactly how much pizza you want and pay for just that much? All this pizza talk is making me hungry, if only pizza places around here were open as late as they are back home...