Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

So I know that it has been a while since we've met here, but it doesn't mean that I love you any less! Things are just very complicated for me now. Between all of my work at the office and things that I had to do for my classes, and all of my traveling, I know you got put on the back burner. And I am sorry. But I am going to make it up to you. So here goes... this is gonna be a long one. I will give you a little taste now, let that soak in a bit, then give you a second helping. And who knows, maybe there will be a dessert.

I last wrote you on my last day of “working” for Dr. Sahota’s campaign for a seat in Parliament. I went in to work bright and early Monday morning after returning from Scotland (sigh…) only to arrive to an email saying that he had withdrawn his candidacy. Of course this email was sent 45 minutes after I left my flat to head in for the morning. Just one more example of my lovely boss’s incompetence. To put the icing on the cake, when I emailed Onkar telling him that I was already in the office, he told me that he would be in in about an hour, and we could have one last meeting and permanently go our separate ways. Well, he did eventually make it to the office, but it was a full 3 hours later. Charming, eh? But what can you do. After leaving Ealing for the last time, I went to TopShop to try to ease some of my sorrow with a bit of shopping. While I did find two very cute dresses, their presence did not fill the void that Scotland had left behind. Laboured sigh. Wow, I just wrote laboured naturally. I really am assimilating into London life. Haha. Following my potentially last TopShop excursion, I went to my PELA class, where we each were giving a presentation about differences between the American workplace and the British workplace. While some presentations were amusing, others made me want to go play in traffic out on Cromwell Rd (the street that my school is on) because they were so tedious to sit through. But alas, I have survived.

Now it seems like the remainder of the week just FLEW by. Tuesday I went into work, as usual and did my typical Tuesday ritual of uploading that week’s House Magazine onto the website (featuring two stories from yours truly). About halfway through my uploading process, I was offered a chance to go to a press conference with one of the magazine’s writers, Ed. We trucked it across the Westminster area to the Foreign Correspondents’ Association where we were briefed by Gordon Brown’s press secretary on the various issues of the day and updates on numerous policy situations (the majority of these went right over my head, partly because I was at the back and couldn’t hear, and partly because unlike everyone else in the room, loyal attendees, I was not part of the daily crowd). After the press conference, Ed had a few spare minutes before an interview at Parliament, so he gave me a bit of an informal tour of the Houses of Parliament. It was fabulous. Ed was actually surprisingly well versed in his knowledge of the building for being simply a reporter. He claims that he listens to the real tours as they go by to learn all kinds of little factoids. I enjoyed it, that is for sure. My Tuesday evening was far less exciting, consisting of feeble attempts at continued research for my paper on World War II appeasement, followed my more drafting of the actual document. Thrilling, I know.

To be entirely honest, Wednesday and Thursday have now completely blended together, probably because nothing particularly exciting happened. I wrote a few stories for m co-worker Sam’s publication, the Regional Monitor, and picked out corresponding photos to go into the magazine as well as updated the index pages of the magazine itself. Fortunately all of my efforts have lead to yet another mention of me in the credits of the actual publication as a sub-editor. Not too shabby I would say! Beyond the credential builders, I had the typical mix of odd jobs, mostly transcribing (YES! My favourite! Actually, I don’t mind it that much, especially because one of my coworkers, Matt, always gives me a KitKat bar whenever I transcribe something for him J Who doesn’t like a bit of sweet?). By evenings were equally un-compelling, as I worked hard to finish up my portfolio for my PELA class. So I essentially locked myself in my bedroom for the week working on final projects. Such a good little girl, eh? I try. I really do. The downside of being a good little girl with her priorities straight, was that I missed out on a group excursion to this awesome bar in the city where everything is made of ice. I was told that they were only allowed to stay for 45 minutes, because it was -10 degrees! Upon arrival they were given parkas to keep warm and a glass made of ice, with a free drink. Literally everything in the bar was made of ice. There was an ice telephone booth, a map of the Underground carved into ice, and all these other things. So I was a bit sad that I missed out on this (but for 15 pounds for 45 minutes, not including any additional drinks, it had better be pretty amazing!)

Friday was quite an interesting day, with a bit more jet setting. I left, as always, bright and early and went to my class. Like all of the previous weeks, attendance was dismal at best, and this week the professor was 25 minutes late. We persevered none the less. In the middle of class a monsoon hit London. It was raining so hard that water actually started bubbling up from the floor of our classroom. Poor Ellen was making her way to CAPA (our school) right at this time to meet up with us before going to the airport for our adventures to Rome (for the record, I was the only one in our little group that was actually in class, but nevermind that.) The rain on Friday was so bad that more than half of the Tube stations (at least on the Circle line that we were riding on) were closed. Severe delays. A Londoner’s worst nightmare. Especially problematic for us as we tried to make our way to the proper station to catch the train to Stansted airport. After some fancy maneuvering on the buses, we girls were able to make it to the train station and purchase our tickets. RJ was not quite as successful, probably because his level of awesomeness was far inferior to ours (or because he was coming from Islington instead of Kensington, where we were). We finally all met up and made our way to the airport. After checking in and getting to the gate, I was having a deep philosophical chat about fate and strange coincidences with RJ, when I turned around to see Andrew Camallerri, a fellow Novi Wildcat, two people behind me in line for our flight to Rome. Ironic, isn’t it? We finally made it into Rome, grabbed some delicious dinner, and checked into our hotel. Before hitting the hay, we grabbed a nightcap at the hotel bar, where we discovered that there was a free breakfast buffet every morning. Don’t worry, we made the most of it.

The buffet was the first thing on our Roman to do list, followed by a trip to the Coliseum, where we took a guided tour. While I had been inside the Coliseum just in February, it was a terrific experience, because this time I had the benefit of the knowledgeable and quirky tour guide (who, just for the record could not hold a candle to the stellar guidance of Russell and Graham, my newest Scottish lovers, haha). But none the less, I learned the ins and outs of the Coliseum, from everything to the training and fighting of gladiators, the set up and traditions of events within the walls, and the prostitution and other intricacies of Roman culture surrounding the historic building. The only downside was that it was BLISTERINGLY hot, and the sun was beaming down, not a cloud in the sky. It was probably over 90 degrees, with little if any shade to be found. After taking a rest and grabbing something to drink, we regrouped with the tour company and took a free tour of the Palatine Hill and Forum. A different guide this time, but also quite cool. He was rolling and smoking his own cigarettes while simultaneously lecturing us on Roman history and the history of the sights we were seeing. We saw the Vestal Temple, the cave of Romulus and Remus, the Temple of Julius Caesar, and a bunch of other historical sights. Following our wonderful tour, the four of us took the initiative to browse the Forum a bit more. As we wandered, we took in the sights and I ended up taking a pretty nasty fall down a flight of steps after slipping on some ancient dirt on the stairs. After some significant blushing and wanting to crawl in a hole and die, we continued to look around the Forum. Just a few moments after my embarrassing tumble I was mortified again. I had turned around to take a picture, and when I looked back Ellen, Raquel and RJ had all disappeared. So I was standing in the middle of the Forum like a five year old lost in a grocery store, just waiting for someone to come and find me. Sometimes I don’t even believe that I am actually 20. Thankfully I found my travel buddies a minute later, spotting them up on the top of a nearby hill. By this time we were all about to melt from the ridiculous heat, with very little shelter in the ruins, so we climbed out of the Forum and had our first Italian gelato experience. We enjoyed this delicious treat on the edge of a beautiful fountain. The only problem was that the fountain was in the middle of the street. After a few near roadkill situations, mostly with Roman busses, we thought it might be wise to move to another location. Energized from our gelato (containing twice the sugar of American ice cream) we headed for the Pantheon. The Pantheon was, well, the Panteon. Crawling with tourists as usual. Hole in the ceiling, as usual. Yep. Everything still there. Post Pantheon, we started walking a bit more, with no particular destination in mind. By this time, we were all pretty hungry, having never stopped for lunch. So around 5:00 (crazy early for all those Italians) we stopped and had dinner number one. I love Italian food. It has been decided. I had some delicious gnocchi and was content. The only problem with Italian food is that the portions are not very big, especially in comparison with its American counterpart. But none the less, excellent. After dinner, we decided that we had done all that we could for the meantime, so we headed back to the lovely Best Western Globus. When we got back we all hopped on the bed to make a game plan for the rest of the day. Well, I apparently left the game plan to everyone else, because within a few minutes, I was passed out asleep. Bunny was tired! Too much heat and walking, combined with not enough sleep, I suppose will do that. After my nap we all gathered our strength, cleaned up, bought a few bottles of wine and headed down to the Trevi Fountain. But of course before we got there, we stopped for a second dinner. A few slices of pizza and a piece of tiramisu later, and we were back on the route to the Fountain. Once at the fountain, we grabbed a few seats nice and close and did some people watching while drinking our wine (gotta love the open liquor laws in Europe!). Soon after we got to the fountain Raquel’s friend from El Salvador met up with us and the two of them were chatting away the rest of the night. Ellen and I got in some lovely conversation with a cute Australian family visiting on holiday (we didn’t even notice their extremely attractive, surfer body son. Didn’t notice him at all…). After the Trevi Fountain, we went into a little club. We got in for free because of our Salvadorian connections. Yet another time that me pretending to be Hispanic, excuse me, Latina, has saved me some dinero. For a Saturday night the club was surprisingly empty. The only other people there were fellow tourists there on a pub crawl (which may have been why there was no one else there). So after a few drinks, we gave up, exhausted, and retreated to the Globus once more and hit the sheets.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early(-ish) busy packing and getting ready for the day. We hit up the wonderful breakfast buffet once more and moved our things out of the room. We headed to Vatican City to start our day off. Having heard that it was closed on Sundays, we expected to only be able to look around the outside of the Vatican. However we were slightly misinformed. The Vatican Museum is closed on Sundays, but not St. Peter’s, the one thing that I really wanted to see. The problem was, Raquel and I both had on tube tops, not expecting to be able to go in anywhere in the Vatican. This was not up to the dress code of the Church. Ironically, Raquel and I, the two Catholics were not allowed in to Basilica, but Ellen and RJ, the Mormon and the Hindu were allowed in. Like I said, ironic. But Raquel and I were not about to let the dress code stop us. We quickly ran down to the shops surrounding the Vatican and bought little scarves for 2 Euro, and wrapped those around our shoulders in order to bypass the “bare shoulders” rule. This time we easily got in, and were pretty easily able to meet up with RJ and Ellen inside St. Peter’s. The inside of the Cathedral was absolutely breathtaking. But like always, the queues were ridiculously long, so we didn’t go into the top of the dome or anything. RJ and Ellen were both able to see the tomb of Pope John Paul II while Raquel and I sorted out our wardrobe issues and cleared security again. Overall though, I am glad that I made it over to the Vatican again. After the Vatican we took the Metro to the Spanish Steps. No one else was particular interested in the Spanish Steps, and none of the flowers were in bloom. All this combined with the heat and the crowds, made the whole area less than impressive. So we moved along quite quickly and grabbed our last Italian meal, a bit more pizza and a glass of wine for me (yum). With only about an hour left to sightsee in the city, we headed to the Crypt of the Capuchin monks. This crypt was decorated completely in bones of other monks and other people who had been buried in the monk’s former cemetery. There were chandeliers, alters, and clocks, all made completely from bones. Some of the bodies that were whole inside of the crypt actually still had flesh on their bones! However, the whole thing was surprisingly less creepy than it should have been. As I was going through I kind of joined on to a tour group that was also going through and therefore got the full explanation of each of the rooms. Very interesting. After the crypt, we headed back to the hotel and grabbed all of our luggage before catching the bus to the airport. We finally arrived back to London around 11 after yet another delayed flight (just one of the many that I have run into on my adventures). So by the time that I finally got back to my apartment, it was 1:30. But, on the positive side, I didn’t have to work the next morning!

So there is your appetizer. Savor it, because the soup and salad is on the way...