Arrivederci, Roma

Oh, dear. There's a song called "Arrivederci, Roma," and now it's stuck in my head. I never thought it was a sad song before I got here, but I also didn't know that arrivederci meant "good-bye" before I came, so...now I think it's sad. :(

This will be my final post from Rome. Tomorrow will be spent mostly packing and cleaning the apartment, and hopefully going out with the roomies to eat some good food. I took my final exam today, and I came back to school to turn in my cell phone, so after today I no longer have any reason to come to this lab! I'll be home on Sunday night. Er, Stateside, that is. I'll be in Lubbock sometime Monday afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you again!

Today, as I said, I took my final exam. I ended up not studying at all, lol. I kept trying after I got home last night, but Claudia kept talking to me, and then Nancy kept talking to me, and then I got sleepy. Enh, it happens. I did fine, I'm sure--it was mostly essays. So anyway, after finishing my class, I did some last-minute shopping for the souvenirs and gifts I've been eyeing all summer (and had not yet acquired), and for a few things at the grocery store. As I was walking back to the apartment, I kept wondering why everyone and their mother was asking me for directions (I sent at least 4 in the direction of the Vatican Museum)...until I realized that I was carrying a sack of groceries. Makes me look like I live here or something.

As I was hanging out in the bus, I started to realize that I'm on the brink of being able to understand Italian. (Great. I'm leaving just as I'm starting to be able to communicate.) For instance, yesterday at the beach a lady in the line for the bathroom asked me if she could go in front of me since she was eighty years old and needed to go right now...I told her sure, no problem. That was all in Italian. Today two ladies on the bus were griping about some lady they met yesterday who couldn't understand Italian (haha). One of the ladies kept saying she couldn't understand why this lady was doing something (not sure what). On another bus, a man was recommending a restaurant to the lady next to him, telling her what they usually served, where it was, and how much it cost. On the metro today, the doors kept not being able to close because someone in another compartment was standing in the way; a man in my compartment kept hollering that they needed to hurry up and move. "Avanti! Let's go!" I understood him, too. (Haha then, he stepped out of the train so he could yell at them some more, and the doors closed right then, and everyone laughed. I guess he was stuck waiting for the next train. Ti sta bene!--serves you right!). Anytime people talk about places, or use numbers, or mention their families, or talk about food, I can understand...although I may not understand what they're saying about all those things. And I can talk to people about where I'm from--including why Texas is better than the rest of the US--things I like, why I'm in Rome, etc. So you see why I'm frustrated? I have just now reached the point where I can talk and understand some things and read stuff. Ah well.

(On the subject of communication, I found a new favorite example of bad English. The sign next to the driver on one of the buses says, "Not to disturb leading." I'm pretty sure that means, "Do not distract the driver"...)

As I was walking home from shopping, it was around noon, and I was thinking to myself what a lovely day it was...so cool and breezy. A second later I realized how ironic it was that I was thinking that while sweat poured down my back. :) I actually felt quite cool, though, so I decided, I'll take it! In Rome, cool is relative.

After lunch I went to say good-bye to a few of my favorite places.

Bye, Pantheon.

Bye, Colosseum and Forum and Appenine Mountains.

I visited the Vittorio Emanuele Monument again too, climbing all those hundreds of stairs again, because I like it. I'm not gonna lie, I got a little misty for a while there, thinking about all the things I've loved so much here, that I will most likely never see again. I did throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, which supposedly means I'll come back...so I guess I can always hope, right?

So that was pretty much it for today. After my legs felt like rubber, I came back to school for some final business. Tonight my roomies and I are having dinner here in Trastevere, buying lemonade from the Beautiful Man in the lemonade stand (he's legendary among the females here at JCU, but I'm too much of a chicken to take his picture), and walking along the Tiber.

I think that at some point I will want to write about the trip in general, about what I learned and how I felt about it overall. I was planning on doing that in this final post, but I am not up to it today. I'm just feeling sad and empty and overall uninspired. Perhaps that's best left for when I get back home.

So until then...I love you all so dearly.

Arrivederci, Italia. Ti amo.