I am SO bored. All I do is eat, sleep, and watch movies or Six Feet Under. And I'm almost done with season 3, and they don't have season 4 or 5 at the video store here! What will I do?!

Pictures from Rome! (In very un-chronological order!)

The Colosseum at night

Me and Viv in our hostel--it actually looks kind of cozy in this picture!

A "gladiator" talking to a policeman

Pompei: weak attempt to climb the ruins

Pompei: We thought the holes were toilets. We later figured out they were cooking areas.

A park in the area.

The Fontana di Trevi--the first day of (warm!) sunshine made it look really pretty

Hope ya'll like!

I am back from Rome! It was a good trip, barring a few small problems (super-crappy hostel, my friend Jen's wallet getting stolen on the last night we were there).
We were there for seven days, so we basically had enough time to see everything we wanted to, as well as make a day trip down to Napoli and see Pompei, which is about 2 hours away from Rome. Before I left, I really only had heard about the Colosseum and the Fontana di Trevi (the big famous fountain--didn't know what it was called until I got there). So it was really cool to find out about all of these other famous, amazing things! Like Vatican City! Totally forgot that was in Rome. . . oops. I guess it's ok since I'm not Catholic, right?
Photos will be posted soon!

In other news, I watched TWO movies yesterday (already making great use of my time back): Cry Baby and When Harry Met Sally. Let's just say that I understand why I'd never heard of Cry Baby, despite the fact that Johnny Depp is in it--it's a really lame, low-budget spoof of Grease. But When Harry Met Sally was great--it's one of those rare examples of films that are so famous and hyped up, yet still really funny and well-done! Glad I finally saw it, and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Note: If you want to see some pics from Amsterdam, check out my photo album on Facebook!
I'm off to Rome--catch ya later!

I am in love with Mutts, so here's a pic for the day:

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

ps-I just wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes! I got so many on facebook, it was overwhelming! I mean, it's facebook, but it still makes me feel special, what can I say? I went out to dinner with a small group of people for my actual birthday, which was delicious, and then Janelle and Vivian made even more tasty brownies for me.

I have great friends!

I am a new fan of the author Tom Robbins. I just finished my first book by him, Jitterbug Perfume, and I really liked it. He writes in a very descriptive, yet totally unromantic, un-cheesy style, and I often feel the need to underline random sentences in his book. The opening lines, for example:

"The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious. "

As you can tell, Robbins has a very random, unique writing style. I highly recommend his book!

ps-I'm 21 today! But it's not such a big deal, since the drinking age in Germany is basically 10 years old.

I'm back from Amsterdam! It was a lot of fun--the city is gorgeous, the people all speak perfect English and are very personable, they have bikes EVERYWHERE (go Davis!), beautiful old buildings, and canals! The canals were the best part--very European!

We saw the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum (prounounced somewhat like "Rykes" museum--it's the national museum of the Netherlands), Anne Frank's house (a really good museum, btw), the Heineken "Experience" (basically a huge ad for the company, but quite entertaining), and on the last day we fed CRAZY seagulls at Vondelpark, a big park on the outskirts of the city!

The only bad thing about the trip? I got really used to speaking English for some reason...so even though it was only 4 days long, I came back and today said "Thank you" to someone working at a store! Of course I wanted to hit myself--I don't think I've ever done that yet, since "danke" is freakin' the easiest word ever to remember, and you use it all the time! But whatever--I'm going to Rome in a couple days, so the German's gonna be pushed even further back in my brain!

I'll post some pics from amsterdam soon!

Random stuff

I have found an actual use for the beer "stein" stolen from Oktobefest!

Glorius, no?

And then I got a birthday card from my family today (they're on the ball!), a card they apparently bought while visiting me in Germany. I had to laugh at my dad's usual pseudo-German. This is probably funny to anyone who knows even a little German!

MY FINALS ARE DONE!!!

Party tonight to say goodbye to all the "Ami" kids who are going back home, and to celebrate the end of the semester! Yay!
Monday: Amsterdam!