School, social life, and scooters

O.K., since I now have two weeks to recall and write about I am going to have to abbreviate a little and just give the highlights instead of a day by day, because honestly I have been going non-stop here and it is all starting to run together into one big ball of good times :) Each day starts with me struggling to wake up and get ready for school. It's been a very long time since I've had to do that but it's not any easier now than it was when I was a kid. The classes are good and I like the teachers, but I have been spending so much time trying to stay awake that I'm not learning as much as I should. But, if I could do it again I would do it the same way. I have made so many friends here and they all want to spend time together, from going to the bar, coffee shop, in the morning during the class break for cornetti, pastries like croissants, to going to the Sicilian bakery down the street after class for arangini, rice balls filled with meat, mozzarella, sauce, and vegitables, then fried, like all of Italy wrapped in one delicious package, and canoli (best ones I've found outside of Mom's, they're wonderful), meeting again for dinner, usually about 8-10 people, and then going dancing until late. Everyone in our group is great fun and we all get along really well, like we're all old friends. O.K., maybe I'm the only old one, they're all 18-25, but it's all good. I have to say this has been a great experience and I feel very fortunate to be here and be able to do something like this, and really, I feel like I am just getting started, there is much more to do. So anyway, some details....

I spent one Saturday with Tom, Nevzet, Gabi, Silvia, and Violetta riding around Roma on rented motorini! The boys drove while the girls hung on, laughing and sometimes yelling "Oh Shit!", which was especially cute coming from a pretty Brazilian girl that doesn't speak perfect English. I of course, am at home on anything with only two wheels, Nevzet is from Turkey and I think he's comfortable with the scooter and the traffic, but this was only the second time Tom has been on a scooter, both times in Roma, but it had been a while. So, needless to say he needed a little time to get comfortable with it, which was unfortunately interupted by the rear bumper of a car in front of him only 5 minutes into the day. We were a bit lost trying to get back to his house at the time, and while we were stopped at a light I told him I wanted to turn right, which meant going between the stopped cars to get to the other lane, which is totally normal here and not a problem. So I did and then I heard a crash behind me. When I looked back Tom had the front of his scoot into the back of a car! He only moved about 5 feet and just hit the stopped car in front of him. Long story short, the owner wasn't too upset and he handled it with the guy at the rental agency, who also didn't think much of it. It was pretty funny though and we all had a good laugh after. The rest of the day went good, until about the end of the evening when Nevzet decided to go around some cars on the right, between the cars and the curb, also acceptable here, but he did it a bit fast and hit the curb with the side of his bike as he went by the cars. I'm not sure which part of the bike touched the curb, but I'm sure it was metal because it threw an unbelievable shower of sparks in the air as he drug it on the curb going by the cars! I was right behind him just cringing the whole time (he was dragging on the curb about 15 feet) just hoping he didn't bounce off into traffic. Fortunately he kept it on two wheels and pulled over to inspect the scooter. Everything was fine, and I don't think Violetta had any idea what happened, even though I'm surprised her pants didn't catch fire from the sparks! After we knew they were O.K. we all died laughing (I'm laughing right now just thinking about it). It was hillarious, huge sparks, nightime, we all saw it, it was great. It was a truly Roman experience and we all had a great time. I need a motorcycle.... Oh by the way, for those of you who may not know, you should be able to click on the pictures and see a larger version, I hope.