Pizzeria Da Michele

An excerpt from Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert:

"So Sofie and I have come to Pizzeria da Michele, and these pies we have just ordered--one for each of us--are making us lose our minds. I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair. Meanwhile, Sofie is practically in tears over hers, she's having a metaphysical crisis about it, she's begging me, "Why do we even bother trying to make pizza in Stockholm? Why do we even bother eating food at all in Stockholm?
Holy of holies! Thin, doughy, strong, gummy, yummy, chewy, salty pizza paradise. On top, there is a sweet tomato sauce that foams up all bubbly and creamy when it melts the fresh buffalo mozzarella, and the one sprig of basil in the middle of the whole deal somehow infuses the entire pizza with herbal radiance..."

Me and my double mozzerella pizza and beer!

Check out the low prices!

Me and Sophie with our pizzas!

Needless to say, every word of it was true! I was truly in pizza paradise when I tasted the yummy pizza in da Michele. It was so good that if you heard the sound I was making while eating the pizza..... let's just say you wouldn't think that I was having a meal. Of all coincidences, I went to da Michele with my friend who is also named Sophie! Oh pizza! I was meant to taste you! We arrived in Napoli on Saturday evening at 5pm and went straight to eat the pizza and we were lucky that it was still early and there wasn't a long line. We were also lucky that we didn't wait till Sunday to eat the pizza as they were closed when we went there the next day to try it again. The best thing about da Michele is that their prices are still low. Only 5 euros for the double mozzerella and 1.50 for a beer! And the restaurant was very simple and small. No special decor or fake ambience. It was all about the pizza. Dear pizza, stay delicious. I shall come back to eat you in the near future....

So I think I'm Roman

I may not look like a Roman or I may not sound like a Roman but I certainly think I am a Roman.... =p Whenever I go out and see someone with a map, I'll be thinking, "Ha! Tourist! I don't need a map!" (I do actually. I seem to get a lost a lot because of the confusing road system). Whenever I go out and there are people speaking in any other languages than Italian, I'll be thinking, "Ha! They don't speak Italian!" (I don't speak Italian as well and am having a hard time learning the language). Whenever I have to push my way through throngs of tourists, I'll be thinking, "Urgh! Go back home! Annoying tourists.... " (I am a tourist myself and part of the crowd who visits all the tourist attractions). I guess living here with an Italian family makes me think I'm Roman or something... hehe. Even when I go to a tourist spot, I try not to do touristy things like taking the tourist bus or joining a tourist group. I explore everything in my own time and always try not to look lost. At times, I look so sure of where I'm going that people think I'm Roman and start asking for directions! All I could do is give them a helpless look and say, "Err.... I don't speak Italian." or just, "Errr.... " *shake my head*. For some reason, I don't like to look like a tourist when I'm visiting a place. Before I go out, I'll study the map of the places that I want to go to and try to memorize the map. I guess I just like to look like I know what I'm doing even when I don't. That's not a bad thing right? =)

Bambina

A video of Livia! She loves screaming day and night. Haha! She's basically my alarm clock. When I first arrived in Rome, she couldn't crawl yet. And now after just 7 weeks, she's crawling all over the place! Hopefully, she'll learn to walk before I leave Rome. =) This post is mainly to show the video of Livia to Aunty Bunny... (hehe... happy now?) Oh, here are pictures of her as well...

Anyway, just started my Italian language course last week. Just got done with my fourth class. I was a bit slow for the past two classes. Haven't studied anything in a while and now I can't seem to learn as quickly as I used to. Hmmm.... need to work out my brains with sudoku maybe? There were 3 new girls in our class today. One of the girls, who was Columbian, spoke no English. So, I was forced to speak Italian with her! HA! I could hardly form a sentence and we were both still learning the language. In spite of that, we managed to communicate with each other! Made me feel like I was actually learning Italian well enough. Haha! I might not be able to carry an intelligent conversation in Italian (nor in English), but at least I'll be able to get my message across in very broken Italian: Io sono babysitter. Vacanza. Tre mesi. Due cento euros per uno mesi. Cinque ore per giorno. (I am babysitter. Vacation. Three months. 200 euros per month. 5 hours a day). Capire? (understand?)

Italy so far....

Went out for dinner on Saturday night with some of Marta and Alessandro's friends. And of course we left the house at 9.15 and by the time we got to the pizzeria, it was 9.30 and we had to wait 30 minutes for our table, so we ended up eating at 10 something. That's pretty typical on weekends.....
This was the pizza that I had to cut myself and fold it when I eat it... hehe. Looks yummy right? Real Margheritta pizza.... mmm.....

On Sunday, we went to Alessandro's mom's house for lunch, which was at the countryside...

Here's Marta and Livia.

Livia with food all over her face.

We ate outside during lunch... there was a really nice breeze...

Purple hibiscus!

Pear tree!

My lunch..... pasta, bread and Italian beer.

Lunch and dinner is always a 2 or 3 course meal.... haha. Some eggplant, potatoes and pork after pasta.

After that, we had some espresso! Italian coffee tastes so good!!!

Livia's great grandparents and grandma.

After lunch, we headed over to Alessandro's friend's house for a swim and just to hang out....

Marta, Alessandro and Livia.

Olive trees and grape vines...

The kids playing around in the sun...

Marta lounging beside the pool.

Dinner for that night... pasta with olives and tomatoes mixed with bread crumbs and olive oil and almonds.... yummy....

When In Rome....

You know what they say... when in Rome, do as the Romans do... so I did everything the way the Romans do it.... here's a list of what i've done so far:

1. Eat dinner at 9pm
2. Fold my pizza when I eat it
3. Eat good food (obviously)
4. Walk slowly
5. Greet people with kisses (more like making contact with each others cheeks and making loud kissy sounds)
6. Say hi and goodbye with "Ciao!"
7. Drink beer or wine or both during lunch and dinner
8. Twirl your spaghetti with a fork.... really twirl it
9. Dip bread in leftover spaghetti sauce
10. Do everything slowly even if you're late.... just take things easily... don't get stressed up.

I don't mind living here forever....... =)

White water rafting

Finally got the rafting pictures from Chris! These were taken at Wyoming Snake River. We were going through some pretty crazy waves there. The waves were so high that you could surf them! Amazing! Too bad they didn't catch us throwing each other off the raft... hehe. Our rafting guide, Bryson (I think that was his name) is from Salt Lake City, Utah and had a strong midwestern accent, which made our experience even more complete. Haha.

By the way, the water was extremely cold. Probably around 15 celcius. Nevertheless, I had a blast jumping into the freezing cold water and getting pushed into the river. Haha! I would love to do it all over again.... and again and again and again.... you get my drift (pun intended).

Vegas Baby!

After nearly 2 weeks of camping and roughing it out, we finally arrived in Sin City! First thing we did when we arrived was we went for a lunch buffet. We stayed there for 2 hours, eating like we've haven't had real food for 2 weeks.... After that, we checked into our hotel, Alexis Park (apparently, it's a famous location for making porn). Later on that evening, our tour leader surprised us with a limo and lots of booze! Woohoo!

Our pimped up limo...

Irena and I along the old Vegas strip with our drinks.... you can walk along the strip with your drink!

Having a blast in our limo!

Finally, the famous water fountain show at the Bellagio....

Here's a video of our limo ride with my annoying voice in the background.

After the Bellagio, we headed to the Stratosphere to get on the rides and get a good view of Vegas.

Next on our itenerary were the casinos! So Irena, Gordon and I decided to set off and take a walk along the strip (whish we were advised against) to see all the Casinos and just to explore most of Vegas, since we only had one night. We also decided that we were going to stay up the whole night so we wouldn't waste any precious moments in Vegas. Well that was grand. I was so tired and sleepy after Zion because of the early morning hike and the lack of sleep the night before. I was so tired that I actually dozed off for a second while having a conversation with Gordon. I was looking at the drinks menu and went, "Oh! Tequilaaa......zzzzz......(jolts up) oh shit! I just fell asleep!" Gordon of laughs non stop at me. =.= That wasn't the end of it either. While we were walking to another casino, I steered of the sidewalk because I was dozing off again! I was turning into a narcoleptic! Oh no! We immediately went in search of caffeine and found CoffeeeBean! Haven't seen those in my whole 2 years in the USA. I was then able to stay up for the rest of the night. We finally retired to our hotel at sunrise.

Next morning, Irena and I slept though our alarm causing the rest of our group to leave 30 minnutes late for Los Angeles. Sorry guys! They've been calling our room and we didn't even hear the phone ring! When I finally awoke at 9.30 am, I panicked. All kinds of nonsense went through my head. I thought they left us behind and we would have to find our way to LA and we were going to miss our plane back and all kinds of other shit. I quickly got up and opened the front door to find Chris walking towards our room. I was so relieved! When we got to the van, Sandra, Sarah and Lydia was completely drunk! They've been up the whole night drinking and when they got back to their room, they decided to keep on drinking. Should've done the same so we would've been on time. Haha! They were actually still drinking when we went into the van. They had cups of vodka in their hands. Oh the Irish. Really live up to their name... hehe.

On the way to LA, we stopped by for lunch at In-N-Out Burger which were run by Mormons, so their burgers and fries are never frozen. They tasted fresh and really good! Then, we were off to LA for our final goodbyes. Met some pretty awesome people on this trip. I would definitely go on another trip with this group of wonderful people. Hopefully, we'll keep in touch and be able to go on another trip together.... Missing you guys! *hugs*