as jesse's last day, she and i went out on the town to do some touristy stuff. we took the bus to the bookstore to sell back our books and then, from there, walked to la bocca della verità. it was a bit farther than we expected but we still got there on time and got to take a picture with it. there we are.


after, we decided we were hungry and improvised a bit and headed over to l'archetto, the spaghetteria. yeah we know it was lunch time, but it was our last meal out together and i found it only appropriate that we were both having the chanel spaghetti at l'archetto. after feeling like complete fatties, we walked down to the colosseum to see it one last time and to see the tree out there. here's a picture of it.


after, we took a stroll up via del corso to hit up a few stores and then came home so that i could turn in my paper and movie and chill with our other roommate. i don't have any pictures from last night mostly cause we were mostly just chillin and packing but it definitely was really sad. i said goodbye to my roommate this morning around 640 when her cab got here. i tried really hard not to cry, but i couldn't really help it. i'm also not worried cause i have no doubt in my mind that ill get to see my roomate again.

as for tonight, IES is throwing us a going away dinner at la limonaia...the place we all had our first lunch together. i'm excited to see everyone for the last time and to have an amazing 20 course dinner as IES always gives us. woot for being a fatty on your last day in rome.

sunday night a big group of us headed out to the olympic stadium to watch the soccer game. this weekend, AS Roma played Palermo. the game was so so much fun especially since Rome kicked ass and they REALLY don't like sicilians. there's nick and justin outside of the stadium.


and this is some pregame fire.


here's a picture of me, steph, and melissa at the game.


and here are the two teams all lined up before the game started.


this is the game now in action.


this is the palermo section. they were given a small section in the corner and were instructed to stay in their seats after the game ended and all of the roma fans were gone. there were all kinds of things being thrown including fires and firecrackers.


this is now the palermo section after palermo almost scored. the riot police showed up and did not leave.


this is one of the fire bombs thrown into the palermo section.


there is some guy in front of us flipping off the palermo section after we scored.


melissa and justin with their goal faces.


steph and me.


waving the flag after we scored.


domenico. i forget exactly what his comment was on this photo but it had something to do with getting little sleep, taking drugs, and then getting hit by the ugly hippy stick.


theres stephanie with the field.


penalty kick where totti scored. woot.


this is me and my roommate at the game.


and this is the crowd singing "grazie roma" after we won.


gotta love the calcio<3

i thoroughly enjoy IES people and IES Rome.

we headed out to the vatican to do some souvenir shopping and see the square for the last time before heading back to the united states. the square was really cute esp since they erected a tree that is almost as tall as the obelisk. here are some pictures of the square and jesse and me in it.




so then we took the train to piazza di spagna and saw this cute little choir of italian children singing english christmas carols with accents and messing up some of the words. so cute though.


so then last night we started in the apartment and then headed out to cheap bar to meet all the other IES people. here are some pictures of us in our apartment.




and at the bus stop.



on the bus.



in piazza navona.


at cheap bar.
















rock castle.






after rock castle, meredith, lauren, jesse, and me headed out to club sin in testaccio and had a friggin blast. there were a bunch of IES people there that we ended up hanging out with and meeting all these italian people too. i dont have any pictures from sin...but it was quite a good time. as per usual, i fell down the stairs...so we all know the night was complete.

so thursday night was valerio's birthday which coincided with the first night of our last weekend in rome. so being that these two things were happening and, on top of that, everyone was pretty much finished with finals, we all headed out to a club called cosmopolitan. it was so so fun especially since we didnt have to pay cover since it was valerio's birthday. here are some pictures from the apartment before we left to hit up cheap bar to get cheap drinks.

collin and me...one of us has asian glow one of us not so much.


emily and me.


my three girls showing me their bums.


the 4 of us smiling.


apparently im the only one smiling here.


and here's a silly picture of the four of us.


and there's some roomie love.

so on saturday night when we returned from prague, jesse, collin, emily, and i all headed out for dinner and a fun, early night...since collin and i were pretty much exhausted

here are some pictures from dinner. we went to one of our favorite restaurants called l'archetto which is a spaghetteria. granted, they have other food too but theyre most known for their like 60 or more different kinds of spaghetti.

first this is jesse and emily showing off their azn pryde.


and then this is my and collin's reaction. (what are they doing?!)


and then a second try at our reaction (what do they want from us?)


and this is a picture of the four of us...our tuesday night cheesy 90s movie and dinner crew.


After dinner, we hit up piazza navona cause of their cute little christmas carnival.

this is jesse and emily with one of the huge bears.


there's jesse on the carousel. thats right, we TOTALLY rode the carousel that sits in piazza navona. and of course i chose the biggest horse on the ride and had so much trouble climbing on.


that's faux dancing grandma who was outside of the bar.


and jesse getting her turn with santa.


this is emily pouting in the corner after we left her with the rest of IES.


and this is one of the beautifully lit streets of roma all ready for christmas.


ok i know this is a week late but ill keep posting pictures and entries as i get the chance to do so. these last few days have been incredibly busy as i had 4 finals in two days and am not trying to enjoy rome as much as i can since i only have 4 days left. i also still have a paper due on tuesday so i'm kind of trying to do 1000 things at once. anyhow...i'll post more either this evening or tomorrow.