Ah, the day of the registration. My least favorite day of the week. Mostly because it involves such things as waiting impatiently for people you've clearly judged by their grammar on their registration form sent in prior to your meeting in person. Then there is the matter of perkiness and general manufactured joviality. See where this is going?
Anyway, Show Choir registration ran smoothly enough. No flips, flops, or other mishaps of somewhat disastrous proportions. And, it gears us up for the even more daunting afternoon of chaos that happens next Saturday.
Which reminds me. Next Friday begins the best week in all the summer: Speech Camp. And that may mean that I will be vague, aloof, and otherwise hard to bring back to the real world. So if you're expecting posts, expect skimpy ones at best. But trust me. The 15-18 hour days are going to be joy enough for this blogger.
Showing posts with label Orientation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orientation. Show all posts
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Friday, September 2, 2011
Espresso and Boats
The morning began semi-unassumingly with both Kate and Erica jumping into my bed and saying things like "Good morning sunshine," and "get up". At that point, I knew that the day would be a pretty good one. So here we go on a whirl-wind adventure. On your mark, get set, go!
The first thing we had to do was to wait for one of our SAI persons to come check our apartment. Those hours were designated between 10 and 1, or 10 and 13 for those of you playing the 24hr clock game. So while we waited we divided into two groups so that we could go down to the local coffee shop to get our caffeine fix. That's right, I had expresso. Flat out, ye be warned, kind of espresso. Granted, I put an itty bitty tiny pinch of sugar in it, just to get used to it (let's face it, I also used to put cream in my American coffee, so things will change). Needless to say, THAT is my jam. No more of this frilly steamed milk stuff for me. Let's talk about the pure caffeine in a baby cup in a baby saucer, and served up hot and beautiful. Pure love in a cup. Let's be real. About an hour later, after watching My Drunk Kitchen episodes, and generally being Friday morning bums. She finally arrived, and checked through everything, and helped us start the wash, and left without further complications. NOTE: The socket that we use for the wash was shot. "The wall plate, it's scorched" (Chloe). So every time we went to check on the wash (which is supposed to take an hour... blerg) it would be stopped. This eventually ended with a soaking floor, and us being extremely concerned about the bubbling plastic around the edge of the plug.... Not good? yup, probably not. So now that we have all of our clothing hanging joyfully in the foyer, we will have to send in a report about the outlet, and those turmoils begin. Alas.
After that we headed out to find some lunch and some other necessities where we found this darling little place called Otello (because that's pretentious) and had some DELICIOUS pasta, and had a wonderful conversation with the waiter (Francesco). It was so adorable, I'm reasonably sure that we'll be back there.
Then, and this is the good part, we went to Orientation! For those of you following along, "Orientation" is a synonym for drool worthy power points and lackluster speeches. However, this was JCU's orientation (so a little bit more like what you did before you started freshman year with meeting strange people who you have almost nothing in common with, yeah, like that). But here, and I'm now going to use as many puns as possible (and to Alicia Gerber, on her boat adventures, I hope you like this), they were boat/ship themed. And that means that 'we' were the 'crew' (and if you didn't know you were 'on a boat', you had to go upstairs to find out) and were divided into different 'ships' (mine being The Nina). And the leaders of each groups were not the 'captains' as you would initially assume, but rather the 'skippers'. So after a very mumbled and at least partly Italian greeting from the president, we paddled our life rafts to the historic ships that were to set sail on this adventure and get our sea legs. One quick round of names, and then we start discussing this "treasure hunt" around Rome. I said, "a what?" And truth be told, this was sprung on us, that we were going to walk all around Rome to see famous things (think Vatican, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain etc) and take funny pictures with your group to win some kind of wine tasting... Oh yeah, and do it in 2 hours. Bahahahahahaha, they're real jokesters here. Except not. They were very serious. However, as a special clause to this "adventure," my skipper said that if we got lost, or didn't want to paddle any more, we could just go back to the JCU campus and grab dinner. Kate and I found each other on the side walk and spontaneously "walked the plank" by going back to our apartment. On the way we called Erica and Molly to try and get them to jump ship with us. Erica caught up quickly to where we were, but poor Molly was viscously tied to the masthead and couldn't commit mutiny while retaining composure. So the three of us, pulled out from port (with out JCU IDs in hand-about time mateys) and shipped back home. There Kate and I updated our video blog (http://twopeasinpasta.blogspot.com) and relaxed a bit (with more laundry of course).
After a bit o that, the three musketeers (wait, no more Pirate jokes?) decided to head out to find important things like anything to measure ingredients with. As well some extra apartment things (tupperware? yup). This brought us to the less publicized Jewish sector of the city, so many Kosher cafes! (Sorry, I have to throw this one in. What does a Jewish pirate say? Ahoy Vey! -You laughed, don't lie to me). Mission success is what I like to call that trip. Then on our way back we found our last dog-paddling sailor, Molly, and threw her a lifesaver. In short, Molly worked a lot harder than any of us today. Total mileage covered in flip flops? Approximately 11 miles-in the FOUR HOUR TOUR OF THE CITY. She got to pick where we ate dinner. Actually I'm surprised that she's still awake. None the less, I suppose that paddling out to tourist attractions was JCU's way of welcoming us to Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-o-m-a. (if you couldn't tell, that was pirate slang.... funny!)
The first thing we had to do was to wait for one of our SAI persons to come check our apartment. Those hours were designated between 10 and 1, or 10 and 13 for those of you playing the 24hr clock game. So while we waited we divided into two groups so that we could go down to the local coffee shop to get our caffeine fix. That's right, I had expresso. Flat out, ye be warned, kind of espresso. Granted, I put an itty bitty tiny pinch of sugar in it, just to get used to it (let's face it, I also used to put cream in my American coffee, so things will change). Needless to say, THAT is my jam. No more of this frilly steamed milk stuff for me. Let's talk about the pure caffeine in a baby cup in a baby saucer, and served up hot and beautiful. Pure love in a cup. Let's be real. About an hour later, after watching My Drunk Kitchen episodes, and generally being Friday morning bums. She finally arrived, and checked through everything, and helped us start the wash, and left without further complications. NOTE: The socket that we use for the wash was shot. "The wall plate, it's scorched" (Chloe). So every time we went to check on the wash (which is supposed to take an hour... blerg) it would be stopped. This eventually ended with a soaking floor, and us being extremely concerned about the bubbling plastic around the edge of the plug.... Not good? yup, probably not. So now that we have all of our clothing hanging joyfully in the foyer, we will have to send in a report about the outlet, and those turmoils begin. Alas.
After that we headed out to find some lunch and some other necessities where we found this darling little place called Otello (because that's pretentious) and had some DELICIOUS pasta, and had a wonderful conversation with the waiter (Francesco). It was so adorable, I'm reasonably sure that we'll be back there.
Then, and this is the good part, we went to Orientation! For those of you following along, "Orientation" is a synonym for drool worthy power points and lackluster speeches. However, this was JCU's orientation (so a little bit more like what you did before you started freshman year with meeting strange people who you have almost nothing in common with, yeah, like that). But here, and I'm now going to use as many puns as possible (and to Alicia Gerber, on her boat adventures, I hope you like this), they were boat/ship themed. And that means that 'we' were the 'crew' (and if you didn't know you were 'on a boat', you had to go upstairs to find out) and were divided into different 'ships' (mine being The Nina). And the leaders of each groups were not the 'captains' as you would initially assume, but rather the 'skippers'. So after a very mumbled and at least partly Italian greeting from the president, we paddled our life rafts to the historic ships that were to set sail on this adventure and get our sea legs. One quick round of names, and then we start discussing this "treasure hunt" around Rome. I said, "a what?" And truth be told, this was sprung on us, that we were going to walk all around Rome to see famous things (think Vatican, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain etc) and take funny pictures with your group to win some kind of wine tasting... Oh yeah, and do it in 2 hours. Bahahahahahaha, they're real jokesters here. Except not. They were very serious. However, as a special clause to this "adventure," my skipper said that if we got lost, or didn't want to paddle any more, we could just go back to the JCU campus and grab dinner. Kate and I found each other on the side walk and spontaneously "walked the plank" by going back to our apartment. On the way we called Erica and Molly to try and get them to jump ship with us. Erica caught up quickly to where we were, but poor Molly was viscously tied to the masthead and couldn't commit mutiny while retaining composure. So the three of us, pulled out from port (with out JCU IDs in hand-about time mateys) and shipped back home. There Kate and I updated our video blog (http://twopeasinpasta.blogspot.com) and relaxed a bit (with more laundry of course).
After a bit o that, the three musketeers (wait, no more Pirate jokes?) decided to head out to find important things like anything to measure ingredients with. As well some extra apartment things (tupperware? yup). This brought us to the less publicized Jewish sector of the city, so many Kosher cafes! (Sorry, I have to throw this one in. What does a Jewish pirate say? Ahoy Vey! -You laughed, don't lie to me). Mission success is what I like to call that trip. Then on our way back we found our last dog-paddling sailor, Molly, and threw her a lifesaver. In short, Molly worked a lot harder than any of us today. Total mileage covered in flip flops? Approximately 11 miles-in the FOUR HOUR TOUR OF THE CITY. She got to pick where we ate dinner. Actually I'm surprised that she's still awake. None the less, I suppose that paddling out to tourist attractions was JCU's way of welcoming us to Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-o-m-a. (if you couldn't tell, that was pirate slang.... funny!)
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Hideous blisters, and How to Get Them
First of all, I would like to say that I am typically very cautious about what kind of footwear I put on in the morning and how it will affect the rest of my day. That being said, I (falsely) assumed that having orientation activities (and by that I mean the activity of sitting) all day, my choice of foot wear would not be nearly as important as what was supposed to be communicated during these lectures. So that was a dud of a plan. John Cabot University is divided into two separate campuses-the Tiber (about 15 minute walk from our apartment) and the Guarini (another ten minutes after that one--25ish total). The first activity of the day had to be to find some coffee/breakfast, but mostly coffee. So on our way to the Guarini campus, we stopped at this little coffee/pastry shop and each had a croissant and a macchiato. Now for those of you who know my coffee preferences, I like my coffee black. No cream, no sugar, no nonsense. This 'coffee' was not that. It was all nonsense. Now if you like steamed milk, this is the drink for you. This isn't to say that it wasn't good-because it was. It's just now my style. Tomorrow, I'm up to expresso. No more of these shenanigans. And the croissants were d-e-licious. In fact, Kate asked me to pinch her. Not wanting to be a bad friend-I did.
Let the orientation activities begin! And by this point I firmly believe that if I had had an expresso, I would have found these to be interesting and enlightening. But, alas, no. We've all been there. That speaker who just kind of went through the motions, the non-interesting, the non-excited version? So all enjoyment was derived from the incredibly corny pictures that appeared on almost every slide. We're talking the kind that makes you mildly uncomfortable, but laugh for a good long while instead of sacrificing your mental capacity to the watch-the-paint-dry-speaker. TWO HOURS LATER-I'm drooling onto my shirt because that's more fun, and I'm beginning to notice the blisters forming on the backs of my heels-turns out steamed milk doesn't help that either. So I use the nifty new JCU lanyard to mop up the drool, and move on because there's nothing to do about the shoes or the blisters now. We move on to take the pictures for our IDs, fill out some paper work which involved something about a sport's team. It wasn't exactly a universal form, but everyone filled it out none the less.
After that we knew that we had to be at the Tiber campus for some more sparkling adventures with orientation. But that wasn't until 3 (or 15:00 if you're using the clock on my cell phone), so Erica, Molly, Kate and I all went out to lunch at this delightful little place that was tucked back in some of the itty-bitty streets between campuses. Everyone got something different. Personally, the lasagna I had was divine. All melty cheese and just good feelings all over. We laughed and talked and eventually headed back toward the Tiber campus. Side note- the Tiber campus is so named because it is on the street that runs along next to the Tiber River. Fun facts for the day. Go over there, drool some more... kind of... the US Embassy representative had a presentation that was decent. Props to him for making that kind of stuff sound easy, and light. Also, Rick Steve's son (Andy) was there. So that was fun? Unfortunately, he was only handing out discounts and not his number... Alas. But we survived it, with maybe only a few cellphone game-Snake Masters to prove it. More paperwork, followed by Kate and I heading back to the apartment. We found Erica there, with her feet propped up on the dashing blue trunk.
At that point, I was nearly limping because of these blasted blisters. For those of you with light stomachs, skip this part. My right foot was definitely bleeding from this all day excursion. A little Girl Scout first aid involved washing both heels off with soap and water=stingzilla. Got that done, ointment (to parry off of Michelle's blog, let's focus on the 'oi' sound of that word for a moment. Oi? Oy. Oy-vey.) bandaids, and tennis shoes for the rest of the day.
Once everyone was home from their extravagant paperwork spree, we decided that we needed some of the necessities: Toilet paper, dish soap, food. These are things that one finds useful in an apartment. Granted, we do have a bidet (fondly called Buddah, no offense intened-just a slip of the tongue by one of my darling roomies, and it stuck), but we 'Murican gurls just haven't master that cultural experience. So off we went to find a grocery store!
Most people would refer to this place as a "maze". It just keeps winding back farther and farther. And passing shopping carts? not really an option. The aisles are narrow, everything is compact-some of the shelves are even shorter. We decided to split all of the things that we thought we would use together-TP, paper towels, detergent etc-but get anything we wanted just for ourselves. It was a hectic experience considering all of our limited Italian skills and that almost everything was written in Italian. Some things were familiar-some softeners, some labels with brand names, but most of this was done through experience and clever cognate association. None the less, we figured it out, got some grub, and hauled it home. And I do mean hauled. I guess I forgot to mention that the grocery store that we eventually found was between here and the Tiber campus, but was in a block or so-so that's about a 10ish minute walk. But on the way back we were hauling things like large bottles of detergent, and potatoes=heavy things. But we made it back without incident, and promptly put things in the fridge the HAD to go find dinner. Of course it was 8:30pm at that time, and we were starved. So we went back to the same place that Kate, Molly and I had dinner yesterday (I have a feeling that they'll be seeing a lot of us this semester) and just relaxed and ate for a while. I feel like it was well earned.
After being home, Kate and I facebook video called Sam, and got to see part of the team room!! Huzzah! Seeing the beautiful faces of Sam, Hannah, Sonja, Shelby, and Mariecus was wonderful. Like a little taste of home even in the cobble stone streets here. Keep it up team! Work hard!
Anyway, we have a long day a head of us tomorrow with a walking tour and such. But that's for tomorrow to talk about. Ciao!
Let the orientation activities begin! And by this point I firmly believe that if I had had an expresso, I would have found these to be interesting and enlightening. But, alas, no. We've all been there. That speaker who just kind of went through the motions, the non-interesting, the non-excited version? So all enjoyment was derived from the incredibly corny pictures that appeared on almost every slide. We're talking the kind that makes you mildly uncomfortable, but laugh for a good long while instead of sacrificing your mental capacity to the watch-the-paint-dry-speaker. TWO HOURS LATER-I'm drooling onto my shirt because that's more fun, and I'm beginning to notice the blisters forming on the backs of my heels-turns out steamed milk doesn't help that either. So I use the nifty new JCU lanyard to mop up the drool, and move on because there's nothing to do about the shoes or the blisters now. We move on to take the pictures for our IDs, fill out some paper work which involved something about a sport's team. It wasn't exactly a universal form, but everyone filled it out none the less.
After that we knew that we had to be at the Tiber campus for some more sparkling adventures with orientation. But that wasn't until 3 (or 15:00 if you're using the clock on my cell phone), so Erica, Molly, Kate and I all went out to lunch at this delightful little place that was tucked back in some of the itty-bitty streets between campuses. Everyone got something different. Personally, the lasagna I had was divine. All melty cheese and just good feelings all over. We laughed and talked and eventually headed back toward the Tiber campus. Side note- the Tiber campus is so named because it is on the street that runs along next to the Tiber River. Fun facts for the day. Go over there, drool some more... kind of... the US Embassy representative had a presentation that was decent. Props to him for making that kind of stuff sound easy, and light. Also, Rick Steve's son (Andy) was there. So that was fun? Unfortunately, he was only handing out discounts and not his number... Alas. But we survived it, with maybe only a few cellphone game-Snake Masters to prove it. More paperwork, followed by Kate and I heading back to the apartment. We found Erica there, with her feet propped up on the dashing blue trunk.
At that point, I was nearly limping because of these blasted blisters. For those of you with light stomachs, skip this part. My right foot was definitely bleeding from this all day excursion. A little Girl Scout first aid involved washing both heels off with soap and water=stingzilla. Got that done, ointment (to parry off of Michelle's blog, let's focus on the 'oi' sound of that word for a moment. Oi? Oy. Oy-vey.) bandaids, and tennis shoes for the rest of the day.
Once everyone was home from their extravagant paperwork spree, we decided that we needed some of the necessities: Toilet paper, dish soap, food. These are things that one finds useful in an apartment. Granted, we do have a bidet (fondly called Buddah, no offense intened-just a slip of the tongue by one of my darling roomies, and it stuck), but we 'Murican gurls just haven't master that cultural experience. So off we went to find a grocery store!
Most people would refer to this place as a "maze". It just keeps winding back farther and farther. And passing shopping carts? not really an option. The aisles are narrow, everything is compact-some of the shelves are even shorter. We decided to split all of the things that we thought we would use together-TP, paper towels, detergent etc-but get anything we wanted just for ourselves. It was a hectic experience considering all of our limited Italian skills and that almost everything was written in Italian. Some things were familiar-some softeners, some labels with brand names, but most of this was done through experience and clever cognate association. None the less, we figured it out, got some grub, and hauled it home. And I do mean hauled. I guess I forgot to mention that the grocery store that we eventually found was between here and the Tiber campus, but was in a block or so-so that's about a 10ish minute walk. But on the way back we were hauling things like large bottles of detergent, and potatoes=heavy things. But we made it back without incident, and promptly put things in the fridge the HAD to go find dinner. Of course it was 8:30pm at that time, and we were starved. So we went back to the same place that Kate, Molly and I had dinner yesterday (I have a feeling that they'll be seeing a lot of us this semester) and just relaxed and ate for a while. I feel like it was well earned.
After being home, Kate and I facebook video called Sam, and got to see part of the team room!! Huzzah! Seeing the beautiful faces of Sam, Hannah, Sonja, Shelby, and Mariecus was wonderful. Like a little taste of home even in the cobble stone streets here. Keep it up team! Work hard!
Anyway, we have a long day a head of us tomorrow with a walking tour and such. But that's for tomorrow to talk about. Ciao!
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