I was laying in my hotel room this morning deciding what to do for the day. My cousin had told me she would hit me up between classes but til then I had a lot of time to kill. I decided I would go get some food since I had slept in past the allotted time for the breakfast buffet. I took a much needed shower since I was too tired when I got back to my room last night after a long day of site-seeing which you may or may not have seen all the pictures of already. Nonetheless, after my shower I opened the window and the shutters to give myself a mini forecast. Since it was sunny out, not very cloudy and pretty warm I decided I would do the unthinkable (at least for me) and that was to rock flip flops with jeans. Since I hadn't packed any shorts for the trip that was as close as I'd get to comfy. I figured since I was going up the block to get food it wouldn't really matter. I'm not much of a flip flopper unless I'm in a bathing suit and even then I'd rather be barefoot. Plus I've never liked that look with jeans, just too abercrombie for me. Anyways, I go to the corner order a Mozzarella and Prociutto Cotto sandwich (panino) and two pear "sugo di frutta" (kinda like an odwalla juice or something naturalish like that). They have em at vince n joes, they're made by Yoga. Italian kids will know what I'm talking about. After, I did what I've done pretty much every day since I've been in rome which was walk to Termini which was across the street from the bar where I get breakfast and about a block total from my hotel.



The train station is like a grand central station of rome but at a slightly smaller scale. There's food, ice cream, clothing stores, and pretty much anything else you'd need. My mother and I used this place for the first week for new underwear and toiletries until our luggage finally got here. So I kinda just wandered around for a lil while. I tried to get some wi-fi in their McDonald's for like 20 minutes with no luck. Even though I had eaten no longer than a half hour ago, being in McDonalds made me want ... well McDonalds. So, I got in line. When it was my turne I ordered from the dollar euro menu. I asked for a cheeseburger with no onion, fries and a small coke. I might as well have asked the woman to shave my ass with the reaction I got. She looks at me sideways, and I lifted up my eyebrows at her like WHAT!? She turns around and says, (in Italian of course) I need a cheeseburger with onions. No one acknowledges her. She repeats it, and get's a response from one of the "cooks" pfft. "A cheeseburger with no onions?" "For who!?" I say to her, is it really that big of a deal to request no onions. She's like well if everyone special ordered the line would be out the door. I turned and looked, the line was already out the door without special orders. What's another bucket of water when you're drowning!? I tell her in america we have it our way, and all they do are special orders. No pickles, Extra lettuce, No Mayo, Two straws, etc etc. She says, yeah well we're not in America. Touche' (not in france either) I pay, she says it's going to be a few minutes. Like five other customers went while I waited for my little cheeseburger. While waiting the whole staff is making remarks, and laughing like it was so ridiculous that I made a special order. The guy sweeping the floor says to the cooks, can I get a cheeseburger no cheese. I smiled, sarcastically. The lady says to me McDonalds is really different in America isn't it. I say, yes very much so. I told her how I pretty much never eat at McDonalds at home unless its ice cream but decided I would for the heck of it. She said, don't they hire like ex cons, students and people of that nature in America!? I was like yeah, I can see that's not the case here (hoping not to offend anyone else) but yeah, it's not the best job in America. Finally, my cheeseburger arrives, I grab my tray, go upstairs to see one of the nicest McDonald's I've ever seen. The booths looks like one of those ultra diner you find in Hollywood. Super clean, plenty of comfy seating and a good view. I look around for ketchup... no ketchup. I ask the lady tending to the trays by the garbage and get sent back downstairs. Siiigh, here we go. I ask the lady who had been helping me and she smiles and says, you know here in Rome we charge for ketchup packets. They don't charge you in america do they? I have a flash back of being a kid and grabbing hand-fulls of ketchup packets and stashing em in my Mcdonalds bag. I respond with a smile and a No. She says this ones on me.

After my McDonalds event I was all hopped up on salt and sugar and couldn't go back to the hotel now. I whipped out the map the hotel had given me that i've been carrying around in my pocket and looked for monuments or ruins that I hadn't seen yet. I saw cirus maximus which I have been meaning to see but hadn't got around to. There was a stop right in front of it from the metro which was perfect being that I was already at the station.
Circus Maximus is where they used to have the Chariot Races in ancient Rome. Kinda like their Nascar I guess. Minus the toothless people... wait, actually I'm sure it was exactly like Nascar as far as dental hygiene. When I got there I was equally confused as I was disappointed. First, I wasn't sure I was in the right place. It just looked like a field with a couple ruins in it. Then when I realized I was in the right place, I also realized I had seen it! I had looked right at it from above the day before when I was touring the ruins of Palatino. I just didn't know I was looking at it. Either way, I could now check it off my list of things to do while in rome. Check! So I walked the path that many chariots had once darted across. When I got to the end of it I whipped out my map and looked for the closest biggest thing to see. I was trying to minimize my walking being that I was in $2.50 old navy flip flops that weren't the most comfortable things to be trotting along in. I continued walking along the exterior of the ruins I had seen the day before with the intention of getting on the other side of them where most of main roads and museums were. I unfortunately after walking quite a bit and hoping to find a way to get around ran into a dead end. :-( I had to take a secondary route to eventually find myself at the Piazza venezia.

This place is Glorious, Gigantic, Grand and awe inspiring. The statues in front looked to be 15-20ft tall. They made you feel as small as the pigeons you saw circling overhead. Climbing the stairs feeling somewhat like Rocky my ears got the treat of recognizing different languages. Some pretty girls speaking Portuguese who looked Brazilian, An Indian father talking to his toddler son in English with an Indian accent,Some French students laughing about something one of them had just done, and a few languages my ears were alien to. Finally, I reached the entrance, before going in I took some pictures with my iphone and used an app called auto stitch to create a panoramic picture of the city below. To the right you could see dark storm clouds, and to the left you could see sun shining brightly over the distant churches and cathedrals. I walked around in the museum which had an optional euro donation. I opted out cause I didn't have change. I wanted to reach the top where I had seen people walking when I'd looked from the street but on my way there I learned it was 7euro to ride the elevator from the middle floor which was already pretty high and quite frankly the current view was enough...and free. I watched a thunderstorm brew from the terrace taking more panoramic pictures and enjoyed the sounds of thunder and watching lightning crash over the Coliseum. I called my sister and chatted with her for a bit while watching the storm getting updates on what's been going on at home. She bragged about the 80 degree weather, and I bragged about seeing lightning strike over the Coliseum. I win. Then it started to rain. What looked like a storm in the distance was now a storm above my head. I was sitting at a table under a giant glass gazebo I guess you could say. Peacefully eating my tiramisu watching the storm, drinking my water a man comes up to me to clear any garbage at my table and first scolds me for having my feet on the chair across from me and then let's me know they'll be closing in five minutes. FIVE MINUTES? The storm had just reached where I was. F@#K! I had left my umbrella(s) at the room and it was pouring. I tried to kill time by continuing to wander around the museum but people in Italy are from from polite and I was told that I had to leave. Soooo... I considered buying ANOTHER umbrella, to make it three total in a week. I haggled with the guy outside the museum door where a crowd of like 40 kids waiting for their bus blocked the whole exit. From still in side I make a gesture like how much, he holds up on his fingers the current price, I put a thumbs down as in go lower, he smiles and waves me over. I start pushing and excusing myself through the crowd and eventually reach the front. I trying explaining to the man who looked indian but I'm sure was from some place I didn't know the name of how I had already bought two umbrellas this week and if the price wasn't low I wouldn't buy another. He just kept smiling and nodding and shooting out numbers and since i realized i wasn't getting anywhere I decided I was going to Bear Grylls it.

I rolled up my jeans a couple times so they wouldn't get soaked with the puddle stomping. I took off my shirt and stuffed it in my pants, much to the entertainment of the kids around me. I thought back to episodes of man vs. wild when anytime bear had to traverse a river or get wet in some way shape or form, he always stowed away his clothes so he had something dry and warm to put on after. A few laughs and oohs and ahhs, made me smile embarrassingly but it was worth it to be warm later. I shoved my water bottle in my pocket and was off. Flip flops, jeans, and shirtless running through Rome. There was a metro stop by the Coliseum that I had been watching the storm soak. I headed that way. People smiling and pointing, girls laughing, one woman with an umbrella pointed at me and clapped. Now I really felt like Rocky. It was like the training scene in part one or two when he's running through Philly and everyone knows who he is, and they're cheering him on. Ok so everyone didn't know who I am but it felt like they were cheering for me. The flip flops were killing my feet and I was scared I was gonna slip and bust my ass in front of everyone. I was only cold for like the first three minutes and then adrenaline kicked in. I ran almost a mile exactly non stop. Well one stop to cross the street but i jogged in place. :-) When I got to the metro the crowds of people that noticed me looked at me strangely, a few smiled, some just looked confused. I pulled my shirt out of the crotch of my pants, put it on and bought a metro ticket. The shirt was perfectly dry, I was warm, and I felt great. If I bought an umbrella, I would have walked the whole way and probably gotten more wet with the wind and all. By the time I got on the metro my upper body was dry. I mean, I know I didn't have to build a fire, or kill a wild animal but I still felt like it was a tiny lil Vito vs. Nature moment and I feel like I handled it well. Maybe it's not that big of a deal. Maybe I'm just a spoiled, sheltered suburban kid. Maybe. Either way, I enjoyed the mile run in the rain in flip flops with my shirt stuffed in my pants and the feeling of satisfaction finding a dry shirt and a warm metro.