A Camera and a Book

I set out today after taking some time to shower to find a park. I invited my friend Khai along, I figured I could walk along and get some pictures done before sitting on some nice grass to read a book. What we ended up finding was an amazing park, a bit unkempt for Rome, which of course I loved. Ok, the first two are from a different time, oops.

Oh yes, I can upload the video (sorry dad, I'm just so confused)

Sometimes I find funny things

So for those of you who don't know, my computer hates me, therefore I am borrowing my dad's comp for the semester. So sometimes I discover pictures (lots of fish of course) sometimes I find things that make me laugh... like the 2 videos I found today. The video consists of fish swimming around in a large fish tank, with the camera following it. It was in an eerie glow, and for awhile I couldn't even figure out what it was. But then behold! The fish swam up to the top of the water (now audience it's your time to oooooooh aaaaaaaaah). It reminds me of the plastic bag scene from american beauty. Were you trying to be artsy dad? We're you? Sorry if this was some childhood pet that is deeply upsetting and I ended up offending you greatly about (some version of Heidy?).

Food Coma

I don't have much time because I still have to do a fair amount of reading and prepare a slide for tmrw, but I think I haven't really been telling y'all what I've been up to. So recently what has been going on and consuming all of everyones' time is the begining of the project that we will be workin on for the rest of the semester. So as I've already said I really like our group (even if other ppl are trying to show us up). We've been spending a fair amount of time looking at the area, it isn't anything particularly amazing, but it's not so horrible either. Yesterday we went to see what it was like at night (dead by the way) and ended up in somme store for little kids buying toy type thiings (including a fairy princess wand for a friend). So yeah, that's that.

In other news my weekends have been filling up very fast. This weekend is my birthday weekend and Marla is coming to visit YAY! The next weekend is a field trip, after that I was planning on taking a trip to Brussels/Amsterdam but it doesn't look like that will be happening. Upon looking at my schedule i realized btw field trips and visits I don't have much time, so I might go and visit David in Geneva this weekend (for those of you who don't recognize these names they're home friends). So Emily will be coming the weekend after that, then there is a long trip then spring break. So yay for friends!!

So most of my friends are talking about how they could stay in Rome forever, but I'm not one of those ppl. Maybe I've just gotten so used to moving around so much that I can no longer stay in one place, or maybe it's the lack of green near me, or ALL the monuments, or being w/ the same ppl all the time and not having other outlets... but yeah sometimes I get antsy. I've also realized that I've been here 3 weeks and I want to get out more. Part of it is that I am in class all the time, or on field trips but yeah I'm going to be better from here on out, exploring farther (although I've already seen lots through differnt classes) I think I need a hobby.

The other thing that has been going on and is a happy thing to report is that I am teaching myself to cook (or at least follow recipes. Today I made crepes, w/ brocoli, onions, artichoke hearts, peppers, and tomatos w/ a cheese sauce (and bananas and nutella for desert) well Caitlin really made the crepes, but hey, I mixed the batter? I also made a very good vegetarian lasanga the other day. There is hope left for me!

Just A Reminder

I know I haven't been blogging much, I've been really busy. I just wanted to remind everyone to check out my pictures on flickr.com (username romansdo) those have been updated fairly frequently because I have been taking lots of pictures for class, oh and don't forget 4 more days until my birthday (I'm turning 21 for those of you who can't remember)

Friday time is heeere... lots of (what's that lyric anyway) and cheer?

Well Friday is finally here... YAY!!!! What will we do to celebrate? Same thing we ALWAYS do, work, work, and more work. I got a chance to sleep in for a bit but then it was over to the palazzo for some ever so fantastic art history reading, hooray, house churches and dismembering dead people because it's holy! After that we had a lecture from someone at the embassy which reminded me a bit of all the sex ed classes that you always hear about in the movies (don't have sex because you will get STDs, and DIE!!) except it was more along the lines of "these are real stories of people who drank too much and are paralyzed, or DEAD" I know it's sad but just the way of presenting... I get a little frustrated with all that because honestly, don't be stupid... it's the same lecture that they give when they're doing college tours "the neighborhood is fine, but walk w/ someone..." Luckily I got to leave a bit early becuase we had an evening art history class. We trecked all over going to an escavation and to the national museum, both were really cool but by the time we got to the museum we were all exausted, I would like to go back sometime though. Then I came home and had Shabbat dinner with 2 other cornell ppl and a girl my friend met from dartmouth... the night finished off with watching pan's labarynth. Tomorrow we have a field trip to hadrian's villa so i really should sleep... i also have to take 40 pictures before tues... and go visit my neighborhood, oh yes I forgot to mention! Yesterday we picked our groups (well kind of picked they asked for skills then we seperated into different groups trying to put dif ppl w/ dif skills in them) we will be working w/ the same groups for the rest of the semester, luckily I have an amazing group which i am really happy with. That's all for tonight, I believe it's time for me to go to bed now.

People say the funniest (stupidest) things

Today was the longest day we had in Rome... woke up early to discuss our presentation, listened to 6 other presentations each consisting of 3 parts then finally it was onto ours. Now those who know me know that I do not like to present infront of people, I also talk fast, and when I think people don't care I talk even faster. Anyway we describe our different neighborhoods including the Jewish ghetto. Well anyway our 3 groups go, someone asks a question of the artists, then this girl raises her hand. So the professor calls on her and some stream of words consisting something of "well I'm Jewish, and I think that you have to consider that, and I think that you have to realize that the Synogogue is a place to visit blah blah blah blah blah."... .... .... YEAH............. So needless to say I was a bit caught off guard, because, well, I didn't understand what she was saying, and I set out to try to answer her question "well I'm Jewish too, and I went to the Synogogue for religious reasons, something something, does that answer your question" "well... no, I'm sorry I forget your name (points to my friend/group project partner Caitlin)" "Caitlin" "yeah... I just don't understand why you said that the synogogue isn't a place worth going" Caitlin: "I must have mispoken (she didn't) I'm sorry, what I meant to say is that it is a cultural boundry." So then the conversation switched. Meanwhile there are people in the class (specifically planners) who are pretty close to outright laughing at this. Anyway just a strange interaction of the day that I thought I would share.

Sometimes I Miss Places

So.... I was starting to get a bit sick of Rome, but then I realized it's because I haven't been out in a few days. Work has pretty much been taking over EVERYTHING so I will be scaling down on classes a bit. Most likely I will continue to take the class but either audit it or take it pass fail, hopefully that will decrease the stress a bit, but most likely not too much knowing me. We've been working pretty hard on our projects, ours is coming out pretty good, concise and clear. So the weirdest part of my day... I don't know if I've said this yet but our CRP profesor isn't here yet because of visa problems (she's originally from India so had other problems than us and and Italian beurocracy is the slowest thing EVER) so today we had a class over skype. Very strange, very strange indeed; the sound comes from one place, the video another and neither are really connected. So there's that. Right now my internet is cutting out every 2 min which is making it really hard to work and find the map that I need to find for my project, oh well, so instead I'm spending my time making an apples to apples planners edition: stay tuned copies will be out soon (I know all of you are anxiously awaiting, almost as much as you are waiting for the launch of KFTP) So that's pretty much what's going on today. Mind is taken up by who owns the city and how to phrase it, but I think I've done a good enough job and I'll do it tomorow, for tonight sleep. So maybe I'll try to do a picture a day? Some days I don't take any but here is some backlog

For More...

I'll keep posting, but it's pretty hard to post all of them... SO if you would like to see more go to flickr.com and search for me (I made it nice and easy, my username is "romansdo")

Why won't the slideshow function work?

Well until then...

Drumrole Please....

I told you there would be a surprise......

THE PICTURES ARE COMING, THE PICTURES ARE COMING!
(my friend has a card reader, so here are a select few so you can understand what life in
in Rome is like)

Good times, Good times...

For all those of you who have been hanging onto my every word (ahem.. mom and dad) I bet you missed my incoherent ramblings... well fear not for I am back. It's been quite a long day and I really should just sleep, but I still have a bit more work to do... ok maybe a fair amount of work left to do. I start to realize more and more how crazy I am. After a pretty long night last night (what did I even do... oh right!) Well I spent most of yesterday being a good little Jewish girl and cooking dinner (mom I finally made that recipe you suggested, you were right it was good. I then went to services and came home and Oren, Ale, Josh and I had shabbat dinner. By the way stay tuned for a Libby and Oren do things together blog.... it will consist mostly of pictures of both of us scowling at each other (jokingly, of course). So then we came back to the apartment and played some card games.... still looking for someone who can beat me at egyption ratscrew... or the song game... I finally went to sleep at around 3... only to wake up at around 9 to go to the market. Boarded the bus, and met up with one of our ta's who took us around. I found okra! Oohh and a pomela (oh yes everyone who i cook for is gonna be SUPER happy (muah hahahahaha)) . Came back here to get some work done. My partner has been sick for a few days so I'm stressing a bit, and ppl are telling me I'm working too much (I think it's their nice way of saying that my work is pretty bad and I really shouldn't continue to do it, but oh well). We went out to dinner tonight, I don't think the other ppl I went w/ liked it... but I thought it was really good pizza, and I liked the neighborhood, a bit calmer (well at least the street that it was on was). The pizza was in a shape of a ghost... yeah... Anywhose now I'm home and working

I have a surprise coming soon so stay tuned...

Grrrr

I feel pissed off and ripped off. So as to the suggestion of the program leaders I bought a train pass as I was told "it will be the cheapest way of getting around...." WRONG! NOT ONLY do you have to buy the $400 rail pass, but you also have to pay around well $20-$40 just for a reservation... making it cheaper for me to just forget that I ever bought it and fly.

Notes and Writings

If anyone is ever interested in reading any of the actual notes or writings which I am working on just comment and I will post them, I realize that mostly family is reading this and someone might be interested at some point, or maybe not I won't be offended either way I just thought I would give the option...

As Long As I'm Procrastinating...

I decided to write a quick note. 2nd day of classes today. Once again did my usual me and rolled out of bed into some clothes and over to class. First class of the day photography. I'm very excited for this class, I know that I have a decent idea of composition but I really didn't know how to use my camera, after our first lesson on, you guessed it, how to use my camera I seem to be doing lots better. I definitly have a while to go. Stephanie (my roomate) helped me tonight work with some blurry issues. Her pictures are well... very good, quite humbling actually, most of my friends' pictures (well really all who take pictures are). Hopefully practice will make perfect. I think I'm starting to realize my main problem in photography, which is my slight fear of taking photographs in public (I HATE stopping and getting pictures) but I guess I will have to get used to it. Additionally I should just take more pictures of my friends. 1 out of 10 has to turn out ok doesn't it? I then went home to take a nap and do some work on my project before my 2nd class of the day. Not so sure how I feel about that one yet. I think right now it is a whole lot of information on subjects that I know absolutely nothing about, which I am not at all used to. I am used to either having experience or a little knowledge, so right now I think I am overwhelmed.

Also I'm pretty sure I'm still in a bit of a daze "oh I'm in Rome, oh I'm taking classes, oh well they must be good!" Well one thing is for sure in all my classes this semester I will not feel unfufilled (FINALLY!) Yup that's right, no more stupid professors who teach city planning classes without ever really talking about cities, no more freshman classes that cover common sense (but we're teaching you HOW to learn, yeah I know how you're boring me and I will not let you waste my time so I will spend it doing something else, oh am I getting in my own way, you sure you're just not teaching at the level of 7th graders?) No more people trying to talk about cities in a way that I'm supposed to learn from but really just consist of "I think this city is dirty and has potholes." So yeah I'm pretty happy that we are actually going to be learning and I don't have to deal with stupid electives... I'm pretty sure I can continue this on next year (hopefully). Wow, why don't you tell us how you really feel? Don't get me wrong, I have had some amazing classes (many) which have taught me a great deal, I have just gotten unlucky with electives, and some of my "higher" level planning courses, esp last semester, although I have found my property, gentrification, and displacement class very usefull (the one I took pass fail...)

After our last class a bunch of us had signed up to go wine tasting. It was nice because it was more of a class on how to taste wine, not just "taste these wines." It's a pretty good skill to have here in Italy. A few of us ended up there for about 3 hrs until 8:30. I arrived back here and of course have since been able to acomplish very little and it's already 11:30, looks like another long night.

Hello?

Is anybody even out there or reading?

You Know You're A City Planning Dork When....

you download and listen to American Planning Association's podcasts. I decided to take a break from all my reading to listen to the podcast about Philadelphia and write a bit about my day. So today we started classes. In the morning we received our first assignment (a joint project btw all the majors). I've heard that some don't like it but I have to admit that I'm a fan. Pretty much we all get a slice of the city to look at and report in our different ways. Although we didn't finish our strip I think we have some great ideas. In the afternoon after going for some coffee I headed over to download my files and then attend a lecture on pagan iconography, very interesting. So now I'm back at home digging into reading, and continueing to think of ideas for our project.

Some Readings

Just a selection I liked that I thought I would share:
It is hardly surprising, then, that most Americans have little idea of what it can mean to live in such an environment [A beautiful and delightfu city environment]. They are clear enough about the ugliness of the world they live in, and they are quite vocal about the dirt, the smoke, the heat and the congestion, the chaos and yet the monotony of it. But they are hardly aware of the potential value of harmonious surroundings, a world which they may have briefly glimpsed only as tourists or as escaped vacationers. They can have little sense of what a setting can mean in terms of daily delight, or aas a continous anchor for their lives, or as an extension of the meaningjulness and richness of the world. ~Lynch

Connections Abroad

Why must Cornell Outdoor Education (which hoffman challenge course the place where I work is a part of) have their gear discount sale thing when I'm not at home? WHY? Ahh well next year I suppose, although I could have most likely finally bought a better harness for camp this summer (yes I am going back). Anyways had a bit of a lie in today before waking up and lounging around while starting to learn about my digital camera so I can actually use it (my pictures have been a bit iffy recently). Being as we had lovely weather today I decided to head out to the pantheon. Once again i had a bit of a miscalculation as I thought it would take me about 10 to 15 minutes to reach on foot, but really only took about 2 to 5, gotta love how close everything is. The pantheon is of course pretty amazing. I do love how you can know you've arrived at a tourist place here by the men trying to push you to buy drek outside. when i arrived home my roomates were heading out to find a grocery store that is open on sunday, so I decided to join them. The grocery store turned out to be a great place to get things like olives, pesto, and cheese if not the best for packaged goods. I have to say while I'm doing great now, I think I'm going to get pretty sick of pasta pretty soon. The area also had a bunch of stores with great clothing, which I plan to go look at tomorow (shopping is supposedly best in Jan, there are sales, not that I will buy anything). Anywhose got back here and had a skype call for an hr (hrs sure can be short). Pretty soon oren and khai will be coming up and we are going to make dinner, so goes my day!

Contact me!

If anyone would like to reach me I don't have a cell phone (I'm cheap and since everyone else does there is not a great need for one). So... if you would like to reach me please download skype (free and easy) search Libby Horwitz and add me! Then call me if I'm on

Oh... Just Another Day

Busy busy day... up early to go to the palazzo to start out whirlwind tour of Rome! We went allover, really not even worth it to try to say where exactly we went. Getting to meet some new ppl, but mostly spending time w/ some oldies (but goodies). Anywhose after we stopped on the spanish steps a few of us made our way around the city wondering, eventually making out way to dinner, a very heavy speghetti... so fuuuuuuuuuuuulll. And now i'm home!

Adventures (and misadventures) in Rome

chiche title, but then again isn't the whole blog? Anywhose, as of now I am too lazy to back track to catch up on what has been going on for the past few days, so I have decided to skip ahead. My 2nd roomate arrived today (the other got here before me) completing our apartment of 6. The apartment is a fair size, with 3 rooms, 2 baths, kitchen, dining room, and living room. In the words of my friend it is "an ikea catalogue." So today I did my usual waking up late (still recovering from england, and hey, might as well as long as I still can). However, today I decided to do a bit of exploring. Really I've been avoiding it because I don't like going out on my own. But my roomate decied to come (despite being very jetlagged, she decided sleeping for 1 hr wasn't worth it). So we wondered off and ended up and some monument, which to be honest I'm still not entirely sure what it is. But it was big, and was a monument to an unknown soldier i think? So we then ended up running into a bunch of other people from the program and walked with them for gelato (i opted out having had some the day before) then headed over to orientation. After that (and lots of waiting for the reception to eat some food) I headed back to the apartments where I spent some time w/ oren for Shabbat. After the usual dinner and shmooze I headed out to a jazz club w/ a few ppl. We however could not find the jazz club. We walked behind a few buildings in kinda dodgy alley ways realizing we no longer knew where we were going until the known reapeared in the form of the trevi fountain. Since I had never been we decided to stop in to look. Despite the constant interuption of men trying to push flowers and some kind of light up device on us it was pleasent. After our stop we headed back, assuming we would pass the jazz plac... and we did. Much to our surprise there was no cover charge and we just had to spend 10 euros for the table, how lucky! So we sit at the table and enjoy some jazz, and are all around amused by how into the music the jazz players are, and the classic sleazy Italian guy who walks in at the right time w/ the music, and the saxaphonist who drinks wine instead of water (ok well really I was for most of these things). So we are ready to leave and the bill comes and it's 30 euro, however we really hadn't ordered that much... turns out it was 10 euro per person not for the table... there were 5 of us, only 3 had ordered. So one of the people out w/ us who can actually speaks Italian asks and learns that you don't have to all pay... but you really should, well I guess next time we'll know.

So this is Rome?

I finally arrived in rome still feeling pretty sick. I was met there by a driver who i had gotten from a company that "spoke english" he didn't, but my Italian (and hand gestures) were enough for us to figure out where I was going. I got to the palazzo and picked up my keys then after being told by multiple people that the apartment was right around the corner i hopped back in the car to find the apartment was literaly right around the corner, more tmrw roomate sleeping tapping too looud

Ick

This blog makes me think of green cities and our awful blog we had to do, and how agravating that class and other things about it were... just a note.

England, Part 2 (ok not so quick)

So for my second part of my journey I headed up to Birmingham where I met up with Amy to stay w/ her at her parents house. Although Birmingham was not the most exciting of cities (sorry guys) it was great to see Amy, and her family was way too nice in hosting me. So I spent a day in B-ham, where after eating breakfast on Amy's boat I met up w/ sophie, kate, and phil and we went to a science museum was made for 10 yr olds, but still enjoyed it. Our fave part? The 3 screen 3 character part where we got to preform surgery... very, very graphic surgery. It really was great seeing everyone. The next day I did the tourist thing and headed for stratford-upon-avon, being as I usually am I got a late start and got in around 2:00. so I went to see the 3 Shakespeare houses in the center of town, and took some time to walk around, then headed out on a tourist open top double decker bus to drive out to see the other 2 houses (outside only). I then returned to the house and was amazed by what American TV transfered over (one tree hill and not gilmore girls, seriously?). Next day I went up w/ sophie to sheffield. I spent a lazy day sleeping in before grabbing cheap dinner. Next day I explored sheffield and the galleries, day after that I went to a small country town in the peak district hathersage (which is known for being near rock climbing) to do some kind of hikeish thing, but just walked arouond the hilly country town and looked at sheep. Then the sky turned black (and the wind began to whip) so i decided to head back to sheffield and catch a movie (ps i love you... ps i hated it). That night I took a 5 hr bus, got into gatwick at around 3:45, waited in the airport and ended up having to ruin my amazing (or really sophie's amazing) packing job because they told me my bag was too wide (it would have fit). So after being grumpy and feeling like I was going to throw up (honestly that feeling lasted until about 2 days after i got into rome) i finally made it onto the airplane and got some sleep before....

Quick England update

Ok... first to get those up to speed who have not been with me or received my (one lonely) email from England. So before heading to Rome I decided to travel around in England for some time, both to visit some camp people and to see the sites. When I arrived in England I took the tube to meet Stacey at the train station, went to her house, and slept... I "wasn't even jetlagged!" The next day I went to Rochester to see a cathedral and some castle ruins, and I started my trip off right by being the city planner dork that I am and enjoying just walking around and seeing what seems to work and what doesn't. The next day I did the whirlwind tour of London seeing: Buckingham palace, Westminster abbey, St Paul's (got to see the inside for free and it was amazing), tate modern, tower bridge (well kinda), picadilly circus, big ben, traflagar square... and more. Next day the jetlag finally hit as I tried to go make it to the places in London that I had missed but realized I was too tired to walk anywhere. So I made it to Camden town and bought some scarfs, but it was sketchy or "dodgy" so I went back. I then proceded to lug my bags through yet another sketchy place in area, somehow making it to the bustop where I waited grasping my bags due to the constant anouncements about pickpockets and such. Once again... more to come (i get bored easily)

Intro, welcome, ciao!

So as annoying as it is I have decided to do a blog, simply because it is easier. As of now I will pretty much only be able to write as to what I have been doing because I have not yet found a way to upload pictures from my camera (this computer doesn't have a card reader like my other one, one good thing I can say about that). Also knowing me and my short attention these will usually come in short, but at least for awhile fairly frequently because when I am not working I have way too much free time on my hands, and yes eventually I will go exploring but I have just gotten here and am not up for it yet, plus the night isn't exactly the ideal time to go wondering around the streets, or maybe I'm just too afraid because of everyone telling me their pickpocket stories. Ok break time, what I wanted to watch has now loaded (no Dad it's not pirating, it's legal).