Why calling me at 4 a.m. is bad, and the right ways to contact me. And, Roma!!

Mon 19 Jan 2009

The rest of Saturday brought with it a trip to the Ipercoop and an evening hanging out and ruining Chelsea and Katy's apartment's relationship with their italian neighbors across the hall.

Saturday night, people were going to Chelsea's apartment to watch Forgetting Sara Marshall and have dinner, a (really really good) ziti made by Felicia. Well, we never quite got around to watching the movie, but we did have a time hanging out, mixing red wine and orange soda (also really really good), eating way too much nutella, and getting kicked out of their apartment.

Ten p.m. is the beginning of quiet hours in Viterbo and the time of night where neighbors can and often do call the cops if those stupid americans are too loud. From what I heard and saw of the night, the events were as follows:

Chelsea and Derek were playing around and pretended to lock Felicia and Hailey out of the apartment. Apparently instead of continuing to talk through the door and wait for them to open it, Felicia decided to ring both the doorbells for Chelsea's apartment and the italian neighbors next door. The neighbors got pissed off. Katy ran to be the moderator and asked Kevin/Pedro/Peter/etc., since he knew italian better than pretty much everyone else, to apologize and ask the neighbors if we were being too loud and they wanted us to leave, since the quiet hours were starting.

Well, Pedro relayed the conversation with the neighbor, while Derek filmed the whole thing on his camera, a few minutes later. He said he asked the neighbor if we were too loud, etc. The neighbor then basically said Chelsea and Katy's apartment was a brothel. Peter responded by calling the guy a stronso, and then the guy calmed down and that was it.

So we thought that perhaps the best course of action would be to move to another apartment. Chrinstine volunteered theirs, but somehow we split up so only her, Hailey, Krisitin, Felicia, Carrie and I were walking over there. Most of us just had to pee pretty badly, so once we started walking we figured we should just get the rest of the way there and then meet everyone else. After a little while, no one had shown up and we were going to be leaving for Roma at 6:30 the next morning, so Hailey and I decided to head back to our apartments.

About 15 minutes after we got back Christine called and said we would leave at 8:30 instead. The next morning on the train, we found out everyone else eventually appeared, and thus went the night.

The next morning came a communication breakdown. But first, a note about phone calls:

At about 3:30 a.m. that same night, my phone started ringing. At first I thought it was my alarm and couldn't figure out why it was going off so early. Then I looked and realized it was Jessica Lin, so I hit the button to silence it because it was the middle of the night versus a dollar-30 a minute for a call on my phone. A few minutes later, it rang again. Jessica Lin. And then again. And then again. I knew Jenny had to be waking up from this also, since her bed is right next to mine. So the way my mind works, I figured either she had lost her phone or something was seriously wrong. My brain assumed the latter, so I got out of bed to go call her back in the kitchen.

I call once. She doesn't pick up. I call twice. She doesn't pick up.

She calls me. I pick up.

Me (basically asleep): "Hello?"
Jess (with background noise akin to that of a party): "Hello? Hello?"
"Jess? What's going on?"
"Were you sleeping?"
"...It's 4 a.m. here."
"What? What are you talking ab--OH! Ahh I'm sorry! Go back to sleep!"
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah (laughs) go back to sleep! I'm sorry!"
"Oookay. Night."

The point of this story is it costs me $1.30 a minute to talk to you, so please, remember that I am at least six hours ahead of you right now and unless it's really really important, I'm probably not going to use my minutes to talk to you. So with the exception of dire crisis, please refrain from calling, especially four times at my 4 a.m. Jess, I love you, and thank you for helping me formulate this real-life example.

Instead, if you DO wish to call me and it is quite immediate and necessary, I have purchased a cell phone over here. If you want, e-mail/facebook/etc me and I can send you the number. If you call that number, whatever international rates you have apply, but for me, it's free and I actually get credit and minutes. That's only from receiving the call though, so I am even less likely to call you from that cell phone than my one from home. But, you can still call me.

Anyway, breaking back from the tangent and my 4 a.m. wake-up call. Got up at 7:45 a.m., called Hailey at 8:15 to see if she was ready and found out she got up at 6 because she thought we were still leaving at 6:30 and had went back to sleep after she knocked on my door at 6:15 and I didn't answer. I called Christine at 8:16 to make sure we were still going and found out Felicia either had the flu or food poisoning and she would let me know if they were still going in a few minutes. At around 8:30 I get a call from a Christine who I can hear is running through the streets of Viterbo and she tells me we're still going and the train leaves at 8:58. I call Hailey and we book it to Porta Romana.

Roma was amazing though. Lots of *very* friendly guys, two waiters who were very excited to practice their English on us, and the history and architecture. I've finally uploaded pictures to my computer, so hopefully when I get online later today this entry will be up along with a flickr account.

Everything in that city is breathtaking and fascinating. We walked what felt like everywhere, but only saw a tiny fraction of the south eastern part of the city. We walked down the Spanish Steps, and then looked backwards and realized where we were. We threw two coins into the Fontana di Trivi, one for a wish we silently made and one so that we would someday return. We ate gelato (I had mint chocolate and caramel) while basking in its deliciousness and avoiding vendors trying to give us roses and get coins in return. We climbed up, around and through the humungous Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And finally, we walked up to and around the outside of the Colliseo. Next time I'm in Roma, I am DEFINITELY shelling out the 20 euro for a tour of the inside. I think we all felt pretty awed by the history of the ruins and buildings around us.

By the time we took the train back (we had no idea what time it left, but somehow managed to time it so we got there with 20 minutes to spare), we were dead tired but still living off the high of having been in Roma, if even just for a few hours. Hopefully, pictures to be on the internet soon.