Anyway while she crashed, Sam did the shower thing and once again Andy and I plotted. If you buy a "rome" postcard, it'll have lots of pictures of famous sites on it...and we saw most of them :)
So that was day one of Rome, in pictures below which I will try and provide brief narration on.
In other news: I have spent the week visiting people (saw the Dark Knight tonight and was astounded by Heath Ledger's performance) and touring grad schools. I saw American, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins (DC branch) and The George Washington University. They've all got elements I like, but my only fair conclusions so far. A) I have to do some serious spanish review and Arabic summer school, B) I need to get some decent international work experience - Peace Corps? and C) some DC networking/connections/job wouldn't hurt either. In three years (and with a decent GRE score) I should be good to go...I hope. and maybe the job market will be better.
Also, I have a part time job for next year. The Roosevelt Institition has hired me as their Northeast Regional Coordinator, goodbye any free time I thought I'd have. Huge job, lots of networking, organizing, delegating, and leadership stuff, basically awesomeness for skill settings. If I secure either international work experience or DC interning experience in January during J-term, think NGO or some sort of program in Asia (Thialand?) then that would be two things to add to resume which would rock the job search. Researching for a prof would be good too, but if i can do a decent project in the spring on my own should be good enough. Now for spring courses, it comes to my attention that another econ course or two (macro/micro theory and international political economy) would be super helpful, then there is always statistics which kicked my butt last year. sighs* Darn Midd for making you obsess.
And now, now to pictures of a wonderful Roman experience, stay tuned for Day 2 and Naples/Pompeii and Bologna.
Inside the Vatican. I took many pictures of the amazing floors, tapestries and such, but this one came out the best and I had to choose, or start somewhere.
Okay so maybe one more...
Recognize? School of Athens, oh yes it is :)
World looks different back then huh?
St. Peter's in the background. Outside near the gardens....of the Vatican.
Time for some mailing postcards from the Vatican :) Their boxes are blue instead of Italian red.
In the courtyard, nice day too, weather was amazing.
Andy prefered to avoid being in pictures, so we asked her to take one. A little break after about seven hours of being on our feet. Whew.
There is a mini one in a sculpture garden on the Mall in Washington DC, but this one moved, or spun and was huge.
And so lovely stairs inside the Vatican. Check out the artwork.
And then onto St. Peter's from there. The day was super warm especially for someone coming from England and not used to such intense sunlight.
ibid...
Inside of the dome like ceilings, some of them were just breathtaking....
One of many shots (but only one of the few that came out) of the huge inside of this church. Unfortunately it doesn't feel religious, it feels more like the popes are being worshiped than God. Not to offend believers or anything, just stating first impressions.
St. Peter. I rubbed his (now) silver foot for good luck.
And what a picture, I couldn't resist even though I had to delete a picture because I didn't have enough space on said camera card.
All lined up on the roof....
and from a distance...
We went to the Colosseum after, but it was too late to go in, so we walked around and it and came back first thing the next morning.
Ahhh, the girls, or three of us, in the sun
I know the next series are dark pictures, but fiddle with the tilt of the computer screen, I had to a use a flash otherwise they'd all be blurry. Again, grrr.
And they try (and fail) to rename it.
Okay day 2, wow it's hard to remember. Colosseum, Palantine gardens, old forum, lunch, fountain of trevi, spanish steps, circus maximus, and collapse with exhaustion. till then.
