When In Rome, Do the Romans OR Slutfest 2007

Now that I've got your attention, these are the two topics for today: Halloween and hot Italians. I was sitting around with my roommates talking about Halloween when one of them, who "studied" in Hawaii, reminded me that Halloween is a big fat excuse for American girls to slut it up for a night. Or rather I think it's the one night where they allow themselves to slut it up. It's such an ingrained part of American culture that it didn't even occur to me, the same way Spaniards don't think twice about not washing their hands after using the bathroom or not saying excuse me after they shove you aside in the metro. So of course right after I agreed with him, I could immediately see one of my other roommates mentally planning his first trip to the States for next Halloween. It seems that it's really only the Americans & Friends who celebrate it here but there's a big party at a club so should I dress up as a: A) sexy cat, B) sexy nurse, C) sexy nun, or D) slutty American tourist? Just kidding but any costume suggestions are much appreciated.

Speaking of nuns, did you know that they and priests no longer have to take a vow of poverty? I was shocked to see a smoking, blinged out priest in the Vatican but my Peruvian friend, who went with us and whose cousin is a priest studying at the Vatican, said that it's no longer required. They can smoke, drink, and be materialistic like the rest of us lay people but I guess all the Cristal and diamonds in the world can't make up for the still-required chastity vow, which currently seems to be more an issue of semantics than anything else. One thing they don't tell you is that you have to go through a shitload of museums to get to the Sistine Chapel. And if you've lived in New York, you've seen most of the same style of artwork except for the Michelangelo, Raphael, and map stuff. I still don't understand what Greek statues and Egyptian art have to do with the Vatican. They must have hired an operations guy to consult on how to best manage the flow of people and also to make you feel like you're getting your money's worth. We did that and St. Peter's Basilica the same day and we climbed all the way to the top of the dome, which I highly recommend.

That also brings me to the next topic: the incredibly hot guys in Rome. Sorry Mark but I think that I can confidently say that Rome (I don't know about the rest of Italy) objectively has the highest per capita population of objectively good looking people in the world. It probably has something to do with the fact that they're well dressed (either suits or uniforms) and I was most enamored by the bag check guys at St. Peter's Basilica. I guess he really does hold the keys to heaven... We discussed this in Spanish class today and the German exchange student, who is from an Italian business school, was a bit jealous and stated that we girls didn't understand that it's a part of the culture for Italian men and that they're dangerous. As if we cared. Then the Italian guy came to class and we thought it would bring an end to the debate but, instead, our professor told him that me and my girlfriend, who I went with and is in the same class, thought that the Italian men were the best part of our trip to Italy. It's a good thing we didn't tell her that we shamelessly chatted up a chef at one of the restaurants we went to for dinner and got a picture with him.

I also heard the funniest question ever. One of the guys in our group is Chinese and the others did a tour of the important churches with the Peruvian's cousin/priest. They were discussing all the important religious figures buried in Rome and the Chinese guy asked why they didn't bury Jesus there. Then he totally thought they were joking when they proceeded to explain the whole resurrection thing to him. We toured most of Rome by foot in one day, which I really enjoyed. Some parts were a bit underwhelming (Trevi Fountain remarkably like Caesar's Palace, better Italian food in NY than Rome?) but I also loved loved loved the Coliseum, the pizza, and the open air. You don't see the sky much in NY or Barcelona and the weather was perfect in Rome the whole time (75 and sunny). It's actually the same weather as in Barcelona right now but I spend most of daylight sleeping in or in class.

But you know what wasn't underwhelming? Seeing Mark in Vienna! We went to see The Magic Flute for only 4 Euro. Although it was SRO, we stayed for the whole thing because it was quite interesting. It was a modern, minimalist interpretation: contemporary costumes, practically no set, and half naked women dressed as parrots. We also saw the Hundertwasser Haus, a photo exhibit celebrating 25 years of Sante D'Orazio at the Kunst Haus, and had a great dinner at a Heuriger. Traveling with Mark=culture; traveling with girlfriends=shopping.

I bid you adieu with quiz time! Winner receives the smug satisfaction of being right. We're going to play Guess the Blind Item, Beginner's Mistakes in Spanish, and Verdadero o Falso. I don't know if anyone else is a Curb Your Enthusiasm fan but in the last season, Larry pisses off a guy in a wheelchair by using the handicap bathroom. Which exchange student made a cabron of herself and had to hide from a very irate Frenchman, who was waiting to use the handicapped bathroom, for the remainder of a 3-hour layover at the Dusseldorf airport? What is the difference between cansada and casada, chaqueta and chaquetearse, embarazada and embaraza? Verdadero o Falso: The following picture from Vatican City resembles Hef's grotto at the Playboy Mansion. And that's basically what's happened since Friday.