It's the side bits of life that are more entertaining though
The Birds
Okay, it is probably not well known, but I am not particuarly fond of bird song. I lay this directly and the hands of the birdsong clock that my grandmother had that started chirping at like 5 AM. Still, i've grown pretty used to birds. There are a bunch around my windows in the morning and aside of the owl that can't tell time, they are all pretty much alright.
Italy however, produces birds of a different caliber.
It is about 3 AM and I am dead tired when I get woken up by the loudest flock of birds screaming that I have ever heard. Birds that don't go away but eventually quiet down enough that I can get back to sleep. Until 6 AM, when they come back in full force and I swear to GOD sound like they are LAUGHING at me for waking me up. At this point my roommate gets up and goes to shower and I stumble awake some forty minutes later and around 7:30 I look at her and simply say "Freakin Birds!"
To which she responds, "YES!"
It is freakish. They are so mind bogglingly loud and seem to be laughing at us in so many different voices that she and I were not only completely irritated but also confused as to what the hell they were. (Apparently we are the only ones that sleep with the window open which later made me tell her that it was completely awesome that we were roommates and think alike) Eventually, I went up to Dr. Behr and asked him what these demonic birds were so that I could identify them and kill them (or something).
"Oh, seagulls."
Lies! I've heard seagulls! Except, no, they ARE seagulls. Just like SUPER seagulls that know to mock people and never shut up and fly in psycho patterns at night. @.@
Since we refuse to close the window at night, we may have to resort to mass genocide. We will see.
The Stairs
When I first invisioned going to Rome, I knew full well that it was an ancient city and that, as such, much of what we would be doing would require walking. Being largely ignorant of modern Rome before this trip, I had no idea of the public transportation system but when most things are literally on about a twenty minute walk or so from each other, taking the bus or Metro subway system is a secondary thought in my mind. And anyone who knows me knows that I truly love to walk around and enjoy the sights and the surrounding enviroment, especially when the weather is nice (which it is here somewhat constantly). So, I came prepared to walk and even hoped to use it as a way to get back into shape and slim down a bit.
What I never quite pictured was the stairs.
Despite being a public subway system that is often used by tourists or people greatly laden by baggages, frequently, there are only stairs between levels which was fun to manage with a fairly heavy bag that is more than half my height (or something like that). And then, because this is a hilly country (and not built upon a coastal plane like the fair city of Houston is), there are stairs that lead from one piazza, public square, to another. Or lead from one road to another. Or lead up into churches or through multiple levels of churches. Or, you know, anywhere they feel that it might have been a good idea to put on a higher level than the nearby ground because it might b impressive. And this is Rome. They INVENTED building stuff with the sole idea of being impressive in mind.
And okay, really, none of that is so bad except...there is all this walking. And walking eventually tires you out a bit (though I think all the walking around that I do normally has made my feet far more impervious to pain than my fellow classmates which is kinda strange since I am hardly the most mobile person). And walking up stairs is an entirely different sort of cardio excercise than walking. It involves all sorts of muscle groups that aren't typically used in that fashion when you live some place completely flat and the only stairways you use are inside of buildings that are only a couple of floors high or high enough to warrant the use of such devices as insane.
But really, the worst part of it isn't the city, because once you learn your way around, there is time for mental preparation or there are plenty of places to go that stairs aren't the only option etc. Plus, who goes everywhere everyday? No, the worst part is that St. John's is a four story building. And our living quarters are on the fourth floor. So that is four flights of stairs. Stairs with shallow steps and situated in an uneven spatial complex. Stairs that greet you immediately when you step through the door. I mean, sure, there is an elevator but elevators are scary and kinda creepy and this one is absuredly small so in a large group you have to wait for it. It's also farther away from the stairs so half the time I'm already halfway up the first flight before I even think about using it.
Which, you know, I almost never do. Because everytime I see those damn stairs, I can just feel them staring back at me in challenge. They mock me in my tiredness and insist that I use their shallow, awkward ascent to make my way to eventual rest. On my first full day here, I think I took the stairs some ten or eleven times (or at least that was the consensus that Lauren and I made later on since she was strangely almost always taking the stairs at the same time I was). I think in another week, my legs are going to be almost as well toned as they were some ten years ago and by the end of this trip, if I throw in some sit ups, crunches and push ups, I might just be finding myself in godlike proportions. All because those stairs are mocking me and I can't let go of the challenge.
...in this, I cannot lose...