El Presidente

So guess who is in town? George W. is in Rome...and thus blocking off all of the good shopping streets! There are police and army men on almost every corner. If the men are not on the corner, there are armored buses and cars. We were able to be there when the whole presidential birgade drove through but the blockade was too far away to see anything good. After the brigade went through we tried to get to the store we have been wanting to go to, but the whole main drag was blocked off and is going to be blocked off all day. How dare Bush take away from my Europe trip! The one highlight of all this was all of the adorable Italian army men in their uniforms all over the place who were all more than willing to help 6 girls with directions :) Im pretty sure we stopped on almost every corner and asked the same questions just to talk to them. There were also a lot of anti-war rallies going on which was kind of scary. We had to walk right down the center of one and some man got in my face and said "No Bush!" and gave me a thumbs down.

Earlier today we went to the Collasium and Roman ruins or Forum as they are also called. Being inside the Collasium was so cool! You could see where the Emporer would sit and where all the gladiators and animals were caged up before being released into the center. Its just amazing to be standing in something that was built in the 1st century! It was like a regular stadium too. Each of the arches outside were gates and they even have gate numbers ingraved above all of them. We finally had a sunny day so my pictures turned out really well. The Forum was really cool too. I saw the place where Julius Ceasar was assassinated along with some seriously ancient churches. For any Chi Os reading this...I also saw the place where the Vestal Virgin was burried and they had to keep a fire burning all the time in order to prevent an omen fro coming on them. There was this whole garden with statues of Vestal Virgins too. The ruins were jut crazy because they have been there for such a long time.

Last night we went out on the town. All the EF groups met up at a bar called the Drunken Ship in Campo de Fiori (a plaza in Rome). One interesting difference I noticed was that you could walk into any bar, buy a drink, and then just walk around the streets with the drink you bought. People just congregated and hung out in the plaza. We of course met some more Italian guys. This time, they didnt really speak any English. I talked a lot with a guy named Marco. He kept calling me Brittany SPears or Christina Aguilara (personally I see no resemblance). BY the time I said good bye he asked to be my "partner" which apparently means boyfriend and then asked me to be his fiance. Overall, it was really entertaining. Tomorrow we are off to Florence and Im really excited. I hear Florence is supposed to be gorgeous!