Pizza, pasta, and ... Bandeja Paisa

Sticking with tradition, Hyrum investigated the location of Colombian restaurants in Rome.  We found 3, googled their location, and saw that one was conveniently located a few blocks from the Vatican.

Friday we spent all morning at the Colosseum, and all afternoon at the Vatican, and by 5:30 pm our feet were done for the day.  But I realized we left the address for the Colombian restaurant's in our hotel room.  Whoops!

So we set out to find an internet cafe and look up the address online.  After about 45 minutes of wandering (and asking many people to point us in the right direction) we found the address.  (thanks google!)  We spent another 30-40 minutes getting to the address-- fortunately it was a combination of walking and buses.  And when we finally arrived, there was a closed door and no sign of a Colombian restaurant.  We were so hungry and tired that we were not laughing at the situation, and instead hurried to the closest Italian restaurant we could find as consolation.

The next day we set off in search of the second closest Colombian restaurant.  We found the closest metro stop, and set out on foot towards the address.  When we arrived, we found this:

Strike 2 didn't deter us.  On our last night in Rome we decided to attempt the last restaurant on our list.  With address in hand, we took a tram 25 minutes away and the restaurant was within 2 blocks of the stop.  The long search was over.  We found our Colombian food.  Hyrum LOVES bandeja paisa!

Documenting Rome pt 1

We loved Rome!  More than we were expecting.

In traveling to several big cities around Europe, I was expecting another typical big city. You know, tall buildings, metro and bus systems, several really-old-really-famous churches, a place to pay a few dollars/euro and get a great view of the city, a castle that charges way too much money.  And a Colosseum 

But Rome is cool!  It felt like every time we got off the bus or metro we'd look across the street and see 2000 yr old ruins just sitting there.  You don't have to go into museums to see what Rome has to offer; it's literally everywhere in the make-up of the city.  And all of the "typical" big city stuff was twice as old or twice as big as expected, making it not-so-typical.  I'm afraid future cities might disappoint!

The best example of this is when we were going to see the Colosseum.  We took the bus to the stop "Piazza de Venezia" because we were told it was only a few streets away.  We exited into a huge open plaza surrounded by enormous, old buildings.  I started reading in my tour book about the Victor Emmanuel Monument.  "Look behind you for the large white monument.  I was looking for an obelisk or statue in front of one of the buildings.  Then Hyrum pointed out, "The monument is the building."

Holy crap.  Romans aren't joking around when they build monuments!  I mistook this for an old government building or something.  WRONG.  It was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Italy's unification in 1870.  To give you an idea of size, the tour book says the king's moustache in the statue is over 5 ft wide.  I think we visited once a day at least while we were there.  And every time, my jaw dropped in awe.  Here are a few more views:

At night

Almost in the rain

From the top (that's St Peters Basilica right by Hyrum's head)

 Mussolini created boulevard Via dei Fori Imperiali (road shown below) to open up the view of the Coloseum from the monument.  He was trying to impress Hitler.  (I bet it worked!  I was impressed). Apparently the Romans weren't so happy, though.

As we walked down the Via de fori Imperiali towards the Colosseum we kept stopping to take pictures of random ruins along the right side of the road.  What are all these ruins??  Turns out, that's the Roman Forum!  (Without tourists everywhere.)  We quit taking so many pictures because we knew we'd be back. 

not-so-random ruins after all

The Colosseum did not fail to impress.  It's as sturdy and huge and amazing as it seems in the books.  Pretty crazy that a building like that can hold up 2000 years.  And here a a bunch of pictures of its amazing-ness.

Hyrum with his gladiator face 

You can tell how huge it is by all the teeny tiny people.

More to come!

You know you're in a small town when...

1) You walk to the grocery store (for fun) and carry home your few purchases in your purse.
2) You see a tractor at the gas station on the way home. (definitely a first for me!)
3) You listen to the church bells ringing to know what time it is.  Three rings = 4:45.  

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera to take a picture of the tractor at the gas station (maybe next time!!) but this is the tractor.  And the church is off in the distance. 

For those of you that are thinking, "Aww, that sounds kinda nice."  Yes, it does have its advantages.  But the flip side is this:  I have a growing list of items that I need to purchase... but not quite urgently enough to drive the 30 minutes to the nearest store that sells legitimate stuff.  Small town America was really on to something with Wal-mart.  

Pictures for party of 2

Most of the time we do okay taking pictures of ourselves as we travel, but when we visit really cool places, it's nice to have a picture taken from more than an arm's length away.  I've learned there's a talent behind asking the right people to take your picture.  Because sometimes you get this:


"Could you take a picture of us with the Arch of Constantine?"
"Sure... but let me cut out most of the arch that you wanted in the picture."

"Could you take a picture of us with the Trevi Fountain?
"Sure... but let me cut out most of the beautiful fountain just to make sure I can squeeze your pants into the frame."

Or ironically at the Pantheon, we asked someone to take a picture for us, and they cut the top off, so we decided to take a picture ourselves.  Not too bad, right? 

Then a random guy passing by said, "no, no, no, you need a picture of the whole Pantheon.  Let me take one for you."  He spent about 30 seconds contorting himself backwards (why don't people just move their feet??)  claiming he was going to fit the whole thing into the picture.  So I'm not sure why we ended up with the top of the Pantheon cut off...

As I scan crowds for someone to ask to take our picture, some things I look for are:

--are they young?  This usually means they'll speak some English, or at least understand what we're asking. 

--how nice is their camera?  I always hope nicer cameras correlate to better pictures. 

--Are they already taking pictures of the same place?  If yes, they hopefully have seen what angles are good and what angles aren't so good.  

--Are they a couple?  I can offer to take a picture for them in return.  And if there's two of them, usually the one with better photo skills takes the picture.  Better odds. 

Occasionally, it works, because we got some nice shots in Rome.  

Victor Emmanuel Monument- taken by a young Asian tourist

Colosseum- taken by a young couple with a really nice camera

St. Peter's Basilica... can't remember who took it

St. Peter's Basilica- taken by a young tourist we saw taking pictures for someone else.  He took about 4 shots from several angles.  Above and beyond!

Thanksgiving abroad

Yes, most Americans living here celebrate Thanksgiving.  But we chose not to participate, at least not in a traditional sense.  No company.  No turkey.  No homemade rolls.  And dinner at 7pm.  (sadly no time for a nap after!)

Hyrum exchanged his Th./Fr. days off this week so we could go to Rome next week, so that's our big holiday celebration.  But even though he had work, with it being Thanksgiving and all, I had to cook some Thanksgiving food.  There's pros and cons to having an anti-social Thanksgiving meal.

Pro:  I felt absolutely no pressure.  I cooked what I had time for.  Made stuffing from a box (my favorite kind).  Omitted the turkey (which I never really liked).  And bought a pre-cooked 5lb ham on sale for $5 at the grocery store.  Plus, I bought fresh rolls from the bakery since I don't have enough free counterspace at the moment to make real bread.  (I'm in the process of unpacking my kitchen.)**

Con: Turns out I had time to cook more than anticipated, and we had lots of leftovers.  Actually, this might need to go on the "Pro" list.  No cooking for a few days!



**Yesterday I decided I should start unpacking my kitchen because I knew I'd need to find all my tupperware to store the leftovers.  I found it within the first few boxes, fortunately.  I've been putting off the kitchen because we're at a real shortage for storage space.  Looks like I'll just be keeping a lot of stuff in boxed up in the basement until we buy some more furniture.

Sacrifice

Last Saturday we had a lazy day.  Hyrum was doing "staff duty"-- meaning he was responsible for checking in on-post every few hours to make sure things were okay   (kind of like being "on call") so we couldn't go far.  When he got back from post at 10:45 pm I was laying in bed dozing off.  He jolted me awake when he said, "I just saw an email from the bishopric.  They want us to speak in the morning."

If there was a blank look on my face it's because I was mentally trying to figure out how "in the morning" could actually mean "next week".  And why we we were getting the email the night before.  And how we'd be speaking in less than 12 hours.

So I stayed up late writing a talk.  And Hyrum spent most of the night at his office working and writing a talk.  Then we had to wake up early and go on post for him to finish his work before hurrying to church.

The experience reminded me that when we're asked to do something, God helps us.  And in the end, it all turned out okay.  I didn't get to study the topic much (okay, at all!), write out a talk, or practice, but as soon as I started thinking about the assigned topic (sacrifice) a flood of stories and thoughts came to mind that formed (what I consider) a decent talk.  Others thought it was good, too. :)   Or so they say!

My main purpose in writing this is to put down a few of the stories/articles that came to mind, not in any particular (or coherent) order:

"A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation."  Lectures on Faith Sacrifice helps us become who we need to become.

There's a great page with biographies of the apostles.  I used the example of President Eyring, who mentioned in his last talk some sacrifices of "worldly success" he's made.

A young man who sacrificed everything when he joined the church, as told by President Hinckley

Ruth, left behind her family, land, and former religion to stay true to the God of Israel

Quote by President Eyring, in relation to church service.  "To be called to serve is a call to come to love the Master we serve.  It is a call to have our natures changed."  There's a lot of good stuff in that talk.

In addition to callings, we sometimes have to sacrifice to attend the temple, like the saints in Thailand.  I came across this old article a while back and it's stayed in my mind.

105 days

We finally received our stuff!  After packing it up and sending it on it's way on August 2nd, it arrived 105 days later, last Tuesday.  I was optimistically thinking it would take only 60...

A few thoughts:

-I love my bed!!!!  Can't express that enough.  We've been sleeping on a government loaner bed that is smaller than a double, and nothing more than on old mattress on a metal frame.  Our king size bed feels even bigger now in comparison.  As soon as it was set up, I laid on it horizontally for a few minutes, just because I could.    No limbs hanging off the edges.

-Movers are dumb.  They tried to push the 100-yr-old 500-lb piano on its 100-yr-old tiny antique wheels down the sidewalk.  Long gashes in the side walk are proof of the dumb idea.  Luckily at that point the moving company boss had arrived and started yelling at them to not be lazy and actually pick it up.  (Who'd have thought??)  They didn't measure anything to see if the piano could get to our second floor apartment, they just started dragging, pushing, and shoving.  After getting to the second landing they determined it was impossible.  But not before making some minor dents in the wall and scraping the corners of the piano pretty badly.  The last solution was to put it in the basement storage room, where again, they tried to just push it across the floor and cracked my landlord's cement.  They threatened that if I tried to put it in their warehouse instead of the basement it would be exposed to extreme temperatures and potential flooding, so I guess things could be worse than storing it in the basement for three years.  (?!)

-My kitchen has no storage space.  I've unpacked about 2 boxes of kitchen stuff, and I already have stuff sitting homeless on my counter.  No place to put it.  Only 12 more boxes to go!  I may have to get creative.

(Our table on left, government loaner on right)

-The rest of the house has no storage space.  It's big... way bigger than our last apartment.  But there aren't any closets.  So the bedding, extra clothes, DVD's, linens, towels, games, etc is just sitting here.  Not sure how I'll handle that yet.  Probably a lot of plastic stacking drawers lining the wall of our extra bedroom.  Germans sure do build funny houses.

-Our kitchen table fills up approximately 1/6 of our dining room.  Need more furniture!!

Office-to-be

-The mess I had in Ohio is still my mess in Germany.  I don't know if I was just hoping that those unorganized-never-opened-drawers-full-of-random-stuff would organize themselves in transit, but I kind of shudder whenever I come across one.  Fixing that is going on my to-do list.

-Moving in is much less stressful than moving out.  The movers were gone by noon, and we could start to do our own thing.  It's relaxing knowing everything is now in our possession, and regardless of how much damage they may have done to the corners of my dressers, I'm not still wondering if our stuff fell off the boat somewhere in the Atlantic.  (Can you imagine?? I've heard horror stories of that happening. Or the moving truck catching on fire as its sitting in front of the house...)  And since we've been living in our apartment already for almost 2 months, there's nothing really urgent to unpack or clean, so we can take our time.  I have plenty of paper plates and cups to last us until I can find a place to put the real dishes in the kitchen.  (We have already graduated to real silverware... there's a drawer for that!)

Czech, Czech, and Czech!

No matter where we go in the world, there are two things Hyrum always has on his radar.  (Okay, three... but one is the temple, and I'm restricting this post to secular things!)

To illustrate what I mean, here's our trip to Prague (September) through Hyrum's eyes:

1)  Soccer-- everywhere, soccer.

Better believe we came home with a set of stacking dolls... of the COLOMBIAN national soccer team.  It will go right next to the World Cup replica we bought last summer while traveling.  

European tournament.  (I think?)

Puppet of Hyrum's favorite Colombian player, Falcao. 

Fan shop. 

National Stadium -- go Sparta.   

Modeling new Czech jersey in front of the stadium. 

Someone let us in to see the field.  Hyrum's lucky day.  Most cities we have to peak through the fences at the field. 

and....

2) Colombian Food

We came across "El Arriero" on accident.  While walking through the street near our hotel, Hyrum saw a small sign for Colombian coffee.  Then he realized it was next to a Colombian restaurant. 

So we returned that night, for some delicious food.  (Which I'm always MORE than willing to purchase, because it takes WAY too long to make on my own.)

Hyrum loves talking soccer with Colombians.  The restaurant was empty, so the owner sat and talked with Hyrum forever. 

One happy Colombian!

And if you know anything about me, a good hot dog is always on my list.  So check, check, and check!  (If you didn't understand the title of this post before, hopefully you do now.)

Second Hand Prague

While in Prague, we happened upon a small second-hand store.  We debated whether or not to even go inside, but once in, we spent over an hour and every Koruna in our wallets.  (Fortunately, we didn't have that much on-hand, or we would have spent more!) I got this traditional dirndl and top for about 10 dollars. Actually, I think she lowered the price more because she couldn't find the apron that went with it.  Even though I'll have to let out the sides a bit (can you tell I can't breath??) it was a steal compared to the $100 price tags I've seen on most dirndls here in Germany.  Future Halloween costume, anyone?  

I also got a great coat for cheap (pictured below at Oktoberfest), which is good news because my winter coats are still in transit.  Still.  

Hyrum got a blue velvet blazer.  I know, I really need to get a picture of him modeling that.  And an England soccer jersey/shirt.  The store was full of great stuff.  And I always love a good thrift store. 

(You can kind of see in the background the girls actually wearing dirndls.  And the gentlemen in their lederhosen.  It's very common at Oktoberfest.  If only mine fit better.... and if only  my sewing machine weren't still on a boat.  Can you tell I miss having my stuff??)   

Winter Dream

I submit that life doesn't get better than this:  

In May, Hyrum and I took a much-needed vacation to Riviera Maya, just 30 minutes down the coast from Cancun.  From the day we booked the trip, I think I checked my calendar every day at work to see how many days, weekends, and month-ends there were until leaving.  It was definitely worth it.  The beaches in the Yucatan never fail to impress.  

We were right down the road from Tulum, where the ruins around the beach are the perfect compliment to the clear, warm water.   

The hotel we stayed at was all-inclusive.  (SO FUN!)  Hyrum ate more for breakfast than a poor latino child probably eats in a week.  For other meals, we could choose from one of a dozen restaurants with 3 course meals and fancy desserts.  

Along with the unlimited food, we got unlimited drinks.  In the lobby.  At the pool.  On the beach.  When can we go back??

While I loved the beach, Hyrum loved the soccer.  There were Latinos and Europeans that he got to play with twice during the week.  (for hours...)

Chichen Itza was a day trip away.  It was the *least* relaxing part of my vacation, as we almost got stuck in the bus station in Valladolid overnight.  That's a story for another day.