ENGAGEMENT STORY!!

in case you haven't heard already...Danny and I got engaged last weekend!!! everyone keeps asking me the story so i thought i'd post it here. so, once upon a time...

my roommates carrie and maia really wanted to go out to dinner one thursday night not so long ago. they said they found this really cute place in Campo de Fiori that had checkered tablecloths. i didn't see what was so cool about that, but i said i would go along. when we were getting ready to go, the girls got all dressed up (in hindsight, to get me to do so also...) but i wasn't really in the mood to get all pretty so i just fixed my makeup and hair. when we got to the restaurant, a waiter asked us how many and maia just motioned at a table. i said something sarcastic like "oh, you get to pick your own table around here?" and we started walking around the corner to the table. as we came around the corner, i saw Danny sitting there!! i about had a heart attack, asked a lot of silly questions like "what are you doing here?" and "how did you get here?", and then i started crying haha. here's a picture of that...



the next couple of days danny and i just got to walk around rome together and enjoy each other's company. on saturday, we were out seeing the sights and danny wanted to go to Trevi Fountain really badly. i didn't really understand why, because he had already seen it when he came to Rome for a couple days over spring break last semester. but he hadn't seen it at night, so we decided to go. we found it without a map (like magic! haha) and made our way down to sit on the edge. then we took some pictures and threw coins in and made wishes. danny asked me what my wish was and i said that i had wished we would be together for a very long time. he said that that was his wish too. then he got down on one knee, pulled out a ring, and said "i want to make our wishes come true. Jennifer Suzanne Griffith, will you marry me?" i was completely shocked. everyone else said that when they heard he was coming to surprise me in italy that he would probably propose, but that never crossed my mind! i asked more silly questions like "are you kidding?" and "are you being serious?" and then finally remembered to tell him that yes, of course i would marry him. annnd then i cried lol. after a while a woman came up and said "excuse me, sorry to interrupt, but do you want me to take your picture? i was going to wait to ask until you stopped crying, but you haven't yet sooo..." haha so i sucked it up enough to stop crying and take a picture:



it all just seemed like the best dream ever. and now we have to wait two months to see each other again!! keep spring 2009 open...there's going to be a wedding!! (and for those who can't wait two months to see it in person, here's a picture of my ring!)

links to videos

ok since i can't get my videos to work directly on the blog, here are a couple links to where i've posted them on youtube:

the virtual tour of my apartment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKINciUMh0g

our trip into the blue grotto in capri:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3vT85ubzo4

enjoy!

teaser

here's a picture from capri, just to make you want to look at the other ones:



and one more:




the 'links' i gave you in the last post aren't actually, 'links'. you have to copy/paste them into the web address box then push enter to make it go to the site. good luck! enjoy the pics!

Pictures from last post...and more

so i figured out something new that i can do to show you all my pics. below are some links to my facebook picture albums so you can just look at all of them.

this is the link to pictures of the toga party we had one of the first weeks we were here: http://iastate.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2158422&l=5a77b&id=16902729

this one is a lot of random rome pictures that i keep adding to:
http://iastate.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2158425&l=8dd27&id=16902729

this link is for pictures from our southern italy field trip to naples and sorrento, plus a little sidetrip some of us took to capri for the weekend:
http://iastate.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2161024&l=afa39&id=16902729

let me know if those links don't work. our ttrip to the south/capri was amazing. i'm not such a fan of naples, everything seemed dirty and a tad bit shady. we went to two museums there. sorrento was pretty, but i like rome better. we stayed the night at a convent there and went to nearby herculaneum, which is similar to pompeii. then we spent the weekend in capri and i never wanted to leave. it's so amazingly beautiful and relaxing. and everyone there was soooo friendly and helpful. we stayed in the cutest little hotel, took a chairlift to the highest point on the island, went in the blue grotto, ate some AMAZING food, and spent a day on the beach. check out the captions on my pictures for more information!

So much has been going on!

ok so the internet at studio is mostly useless. hopefully i'll be able to update much more often than i have recently. lots of things have been going on in the 3-ish weeks that i've been here:

-we went to Lido beach one of the first weekends. we paid 9 euro each for a bright yellow lounge chair next to the water and it was AMAZING. we basically sat on the beach all day.

-i've been seeing a lot of Roman sights and history for my Art History class including the Theatre of MArcellis, statue of Marcus Auralius,the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum, among other things

-i have a project due in a week. yikes.

-my photography class seems like it's going to be really fun. i need to come up with a topic for my photo essay

-i love italian class and plan on taking the optional continued class after the required three week class is over.

i have to go home right now and eat, but next time i'm in studio, i'll put up pictures of all the above mentioned things!

Is that video working?

will someone please let me know if the video tour of my apartment is working or not? it doesn't show up on my computer, but maybe it does on yours. if it's not working i want to get it fixed so you can see my place! let me know!

Art History Class

Today we had our first history class. it's crazy because we have lecture for about an hour and then go out and actually see the things we talked about. we walked over to the forum and overlooked it from a terrace. we also walked through michaelangelo's piazza and saw a statue of marcus araleus. i walked on marble streets that were once walked on by Roman's in their togas 2,000 years ago. we saw so many things, i don't even remember them all. and it's all right next to our studio! i'll check my notes and put up some pictures after my italian class-which is right now. look for those soon!

First day in Roma!

ok so my first day was actually Sept. 3rd- almost a week ago! all of our flights went really smoothly and our little scavenger hunt to get our apartment keys and find our apartment was easy as well. our apartment is good sized, not gigantic, but fine for the three of us. when we first arrived we thought it was really funny because it looks a little bit like it was decorated by someone's grandma (no offense to any grandmas reading this! haha). so we've been working to update the look as much as we can. if you'd like a little tour...please see the video below!



(sorry it's not working right now, i'm trying to figure it out)

as you may have noticed from my commentary, we are missing a few staple american things such as an oven and a microwave...and a clothes dryer. but we do get a bidet! haha we use it to clean our feet, not our behinds. our feet get really dirty walking around all day. we also got to see our studio on the first day we were here. our studio is in a historic palazzo (palace) owned by the Cenci family a bajillion years ago. now it is rented out for apartments and offices. There are beautiful frescoes on the walls that were recently restored. For you history lovers out there, there was a famous Cenci family member, Beatrice Cenci. Her father was a very wicked man and abused Beatrice and her brothers. He was also a very hated man in the city. At some point, Beatrice, one of her brothers, and her mother had had enough and decided to kill her father. Beatrice was the one who actually did it and was subsequently sentanced to death. the Pope at the time refused to pardon her no matter how horrible of a person her father was so she was hanged at the age of 16. there are now streets etc. named after her for her courage. below are some pics of the studio:



this is the outside of the studio with our big fountain! the giant doors to the left of center are how we enter



maia walking up the stairs to studio



the frescoed walls of the studio hallway



the room where my desk is, looks out to the terrace



our cute little studio terrace

correction

so the pic of me in the blue cross is not at trinity college, it was at dublin castle- sorry! here's a couple more pics of the dublin adventure:






1st is me, carrie, and maia at the gravity bar on top of the guinness storehouse. 2nd is dublin castle. 3rd is the view from the gravity bar.

Prior to Rome...

For those of you who don't already know, I have been travelling with my friends Maia Fiala and Carrie Machacek, who also are my roommates in Roma. We left for Rome a few days early so we could check out Dublin, Ireland for about three days. The flight over wasn't bad at all, it's only took 6.5 hours because of a good wind or something...so we got into Dublin at about 7am their time. We were dying to check into our hostel so we could get some sleep. Unfortunately we were under the false impression that we could check in any time, 24 hours. but were promptly informed that check-in wasn't until two. luckily, they let us store our big pieces of luggage, but we continued to haul arround our (very) heavy backpacks because we didn't want to leave things like our computers in the luggage room.

so we walked around for a while, checking things out and pointing out places we wanted to visit when we had more energy. finally, it was 2 so we checked in to the hostel and took a verrryy long nap. we woke up about 8pm and went out for dinner at the only place we could find that was still serving food (and hadn't turned into a full-fledged pub for the night). it was a little boistrous, to say the least. but we had a good time and i had my first pint of Guinness for the trip.

the next couple of days we saw all the sights: Trinity College, St. Patrick's, Temple Bar district, etc. We actually hopped on this great little tour bus that wasn't expensive at all for students (only 12.50 euro) where you can get on and off wherever you like on one of their 27 stops in a 24 hour period (that's how long your ticket lasts). our favorite stop though, was the Guinness Storehouse. it's a giant self-guided tour about how guinness is made, it's history, all the cool advertising, etc. and all the time you are working your way up to the top floor where you get a free pint of Guinness (and a fabulous 360 degree view of Dublin)!! All in all, we pretty much loved Dublin, and I wish we could have stayed longer. Below are a few pics from the trip:







The first is our traditional irish meal of shepherd's pie and lamb stew-SO GOOD!
The second is me at Trinity College, looking very Catholic.
Third is me playing in the barley used to make Guinness.
Fourth is me missing you at the Guinness Storehouse.
Fifth is me with a Guinness moustache, and yes, it's also on my nose haha.

I started a blog!

so i finally started a blog! however i have class in 5 minutes so i'll have to wait to write you a novel until later. internet in the studio is still not working so it may be a while before i can get many posts and/or pics up. but as soon as it's running i'll be all over it, i promise! love and miss you all! ciao