Gypsy Tribe

This past weekend, we went on a school trip to Pompeii and Stabiae. Friday night's entertainment (after going straight through the ghetto to get to the center of the city) at the hotel was entitled "Living Frescoes". If anyone ever suggests such entertainment, I suggest you avoid it (unless on a high of some sort). The music part was entertaining, except the bells that wouldnt stop. For one of the frescoes, the girl had an animal horn that she rubbed a stick on for a few minutes. The finale sounded something like motorcycles, but was actually string being slung around in circles. They also "danced" while playing music in a very lyric-asheville sort of way. Basically, it was weird. After half an hour, everyone was just staring with their jaws dropped (not in a good way).

We had multiple homeless moments, such as eating out of bags on a street corner, huddled for warmth. These are the memories we like best :). It was a really fun trip, though. We made friends with a dog we named "Cocoa" while we were walking downtown in Stabiae and deemed him our gypsy dog. He would walk with us, then chase a guy on a motorcycle, then run back to us. We wanted him to walk us back to our hotel, but he had to go home. Oh, in case I havent mentioned it, we're a gypsy tribe now.

When we came back to campus, we went into Albano for dinner and then to Saints and Sinners. On Sunday we went into Rome in pairs and did more exploring and that sort of thing. Ashlea and I found a weird American and a really cool store, so we were pleased. We also got free pastries at a cafe we went to in order to hide from the rain. Free things don't really exist in italy, so this was exciting.

Overall, it was a really good weekend with the gypsies. This weekend, we're going to stay in Rome again and celebrate Indai's birthday. Next weekend, we're going to Paris, then the weekend after to Barcelona. It's crazy we've only been here for a week and a half! We've done so much and had so much fun! I'll put a picture up of Cocoa once I get one from someone.