It's hard being a student!

Hiya everybody!

Oh dear.... I've had the three most tiring days of my life I think! But don't worry, nice things have caused my "fatigue"! So be ready, cuz there is a lot to tell!

It all started on thursday..

After a good and interesting morning class, Alex -a german girl from my class- invited me to come over to her flat that evening for a typical german dinner! Of course, since my friends call me "Sofie Gastronomy" I was happy to accept the offer! So, that same evening I enjoyed very much my Kartoffeln with worst und Sauerkraut, and as dessert Lebkuchen! (Please forgive me the possible german ortographic errors!) It was a very nice dinner, and the atmosphere was excellent as well... All Alex's flatmates are Italian girls, so the volume quickly reached it's highest level!

ter dinner, one of the italians flatmates, Valentina; informed us that a friend of her was organizing a flat-party because of his birthday, and that -if we wanted- we could easily join he party! A real houseparty with all Italians... Of course we wanted to go!! And so we did! The place was a bit further away so it took us a while to get there (metro + walking).. But all of a sudden from very far away we started to hear music, laughing, noises, etc so we knew we were close!

The houseparty was really nice! A lot of people, a lot of beer and a lot of wine..! Of course, we talked with as many nice italians as possible! and it all went suprisingly well! I even got some compliments on my Italian.. and no, it was not because they were flirting with me! ,-) All of a sudden, they all decided that they wanted to go clubbing, so from one moment to the other I was looking for my coat to join them all. As always with Italians, we stood outside for quite a while discussing where and how we should go to a club.. In the end we walked to a club called Kube: Only 3 euro entrance! Really really cheap for Rome! Suprisingly, it was a very nice club with good music and a very very good atmosphere! Alex and I danced and danced... We even figured out a new strategy to keep Italian men a bit on a distance: SILLY DANCING! Time flies by when you're having fun! We left the club at 5am, and at 6am I was in my bed...

Very nice evening and night it was! And Valentina's friends are really nice and sociable.. Hopefully I'll get the chance to meet up with them again!

On friday i just had to skip school! There was no way that after going out like this I could be in class at 9! So, this was my second time in 7 weeks I skipped school... And maybe I should do it more often, because my classmated told me afterwards that I got upgraded to level 4!!! The only thing is that there is no space for me at the moment at this level.. But after this week many people are leaving so who knows I can move then to level 4!! I'm very happy with that!

Friday was again a night of "celebrating"! In the evening there was an erasmusparty and yes... I went to this party as well togehter with my Dutch Buddies, their flatmate, Jessica and my dear Italian friend Daniele! He even brought 2 friends of his, so we were with a nice group of people! Again, I danced and had fun talking to everyone! This time, I stayed till 3am, and the nice thing was that I didn't have to look for a way to get home.. Daniele and his friend brought me safely home by car! How nice and how wonderfull for me!

For saturday evening I didn't really had any plans yet... and to be honnest, I thought that could be good for me stay home for once.. But no.. again something came up! Daniele had sent me in the morning a text to ask if maybe I wanted to go to this student-evening organized by BEST, an international organization for Engineering students.. They were going to a village outside of rome called Arricia to have a nice evening of eating, singing and drinking wine! Sounded appealing to me, so yes, I joined, together with Alex and her german friend Kristof who was visiting!

oooh dio, what an experience it was!! After meeting on a parking space with everyone, we left by car to Arricia! In total we were with about 40 people I think.. Almost all Italian students! When we arrived at the ristorante Fraschetta, we all sat at this long long tables.. and yes of course, the first thing that arrived was wine!! And when there is wine, there is atmosphere.. Indeed, even before the first glass of wine, they started singing this very funny song: It went like this...

"All who is (for example: born in January), stand up, stand up! Bevi tutto bevi tutto bevi tutto (so, if you were born in january, you had to stand up and then drink all the wine that is in your class ad fundum! Only then you were allowed to sit down again!) L'acqua fa te male, e il vino fa canta!!"

In total, I had to stand up twice (because I was born in january and because I'm from belgium!)! Ouuuuph, could be worse!

At 12.30 the ristorante closed, so we all had to get out of the place! I finished my glass of "romanetta", which is a sweet red wine typical from rome! They even dip cookies in it as well! Afterwards we went with 2 cars to Lago Albano.. Probably a very beautiful place during the day, but when it's night there is not really much to see! Still, we stood there for a while and took some pictures... and yep, it was again 3am before I realized it! Daniele then took me, alex and Kristof to our homes! Very nice once more!

so, at the moment I'm a bit tired! Especially cuz on saturday noon, some very nice friends from my class came over at my flat for lunch.. ooh, it was very busy this weekend, but I fell very very happy I had to chance to do it all! All very different experiences, but all very very much fun! And since I most of the time ended up with Italian people, I really spoke a lot of Italian this weekend! GREAT!!!


So there you go, you're all updated again! But do realize, it's really not always like that over here!!! THis weekend was quite exceptional, but very great!

see what will happen this week here in Rome!
I'll keep you informed, but in the meantime, take good care of yourselves!!

Looking forward hearing from you all!!
Ciaooooooooooooooooooooooooo,
Caro abbracio per tutti!
Sofie