Frustrations and Togas

So I've decided that it's time to start listing my aggravations with European society.  The first, and most important, is having to pay to use the restroom.  What the hell.  There's nothing worse than getting off a train after six hours and then having to fish through your purse to find enough change to get into the bathroom.  When you really have to pee, this little charade is super annoying.  Especially because European bathrooms in train stations are always located a million miles away from anywhere.  I guess that's to ensure that the people who actually navigate the maze to get to them are serious enough about using them to pay.  Okay, that's enough rambling.

So this week I turned in one paper, wrote another one, took a history midterm and will be leaving for Greece tomorrow morning. On a more cultural note, I saw the Colosseum and Roman Forum, and will be dressing up in a toga for the "G(r)eek Olympics" that school is hosting this afternoon.  Problem: It's forty degrees outside. So everyone will look like idiots wearing coats and sweatpants and brightly colored togas.  Hopefully we don't freeze to death, but we'll be roughing it like spartans or whatever (evidently I didn't learn enough for that midterm...).

What else happend this week? Well, On Tuesday, I went running in the morning and somehow pulled a muscle in my foot and now walking is excruciatingly painful.  Which is really great when you have to spend the whole next day trekking about Rome looks at ruins and whatnot.  But I'll live.  And I'm in Rome, so everything is good.  Also, my digital camera's screen decided to break sometime between Saturday night and Wednesday morning, without me even touching it.  More annoyingly, my US cell phone, a touch screen, recently decided it doesn't like getting touched.  So theres no way of me turning off my alarm, so I'll be getting up every Monday-Thursday at 6:33 whether I want to or not.

If you're keeping score: thats Electronics: 2, Claire: 0.

I just hope the laptop doesn't decide to join in the rebellion.


So for the next ten days, I'll be in Greece (without a computer). We're going to Athens, Olympia, Napflion, Delphi, Corinth, and whatnot.  I'm really excited! It should be beautiful, but cold and rainy.  I can't complain though because it's been sunny almost every day here.

Also on the agenda for today: planning our 10-day.  Looks like we'll be visiting Vienna, Budapest, Krakow, Prague, and Munich.  Fingers crossed we get all those trains reserved!

 Renee, Me, and Elise before Saints and Sinners on Saturday.  (Two of the girls I'll be traveling with for 10 day)

The COLOSSEUM. It was really cold.  Like, really cold.