After staying in two interim apartments, I finally moved in to the place I’ll be staying for at the next two and a half months. I had high hopes for this place, having seen pictures that were emailed to me by the owner, however, and a BIG HOWEVER, the day before I moved in, three American college students moved out. The place is trashed. I mean fist holes through the wall and shoe prints on the ceiling trashed. I am so sad. The place just has a vibe that is way too frat boy-esque for me to be comfortable with. And apparently, the maid was here all day yesterday. Gross. Thank god I brought my own sheets. I actually went out earlier and bought a new bedspread and several bunches of flowers to lighted up the place. (I will include pics soon.)
Also, as it’s a two-bedroom apartment, I’ll be having several roommates throughout the summer, fantastic. I hope that they are all as unique as my current flatmate Johnnie:
*This is me, being really sneaky with my built in camera. He had no idea I took this photo, but I wanted to give everyone a visual.
From Las Vegas, NV via Cleveland, OH, Johnnie is an Air Force/USMC vet (!) in his late forties (?). I know he has a son in Cleveland and is dating a Ukrainian woman. Currently, he his hand in a multitude of entrepreneurial endeavors, some of which include: bar owner, “Women of the U.S.A.” calendar producer and distributor (I saw it, and it’s patriotic as fuck as and absolutely fantastic/horrifying), and Italian coffee importer/exporter (which is the reason he’s in Italy and I believe moving here in the Fall). Keep in mind that these are all I can remember off the top of my head, when I met him yesterday he explained to me at great length his many intriguing business ventures, but once he handed me the “Women of the U.S.A.” calendar, I could no longer retain the things he was telling me and became wholly engrossed by the pretty ladies wearing patriotic-themed latex. I will try to find a link at some point to share with you all such wonderful images.
Ok, so after about an hour of getting to know each other, Johnnie invited me to have dinner with him, his Italian cousin Filippo, and Filippo’s British girlfriend Julia. So I went, as I am never one to turn down a free meal. So we end up going to some trattoria around the corner and meet up with Filippo and Julia and some other crazy looking Italian guy, I mean like super far-out old (like, mid-sixties if I had to guess) Italian dude with long, slicked back hair, a pinstriped blazer, designer jeans and some seriously pointy-ass cowboy boots. Of the five of us dining, I was at least twenty years younger than everyone at the table, and also the only one who can’t speak Italian (that is, unless you consider “I am American student, I am happy be in Rome this summertime, very happy” speaking Italian). So yes, the five of us: Johnnie, my zany roommate, his cousin Filippo who apparently owns a newspaper in Rome, Julia, who is British, and quite lovely, and Giulio, crazy looking Italian dude, and me, Meggie. Although I felt slightly awkward the first hour and kept asking myself how the hell I ended up at a table where I can only make out about 1/3 of the conversation and when I do say something it comes out sounding retarded, as the meal progressed and as I drank more wine, I began to enjoy myself immensely with these totals randoms. I mean fuck it, I’m in Rome.
