"Home"

So our last night in Rome was memorable to say the least. After a full day of hiking around Rome with our Brazilian friend Felipe, we finally felt secure that we had seen enough. Time to head back to Free style, relax on our beds, fill our stomach's with wine and pasta, and meet up with Megan and Gabrielle. That was the game plan.
Unfortunately, when we got to our hostel, our beds had been taken over by strangers, and we were mistakenly bumped off the list due to some miscommunication. Although we were once again homeless- by this point taking to the streets was our second nature.. and so we did.

However, we did talk Raz into getting our free meal out of the deal, and our new hostel was only one block over. Not to say that wasn't frustrating, but hey- at least we weren't back at Eden.
Things began to look up once we finally met up with Megan and Gabrielle. The four of us met up on the Spanish steps for one last icecream and sing song-along with our new Italian friends. Unfortunately, the singing was put on hold because the place was crawling with cops who were attempting to chase away the guys trying to pawn off cheap souvenirs. Although no singing was delivered, they came with pizza, and Italians are generous. This made Laura and I both very happy. We followed them on their "tour" from the steps to the Trevi Fountain, and then decided it was best to head home. I hate to generalize, but Italians have this way of getting very comfortable very quickly around new friends- not to say I felt unsafe, but after Laura was picked up and twirled around like the little poppet that she is- I think home was a good decision.

After a measly six hour sleep, I was not prepared for the 13 hour trip headed our way. It was a bit ridiculous actually, looking something like this
7:00am- meet the girls at the Termini
7:10- boarded bus that would take us to Ciampino airport (now, this was almost a 2 hour trip on our way to Rome.. so the fact that it only took 30 minutes this time not only gave us a lot of extra time, but made me realize that paying 8 euros as opposed to 3 does have its perks)
7:40- 10:40- waiting in the airport
11:00- board plane
12:45- land in Luton (lost an hour)
1:30 ish- board another bus that will take us to London
3:00 ish- have to get off the bus before the proper station, because the roads are blocked up, which meant we had to find the subway. This annoyed me for two reasons: 1) we had already payed to get to Victoria, and now we had to pay again 2) Sewer rats
4:00ish- we get bus tickets that will take us to Oxford, and we use them to get on the bus- obviously.
6:30- we finally get to Oxford. Note- this bus ride should have been an hour. I have only the Muslim protesters to thank, who we saw lining the streets in London, flogging themselves with chains. I have never seen anything like this. There were hundreds of them chanting, beating themselves in the cold, some of them with their shirts off, and some of them little children. I can't really describe how that made me feel, but I was suddenly very cold. This made for an interesting discussion on the way home, effectively jolting us out of our own realities and shifting some things properly into perspective. Makes you wonder what the future is going to look like, and how you can allow yourself to get bent out of shape by something as trivial as paying a few extra pounds for a bus fare. But I'll leave off on that, and wrap up the last few legs of this crazy day
6 something- get to Oxford, walk to the station, purchase our last ticket. Golden
7:30- walk into my house - 31 on the Green- and it's never felt better

That my friends, is the complete wrap on my spring break adventures. Pictures will come when I find the time ( Today involved meeting at the church at 9:00 am, and going hard until 4 pm with our drama productions) I am beat. I have dinner at Madelaine's in one hour, until then, I must sleep. Kind of odd that after my 10 day vacation, I could use another one.

Ciao