A scouting outing and Aloe Vera

So. It seems the scouts do leave the hostel but not for long. After a pant-signing (this is where you sign someone's pants so they remember you...just to clarify), we went out for ice-cream. I was plotting to get them to the colosseum but they would't go. Anyhow, they are really fun and I guess I can't even hate because if my mom was in italy watching me right now, I too would have a hard time doing anything.

Anyway, speaking of the girl scouts reminds me of how this Indiana thing is getting kind of creepy. By that I mean that we met ANOTHER group of people from indiana today. They were the biggest bros I've ever met. The first thing they asked as they approaced us was " yo, you guys like to party?!?!?!?" Ummm... yeah. I do brah. What about it? They were trying to hustle me and my friends from Maine (my Maine homies, jaja!) to go to a pub crawl. Just to elaborate, a pub crawl is an organized drinking event where you pay money to get completely wasted with a bunch of other people. You get bar discounts, a t-shirt and in return you forgo remembering any of the experience.

I hated these bros. They were getting paid to invite me to a party. This violates a fundamental element of parties in that the invitation is supposed to be a genuine wish to party with the invitee. These people have commercialized partying. IS NOTHING SACRED!?!?!

FUCK PUBCRAWLS! Do one on your own. Make your own t-shirt with a sharpie. Don't pay for drinking friends. plus those dudes were from indiana. (Shoutout again matty B!)

I will recommend the Pantheon to anyone who has an appreciation for vast open space. It is majestic and huge. You walk in, and there is a giant beam of light cascading in from the oculus in the roof of the church. There are actually seagulls flying around inside of the thing and they really make you realize how huge the space is. Trevi fountain is also great.

Another cool italy thing is the way they do graffiti. EVERYTHING is covered here with some scrawly spray on text as long as it is within reach. However today, I deciphered love messages written by kids in the neighborhood to one another... possibly outside of each other's houses. Using graffiti to communicate and flirt seemed pretty cool and edgily romantic to me.

anyhow, that is all I can remember from the latest day but keep on reading my bullshit and I will keep loving you, whoever you are.

Ja B-real

Hey again! Day three in italy. pretty fun here. Today I went to the beach with my newfound hostel friends Roger and Stephanie (bro & sis). I met them yesterday after I woke up from a nap I had taken right after that last blog I wrote. (It was a good nap because I had been drooling...) We hit it off pretty well. They are from Maine and Stephanie goes to college there and Roger works as a lobster fisherman.

Roger strikes me as pretty interesting because meeting him was like meeting someone from Discovery channel's "the most dangerous catch" or whatever that show is called with all those guys fishing crabs off the coast of Alaska. Roger is the first mate on a Lobsterboat where he spends most of his life because he goes on fishing excursions twelve days at a time with two or three day breaks in between. He also told me about how his fishing boat gets into turf battles with smaller fishing companies over good fishing spots. He also said that the weather on the discovery channel show pretty much describes the winter weather he experiences on the job. I am in Europe with a badass.

Anyhow... The beach was pretty glamorous. We stayed out there all day and I am in some serious pain from the sunburn I aquired. The italian beach is a world ruled by beach clubs and marauded by salespeople who are usually pretty weird and overly persistent in trying to sell you things no one would ever need a the beach. For example: one guy stood in front of us for a whole minute trying to sell us a wiggling, singing, cat doll a similarly designed donkey. What the fuck am I supposed to do with a stuffed animatronic toy at the beach?!?! eh? Also, asian women were walking around offering massages. No thanks creepy beach urchins. I'll take my handjobs inside.

Those are just the interesting parts of the beach. I don't want it to sound like it wasn't fun. It rocked.

Ladies... at the beach tops are optional and thongs are the only way to go. Take a leaf from the italian book.

So after the beach we rode a train that smelled like livestock back into town and then went to the grocery store and picked up a shit ton of pizza and some booze. Our mission is to get these fucking girl scouts that are staying with us to party and let their hair down a little. Especially the mormon one. They are from Indiana. Most of the people I have met on this trip have been from Indiana oddly enough . Indianan's are a weird bunch. Shoutout to Matt Borgmann.

So now I am going to meet back up with my peeps and berhaps have my cousin over to the hostel for the rooftop party of the century. Stay hood USA.

-Jibreel

ok. so i am writing today about my first day in italy. Yesterday I was incapable of doing so in the evening for two reasons...the internet was not available and i was shitfaced.

I guess I could start the day with the shitfacedness because the rest of the day was not all that interesting. I got off the plane allright and I sat next to one fat person on the connecting flight up. Not too shabby... Anyhow upon arriving at the campground outside of Rome where I would be staying I ran into these Manchester United fans who, upon hearing that I wanted to go to the bank, insisted on taking me pubbing. (the pub was apparently close to the bank)

So I went from feeling like an awkward little camper person all alone in Italy to feeling like Elijah Wood in the movie Greene street hooligans. The English guys were hilarious. They liked potty humor, found indecent exposure to be a high form of comedy and were really friendly on top of it all. These guys all got drunk and pissed in the street and catcalled at girls the whole damn day. What was most intense were the Football chants. They were all tunes to popular songs I recognized and there were about 60 englishmen yelling them at the top of their lungs. They would sing especially loudly when italians would walk by...

So I eventually have to drop out because I cant drink anymore and I get on the bus and fall asleep. I wake up and the busdriver has completely left the vehicle and I am simply alone on the bus on the side of the street. So I pick myself up and make my way back to the campsite.

Back at the campsiteat about five pm I try to shake off the hangover ive got by taking a shower. It does not work. I meet a nice german couple from south of munich and the lady looks like a younger version of Max Chases mom. (hot) hehe! anyway! they ruled because they got me coffe and wine. The latter did not help my hangover.

So the Englishmen get back and watch Barcelona beat the shit out of Manchester so they proceeded to expose themselves and one guy punches the tv. Then they ang another soccer song about not giving a shit and we all went to bed.

That was the first day! Today I have moved into a hostel inside of rome and It is very very nice. HUGE rooftop terace. As in the view is huge. It rules. I walked through a treelined avenue today to my cousins hotel and left her a message and so now I am sitting here writing in an internet cafe. So Ill write more when I know more. Chow!