we got a puppy...

could she be cuter??

ps - home a week from friday..... :)

my day o fun

i woke up at one.

i went to Sant Eustachio to get a cappucino. But it's mostly cause Tazza d'oro is closed on sundays - in case any one was confused about my loyalty.

i went to the campo di fiori market. i purchased some hand made soap. kind of random but it smells really good.

i walked towards the roman forum and bought an appel and then ended up near a museum that had a Manet Exhibit so i went in. it was very good. but the room was too hot.

then i went to a cafe where i awkwardly ordered a melon smoothing by mistake...that whole language thing. but it was not as bad as it couldve been. haha.

then i went to the Doria Pamphilj gallery which is one of my favorites i've been to in the city.

then i went to the market and bought cheese and crackers and cereal and yogurt, most of which was consumed shortly thereafter.

and since then i've spent the rest of the evening "writing my art history paper."

and took a nice trip to get giolitti gelato with jake.

now i'm going to sleep. tomorrow i'm watching roma in film class, going to Gusto with Lauren and Alissa (obvi) and then finishing the paper.

ahh... so lame and yet exciting.

much love to my real family, my ep family, everyone in the cities of los angeles and philadelphia...

ps - i'll be home 4 weeks from today. marble. amazing.

pass/fail

hey hey... if you're at penn this weekend go see Excelano's show... it's called Pass/Fail at 8 pm in Houston Hall... go. it'll be hot, i promise. i wrote a poem, it's called abroad:

I live in a city, priding itself on the passing of time
defining the present through projections of the past,
masking today’s currency with yesterday’s resonance
and cloaking the future with yesterday’s hesitance.

Daily, it’s evident as I walk through the streets
the way others walked long before
that standing on the shoulders of giants is not just a metaphor
but a alarm written for champions of progress, preaching
“look before you leap” cause
it’s not just where you land that’ll get you
it’s a world’s worth of history,
all the karma that'll lay aty our feet
which explains the crumbling ruins that speakle the street
the disarray strewn like glass at the beach worn so rough
it turns smooth as it turns lies on the shore
this city searches for love but only finds all that it lacks,
a life dripping ephemeral like a candle and its wax.

I live in a city that owns the luxury of perspective,
unafraid of its tracks.
already knowing the ride of the rise
and the pain of the fall
the guise of protection
the lies of disaster
the reconstruction after the death of the long every after
Rome fell and now it’s living in a constant state of resurrection,
a broken record spinning through divine intervention
a city living as a religion told through the new gospel and its testament
a mutated psalm bastardized by its life in the present tense.

I live in a city that sits on a hill
high like a smoke stack
a bird’s eye view of the waters rising,
mother nature writhing with each petty misstep
gasping as each day it regrets,
the rising fear of hate, the haste without sure relief,
echoing the flail of the stale stench of grief.
We’re flipping coins and calling sides,
But from here it’s clear that there’s no where to hide.
Not enough money in the world to buy enough oil
or fabricate the truth
or soil the soil laid by god in his youth.

Rome respects the future as it honors the past
Knowing all too well
that powerful empires are not built to last,
knowing that ruins lay forgotten and rotting underground
knowing all too well that the bigger the monster
the harder the fall
And when autumn comes,
it’ll drop life like its leaves

It knows that we’ll crash
and it knows we will fall,
Rome knows it wont be the end that’ll get us
but the hand of past that will cover us all.

life is short...

as is the rest of my time in Rome. I have decided to take full advantage of the situation by going on Roman adventures. Today was adventure number one.

I started off heading towards Via Del Corso, a busy shopping street in the heart of Rome, to go to the Vodaphone store. Vodaphone is a lot like Verison inthe states except Vodaphone is very frustrating and no one speaks English. It took 20 minutes to put more euros on my phone - since italian cell phones are the most expensive. Then I wandered until I fould this piazza where there was a bus stop. I knew I wanted to head towards Piazza Barberini, which is at the bottom of Via Veneto. I kind of jumped on a random bus cause I thought it would take me there... and luckily it did. yay me. I walked around the piazza for a little. kind of going in circles cause i'm cool like that and then finally i headed towards the Barberini Palace. Where apparently there is a cool museum. I went in the museum. It was nice. Then I headed off to find a church that Bernini sculpted the facade of. It took some winding and some hill climbing, but I finally found it. And took pictures. obvi. Then i made my way to Piazza Republica, which is sort of near the train station, and encountered many bad smells. literally it did not smell good. but there was a fountain. and more pictures. then I stumbled into this church which use to be an ancient Roman bath house that Michaelangelo designed the plans to change into a church. They made a big deal about he designed it, but then when I went into the little musuem that explained how the conversation happened... it seems that the only thing that he actually designed was like one entrance... haha. cool. Then I got lost trying to find another bathhouse. But I realized if you've seen one... you've seen them all. kind of. but I was tired. Then I took the metro for the first time. Yes the first time. I walk a lot here. And I live in the center of the city. So there are no metro stops since every time they try to build one they run into another ancient temple or something. The metro is not helpful. but i took it to school where i had my projecting the past film class where we discussed Fellini's Satyricon. fucked up movie. but i was mesmorized. i'm weird. I went to dinner at Gusto, a good restaurant that serves hamburgers, but it took an hour for them to bring the check... bah italians.... tonight i have been counter productive. but i did have a skype date with Emma. amazing. I did type this. I will add photos and links at another time - maybe not though. but I like to pretend to be ambitious. I'm going to Barcelona tomorrow for the weekend with Elyssa. yay. ok cool. how's that for an update??

hi michelle!! haha... this one's for you.

much love, take care.... lindsey

and also... HAPPY HALLOWEEN

why hello there....

ok. so it's been a while. i've been slacking on my blog updates. i apologize. as i told some of my loyal readers who have informed me that they check my blog everyday hoping for something new (aka jacob cooper) I have been busy living life... I'm actually glad to report that while I was abroad in Italy I was too busy to update my blog. not to belittle the blog at all... just... you know... prioroites. not that i need to make excuses for my lack of updating.. but if i was going to explain I'd say that I had midterms and then i spent my fall break in spain.... but I'm not making excuses.

ok. so. first and foremost i'd like to share with you the new excelano website ...amazing. i miss the fam... if you're at Penn this semester go see the show!! ahh can't wait to go back...

expect more regular updates from now on....

much love, ciao!!! - linds