Let my people go!

The title of this blog has zero to do with anything except for the fact that I have been on a Prince of Egypt craze. The soundtrack, the movie, I'm just all over it this week, idk why. Maybe it's because of Easter? I am into biblical Disney films? No idea. All I know is that the soundtrack is on repeat in my brain. Good times.

So I am blogging today to do what I did with the Palermo blog, to teach the rest of you to learn from my mistakes. Because I am just so kind like that, that I can put my pride aside, for you.

So here it goes: Today was a lovely Roman morning (now it's pouring, wonderful), so Alex and I decided to walk to the API offices. On the way there, as my ballet flats rubbed a massive blister into my heel, a car pulled over on the side of the road and asked Alex and I for directions. He was looking for Piazza Del Poppolo, and Alex quickly informed him that he was going in the wrong direction. And once we whipped out our trusty map and told him where to go, we assumed that we were free to go. But this man decided he wanted to tell us his life story. He was an Armani sales rep, from Milan, who was lost in Rome, with a rental car that was running out of gas. He then whips out his portfolio and shows us all of his stuff. We nod and smile, he continues with more stories in broken english and mainly italian. He then asks me if I can understand italian because I am italian. I kindly tell him no, and that Im in fact mexican. He gets all excited and tells me that Mexicans and Italians think the same. And Im just like "Oh ya, totally, mhm" and then he looks at Alex and askes "Is this your girlfriend?" Now, you see, I am a little worried that this guy is trying to ask me out or put me in his car and drive away, so Alex and I give each other tentative looks like "This guys is super sketch" and Alex puts his hand on my shoulder (in an awkward Ive-never-touched-you-in-my-life kind of way) and calmly says "Oh ya ya, she's my girlfriend." So Milan man proceeds to say "Do you mind if I give your girlfriend a gift?" We say no and he whips out a purse and says "This is a prototype, it's Armani, dont sell it ok?" Then he asks Alex what size shoe he wears, and reaches in the back and give Alex this fancy pants socks. Once again he reminds us not to sell these things, and explains how expensive they are. After all is said and done he says, "All I ask in return is for any kind of money for gas, my credit card is broken" (shows us the card). I legit have no money on me so I say sorry, no can do. But Alex does have money on him and gives him a 20 because he is a genuinely nice guys, and sympathizes with him. he says thank you, tells us to enjoy the gifts, and drives away.
Immediately when he leaves my mind starts Nancy Drew-ing this entire strange encounter. A) a Sales Rep for Armani from Milan, probably not driving himself anywhere. But I mean, whatever. but then...B) His portfolio was a little sketch, and it was plastic, not in a brief case, and it was just there and ready to be shown. But ok, that's fine too...BUT! What really caught me, was his watch. C) I know fashion, I know labels, I know what you wear if you also know fashion and labels. Even if you are fashionably inept, if youre rich, you have fancy things. Homeboy extended his hand to shake my hand (btw, weak, weak handshake, dead fish, wippy) and I immediately looked at his watch. It was meant to look nice, but it wasnt. It was a Seiko watch. Which for a regular bro is fine, but an Armani Sales Rep is not going to be caught dead with an a Seiko watch. Not once, not nevah. The minute he left it all comes rushing back to me and I'm like "lets see this stuff". The socks were socks, but no label. But the purse, aside from it being ugly (Armani or not) it was the most fake bag I've ever seen. And I know bags. I dont know much, but I know bags, and I can spot a fake from a mile away. This bag was the saddest fake I've ever seen.
Once we get to the API office, we dont even get to properly begin the story before Luca (advisor) has already finished it for us. Apparently, this guy is famous. But we were lucky. He usually just takes peoples wallets and guns it out of there. So we werent upset, we were actually kind of impressed hahahaha.
All and all, we got scammed I guess you could say. Neither of us bought it, but we still gave him money, but at least Alex got socks, and can give his actual gf a new purse.
Rome cracks me up. The fact that this guy spends his days pretending to be something he isnt, to make money, is just funny. But then again, I guess people do that everyday. Pretend to be something or someone they arent, to get ahead in business, or get a promotion, or beat someone out for a position. So what separates them from him? Nothing really. Cheating is cheating, neither is more honorable. It also made me kind of sad for him too, he is living his life, always pretending to be something more than he is, which is just a common criminal.
It's a funny story. It reminded me of Dan the Man from Paris (if you can recall that story), except Dan was for real, but still very strange.
Moral of the story is, always look at what people are wearing, it tells you everything you need to know. Idc what people say, what you wear says everything about you. hahahaha But really, dont take any wooden nickels, or fake purses.

This weekend is the Beatafication(sp?) of Pope John Paul II, so Rome is going to be crawling with people, theyre expecting at least a million tourists. I'll be there. I'm a little nervous to be surrounded by that many religious fanatics, but it will be the experience of a lifetime. There is also a bunch of free concerts this weekend too, so it's gonna be a good time. But when is Rome not a good time?

Lastly, on the bus ride home today I saw some graffiti that said "Si no sei felice, prova amare" meaning, "If you arent happy, try loving." I love that. I love love. I dont know much, but all I know, all I know, is love will save the day. <3

And the award for worst blogger goes to...

Me!
Ya I know, epic fail. But in my complete defense I have been really busy. Combine that with the fact that it's been gorgeous out, well, you could see why I wouldnt want to spend my time inside.
So here's the speed update:
SpringBreak! It was fantastical! Hit up London, Scotland, and Ireland. It was absolutely incredible. Minus the rape with no lube that happened due to the Pound. That was rough, but I got through it. Spring break pretty much broke my bank account, but it was well worth it. Three countries in 8 days is pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.
Crucial events of each city, ahem: I saw EVERYTHING there is to see in London, if there's a site, I saw it. So I wont bore you with the specifics.
-Pierced my nose. Love it. I dont really care if anyone doesnt like facial piercings. Keep your opinions to yourself.
-I climbed on a giant steel lion monument with Erika and a man had to boost us up and it was the most awkward/ ungraceful moment of both of our lives haha
Scotland- By far my favorite of the three places, just a lovely place to go, I fell in love instantly.
-made friends with a bag piper named Neal, he told me I have an excellent handshake and gave me his card to download his MP3's.
-Went on a ghost tour.
-Saw where JK Rowling got a lot of her inspiration and where she wrote her books (Elephant Cafe)
Dublin- Meh, not my fav...We were kind of in the hood, and it was just like America. Idk, I also dont drink, so I mean...there is half the appeal of Dublin right there hahaha
-Saw the hills of moher and went to Howth, both insanely beautiful.
-got followed by crackheads
Also, spring break allowed me to drink my body weight in over priced Starbucks coffee. It was magic. The main lesson learned from spring break was that not all accents are created equal. Legit, you think these accents are charming until you realize that only the British, Scottish, Irish people in the movies speak perfect english. Once you get there, everyone has there own dialect and some people might as well be speaking Chinese. Kind of funny. At one point a guy said to Erika "you dont speak english, you speak American." hahaha oops.
The following weekend I went to Tivoli with API, got some delicious food and got to see Hardians Villa and tan (clutch).
Then Arbrenne and Nate showed up, and I gave them the Meghan Goodine Express Tour, you know showing them everything you possibly can in a really short amount of time.
Monday at 1 I dropped them off at the train station and at 2 I picked up Yelena and Raisa, and gave them the Meghan Goodine Express Tour Part II.
Yelena had some ticket issues and ended up staying later than Raisa. Wednesday rolls around, and Im thinking its going to be just another day. I bring Yelena to school with me, and we enjoy a nice and awkward Art Therapy lesson, and when its over Im like, "Lets go to the park", and yelena very intensely tells me that she NEEDS to go home and change first. So we do, and then she tells me that we should go to the guys apt. Now, after two express tours, Im beat. So Im like ok but I need coffee first so I dont strangle innocent people. So after I drink my coffee in peace, Im sitting outside of the guys place, waiting for them to get back from their fieldtrip. As  I look up to their window I could SWEAR I see a girl pop out of the balcony. But Yelena assures me Im delusional and changes the subject to shoes (well played Yelena, well played). Well in come the boys, and John shoots past me, with a little "hello" that barely has time to linger in the air because he ran past me so fast. And you see, John had told me he was sick, so I was for some reason, under the impression that he crapped his pants. Why is that what I thought, I honestly couldnt tell you, but I did. So there I am, wondering how I am going to even look at this kid in the eyes if he did, in fact, shit himself.
I get inside and I look around for signs of crapped pants, and theres nothing. I breath a sigh of relief and look to my left, into the bathroom, and see a pink makeup bag. Right away I asses that it's not mine, and none of the guys have visitors, so I go inspect the makeup, without making a sound. I stare at it. Why does this makeup look so familiar? I use my pointer finger to push things around without totally invading some "strangers" privacy. "Who's makeup is this?" I shout. Giuliano, as per usual, has a smart ass remark "oh it's the girl I banged, she left her shit here." False. I was with you Julie bear, so thats a lie. I leave the bathroom and out of the corner of my eye I see pink luggage in Johns room. My female protective instinct kicks in for about 3 seconds and is like "THIS MOTHER EFFER SAID HE WAS SICK AND HES GOT A BITTY UP IN HIS ROOM?! DA F%@#?!" And then I open the door.












I leave such a large blank because thats what my brain did. It just kind of malfunctioned. I was convinced that I had neglected sleep for too long and my brain was now hallucinating. But I wasnt. I could see, smell, touch, hear everything just fine. So that only meant one thing: CRYSTAL PEREIRA WAS IN ROME SITTING ON JOHNS BED!" I almost fainted. I couldnt make words. Everything I wanted to say seemed stupid in comparison to how big of a deal this was. So I just cried and make noises that were so high-pitched that only a dog could hear them.
Was it the best surprise of my entire life? Yup. Was it the happiest I've been in Rome? Absolutely.
So I obviously gave Crys the Meghan Goodine Express Tour part III, I might have been more tired if I didnt have pure adrenaline running through my veins the second I saw her.

After she left, I had major school work to make up. considering I had put school on the back burner from thursday to saturday (as in 10 days, not 3 ha).
And this weekend was Easter weekend. It was really lovely actually. John, Tyler, and I booked Spain for the weekend after next,  went to the park, went on the Tyler Parry express tour, in which Tyler showed me a lot of the stuff in Rome I had no idea I was missing out on, and went to church on easter sunday.
This Easter was obviously different for 2 main reasons. Reason A) being I am in Rome, where Easter gets on and poppin. And B) I wasnt with my family. And that did bother me, but I was fortunate enough to be with people I love, so it wasnt bad. Im very lucky. I love a lot of people, and a lot of people love me. And that's true for basically everyone. So if you keep that in mind, the other crap doesnt really get you down. "Too blessed to be stressed" right? ha
I went to a baptist church for Easter Sunday, which was a huge change from a Mormon church hahaha
For starters, you can say Amen pretty much whenever you want. You can clap. And you stand up for the Hymns. Why go to a baptist church in the catholic capital of the world? Ummm because of everything fun I just listed above. haha

I've given up sugar in my coffee and soda, because I eat 16 pastries a day, so I need to take a chillaxi taxi on the sugar before I go into a diabetic coma. So I sit here blogging to you, drinking my home made coffee black, out of my shakespeare mug, feeling like I've got my theater kid swag on high. I should be writing a paper. But I have all day because I dont have school today. Which means I will procrastinate like it's my business, because it's raining outside and I have nothing better to do.
But you see, I avoid these sort of days, the "lazy days" as people call them because I A)feel disgusting and like I'm wasting my life and my youth (yes, I think all of those things multiple times when Im being lazy, Im neurotic.)  And B) It gives me too much time to think. Which doesnt seem like a bad thing, but as my departure from Rome looms over me, it kind of is. You start to think about the relationships you've made, and the ones you could've made, and the ones you wish you hadnt and its all so trivial because it's all stamped with an expiration date the second you get here. Making friends is easy. Keeping friends is hard. I just hope that the ones that matter most will be an ever present aspect of my life, because I do love them, and I am no good at goodbyes.
I am excited to take everything I've learned about myself here, and bring it home. I probably look the same, I talk the same (I might swear more, I'll blame julie bear for that) but I dont feel the same. It's hard to explain. But it's a pretty cool thing to experience.

In less introverted news... I ws told that the next time I blog I must give credit to Giuliano for all the wonderful things he's introduced into my life here. Starting the list with kinder eggs, little cake treats (idk what theyre called..), rice balls, some weird hotdogs thing (get your mind out of the gutter), and of course #10, Totti. Thanks Julie Bear! I'd be 10 pounds lighter without you! hahaha jk jk, kinda..

I promise, reader, that I'll finish this trip out strong and blog better. I have too. Not because it hipster fabulous to blog, but because I need to preserve every memory in every way humanly possible. And if I can entertain some people along the way, well that's just a plus.