When In Rome (there, I said it)

Welcome back to my previously retired blog, friends. I compare the comeback to Nigel Tufnel rejoining Spinal Tap once "Sex Farm" became a big hit in Japan. I am prepping this initial blog entry sans internet in bed at my apartment late Tuesday night. I had planned to try and get it up and running tonight from the UW Rome Center, but went out to dinner with some “cohorts” and if I go out to dinner here that pretty much finishes off the day for me. Sleep is good, sleep is important. Staying up til 4 a.m. to watch tv is a thing of the past, and also a thing of the future, but definitely not a thing of the present. Plus, the only tv station in English here is MTV, and I think I could function without Road Rules. Tomorrow we are headed to the beach at 8 a.m. and won’t be back til late so what I’m writing here won’t appear until at least Thursday. But I felt like getting some preface out of the way now. And now I have. Goodnight......

Part 2: It's Thursday afternoon now. The warm waves of the Mediterranean are behind me. It was a fun day and I managed to write a poem I'm marginally satisfied with. Seeing as this blog is being updated about 10 days into the trip, I will have to randomly backtrack and fill in certain info. One such thing is the content of the program. We're here for "creative writing", which has many lovely forms, but it turns out it is all poetry all the time here. I have no real training or interest in poetry and I cannot take myself very seriously when I'm writing it, so I've mostly given up on writing anything meaningful on the trip and will just do what they want to pass and get the credits. People are always spouting off memorized poems or reading each other their latest sonnet and I just glaze over.

I think I should wrap this up for the moment. I have my "book talk" to give today at 5:30 and still need to do some research. It's not all fun and games here, you know...

By the way I axed (not asked) all my old postings. They were holding me back.

Also, if anyone knows of a good site to post pictures on, let me know, and then everyone can see me doing touristy poses in front of various monuments. And I have a good shot of the pope's arm.