11:30pm - St. John's University
So we just got back from our first outing not as a full group. What an interesting adventure.
Carolyn and I were dying for some real Italian pasta, and when we mentioned it around, almost everyone else agreed. In the end, 16 of us convinced Jackie to come out to dinner with us so she can show us a good place to get a great meal! She needed to head down to the Spanish Steps anyway, so she would show us one of her favorite restaurants in that neck of the woods.
To get to the Spanish Steps is really easy for us, it's only two stops away from our metro station. Nice and easy, right? Except we went during rush hour. Which meant the subway cars were PACKED, and there were also tons of people waiting to get onto the subway. Add a group of 17 people who are trying to stay together, and you have yourself a crazy mess.
The train comes, and all the experienced Romans jumped ahead of us and pushed there way onto the train. We split up and tried to get into two different doorways. I was last of the group, and there was literally no room for me to get on. The group of RomeKids I was with tried to grab me in, but it was too late; the doors closed, and I was on the station by myself, screaming NO NO NO!
Luckily, the conductor saw the poor helpless American jumping up and down by herself, and opened the doors again. I'm pretty sure the train was still moving, but I literally jumped into the crowd of people, and the RomeKids caught me. We spent the two stops huddled together holding on to random people. Carolyn had her arm around me, and I was holding onto Guerry... it was a mess. But a really fun experience.
We finally get off and the Spanish Steps, and are essentially pushed along the way by the crowd. Since we're going back to the steps later on as a group, most of us didn't particularly want to climb up that night, so Jackie said she'd show us the elevator. Except we lost Jackie, so we were forced to go up anyway. Seriously, I think I've walked up more stairs so far these past few days than I have at Skidmore in three years.
We were at the top of the stairs for what seemed like forever, so Allen decided to give us a riddle. It's called Bobby's World, and your goal is to figure out the rules. In Bobby's world, there are walls, but no windows. There are heels, but no shoes. Figure it out :) Allen and the others who knew the trick tormented that with us for a half hour until we finally figured it out.
After a getting a bit lost several times on the way to the restaurant, we finally made it (much to our relief, it was a killer walking day). We get into the restaurant, the (male) server takes one looks at the group, and says, "You 15 ladies come with me! You two boys, get out!" Of course he was joking, but his flirting with Jackie was pretty funny.
Dinner was great! Katie W and I were both debating over the same two plates (pesto and a local red sauce), so we decided to each order one and split it. Excellent idea! Once we were stuffed and ready to go, we attempted to make our way back to St. John's. By this time, it was just around 9:45.
Except none of us remembered that all the subways close at 9. Whoopsies. Fine, let's find a bus. For some reason, that was just an impossible mission. We could not find a bus if our lives depended on it. So we ended up walking back. And getting lost, yet again. Jackie needs to learn her left from right.
By the time we got back, all of us were in so much pain we just wanted to collapse. Seriously, all of us say that we've never been this exhausted before. But, in retrospect, the pain was all worth it. It was a great night!
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