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So guess what everyone…I have made my first (maybe) debut in a Bollywood film! I was not, unfortunately, an official “extra”, but I tried really hard to get in the background of the shot and think I probably succeeded for at least a few seconds .

So guess what everyone…I have made my first (maybe) debut in a Bollywood film! I was not, unfortunately, an official “extra”, but I tried really hard to get in the background of the shot and think I probably succeeded for at least a few seconds .

Here’s how it happened. Amy left Rome on Saturday, so we decided to get together for lunch last Wednesday to bid our final farewells. Amy got to Rome several hours before I finished classes, so we decided to meet at 1 on the Spanish Steps. While I was in class, Amy texted me to say that what looked like a bollywood film was being shot on the Spanish steps! Moreover, they were interviewing people to try to get them to be extras in the shot, but the people had to prove they were Italian (by speaking italian and showing some sort of identification). Regardless of the fact that I’m not actually Italian, I was pretty psyched, and a friend and I rushed over right after class. The second I saw the Indian actor, the Indian cast and crew, the wardrobe and the dance moves, I knew it had to be a bollywood movie (or at least a music video). Hannah, Amy and I squeezed our way into the background of the shot, and marveled at the extent of the scene. They even had an Indian gladiator!

After grabbing some gelato, sitting on the steps (which are beautiful now by the way, covered in flowers) and watching for a while, we decided to finally head over and get lunch. In honor of our exciting bollywood morning, we decided to go to this nice Indian/Pakistani restaurant (Himalaya’s Kashmir, I highly recommend it to anyone reading from Rome and getting a little tired of Italian food), pretty much the only ethnic food in Rome. They were closed when we got there (we got a little lost for a bit), but after seeing as mope around at the door let us in and said they could cook us something really quickly. They made us some amazing food right away, and the host sat down and talked to us for a little bit. He mentioned they were shooting a bollywood movie in Piazza di Spagna, and excited to find out a little more about it, we inquired further.

It turned out that this restaurant was the one who was catering to the cast and film crew, and they were all coming to the restaurant for dinner that night. They actually had to close the restaurant to feed the film party because the actor(s) (Raj Kapoor’s son-in-law?) were concerned about security. They said, however, if we wanted to stay for dinner they’d be happy to have us there, and we could meet everyone in the cast (and maybe see if we could finagle some jobs as extras)!

More to follow…

I guess the best way I can characterize my next few weeks is intermittent periods of fun followed by really intense periods of work. After Spring Break, the semester turned to crunch time, and with one month left until my return to the States, I’m hurriedly trying to get all my work done, make all the necessary arrangements for departure, and get my life in order for next year. Things on the top of my list: Class registration, thesis preparation, and getting a summer job. All of which are much more difficult thousands of miles away!

Last weekend I went to Prague, which was really amazing. Prague’s a beautiful city, though it often seemed like it was fake- a toy town or a movie set- just because it was so pristine! I half expected music to start playing and people to start waltzing through the town square at the drop of a hat. The food was great, a nice break from Italian food, and the night-life was pretty amazing too. The city was alive. Needless to say, I’m pretty fluent in Czech now. (Just kidding! Though I did pick up a few words…) I’m happy to be back in Rome, I don’t think I could have eaten like that for much longer- tons of meat, beer, and fried foods, including fried cheese and fried cabbage/sausage/potato pancakes, and ice cream. Delicious, but heavy!

Right now I’m working on about 1,000 projects, papers and things to do, and I have class in about ten minutes, so I’d better go! Ciao!

Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately- it’s exam week (or rather, exam two weeks) and my life has been varying between two extremes; cram studying and schoolwork on the weekdays, and traveling/partying on the weekends. Last weekend I went to Assisi and Gubbio, two very lovely towns in the Umbrian region- I’ll post pictures later! It was so much fun. I saw the “most beautiful church in Italy” in Assisi, and hiked to the top of a mountain to see the 1,000 year old corpse of a Saint in Gubbio.

One thing happened in Assisi, and I guess to adequately explain how strange it was you’d really have to be there, but I’ll do my best to describe it. In front of the Basilica of Santa Chiara there’s a large, beautiful piazza. As Amy and I walked into the church, we looked around, and the piazza was swarming with teenagers. Literally- teenagers EVERYWHERE, on the steps, playing hacky sack, chilling around the fountain- and not a person older or younger than the ages of 14-18 in sight. It was so funny that Amy and I commented that this piazza must be the local hang out site for youngins, and we walked into the church without a second thought. After spending about maybe half an hour in the church looking around and exploring the crypts, we walk outside to the piazza again. It was still swarming with people- but this time it looked like they were all in their upper 50′s’/low 60′s! There was not a teenager in sight, or anybody of a different age for that matter, and they were hanging out in the exact same places tat the teenagers were only minutes prior. It seriously felt like 50 years had passed while we were in the church- like some strange time warp. We were seriously considering asking someone what year it was.

Gubbio was really amazing- it was this quaint little medieval town, everything made from stone<br />with vaulted doorways and cobbled roads. It was kind of a gray, overcast day, which made it feel like we were actually walking through the town in the midst of the dark ages, hundreds of years in the past (guess it really was a time warp weekend!). We had an amazing lunch there, a fabulous time exploring, and of course our infamous trek up the mountain to the church of Saint Ubaldo.

Right now I’m in the Castelli Romani, exploring the beautiful hill towns and sampling the local delicacies. Italy is like a treasure chest, you never know what you’re going to find but it’s always something wonderful. Every town, every region has its own character, its own way of life, and having the time and ability to explore each is simply amazing to me.