Into the Woods

My final airpot layover is a long one. I’m sitting in London Heathrow for 6 hours, awaiting my 4:00pm (GMT) flight that will land me in Boston around 7:00pm (EST). I’m looking forward to watching the first 2 episodes of Entourage when I arrive home.

Last night I watched the US-Italy match in my hotel room in Edinburgh (my trip to Rome was roundtrip through Frankfurt, starting and ending in Edinburgh so I could keep it seperate from my work flight from Boston to Edinburgh). The Hilton had a nice projection screen (though not HD) setup in the cocktail lounge that showed the Ghana-Czech game. However, before I returned for the US-Italy game, some old dudes from the US had the hotel guys put the U.S. Open of golf on. I asked the hotel guys why they put golf on instead of the football match. They said the american guys had requested it. I asked them to please not judge all Americans based on that preference. They laughed and told me they hoped the US would win. Unfortunately, I think most Americans would prefer to watch the US Open of golf, *sigh*. Being in Europe you certainly realize how popular soccer is here. In the Frankfurt aiport, a bunch of people were crowded around an LCD TV in *every* gate area watching the Portugal-Iran game before boarding. Everyone cares about every game, whether it is the national team or not. Imagine having 64 Super Bowl games in a one-month period!

It turned out for the better that I watched the game in the privacy of my room as I spent 2 hours screaming, yelling, sweating, cursing and pacing back and forth across my room. This game equaled the intensity of the 1994 Stanley Cup Semi Finals game 7 (NYR vs NJ), 2002 Winter Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game (US vs. Can) and the 2004 ALCS (Yankees - Red Sox). However, I still haven’t decided whether or not I’m happy with the outcome. We’ll see on Thursday…

Though exhausted from 6 straight days of conferences, I had a wonderful time in Rome with my amazing tour guide Lauren. It was fantastic to see the ruins and antiquities that I had studied so extensively in college as well as seen in movies. Over three days, we saw many of the main attractions, the Colosseum, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Piazza Navano, the Vitorio Emmanuele Monument and others. I won’t go into what those various things are as Wikipedia can do much better. However, I’ll share a few of the pictures we took.

The Colosseum is of course very photogenic. I took this first picture from the top of the Vitoria Emmanuele monument, the rest on the next day from within.

This picture was taken from atop the Vitoria Emmanuele of the Piazza Venezia. Most people view the moment as a monstrocity but I think provides a pretty cool vantage point.

Here is the Arch of Constantine.

And here is a temple of some sort.

I was very sad to leave Lauren for 2 months. However, she is staying at a wonderful place - The Centro - a dorm-like facility with rooms, bathrooms, common areas, and a nice outside deck and garden. The Centro is used by various American Universities for their study-abroad programs, as well as the American Academy of Rome, where Lauren is studying. The best part is the food. Home cooked Italian dinner, 5 days a week. I really enjoyed this part of the trip!

Now its time to ride-out the last bit of my trip. I’m excited to start my Boston summer.