Live from a bathroom in Rome...it's Becca's Blog!

Seriously...the bathroom is the only place where I can find an available outlet to plug in my laptop...this hostel must have been built before the invention of electronics or something. 

Anyway, I just arrived in Rome tonight and the first person I talked to at the hostel got robbed today...not at the hostel, at a plaza, but they got her whole purse.  Great.  WELCOME TO ROME BECCA.  So I guess there are pickpockets EVERYWHERE in this city.  

Supposedly they aren't violent like the little B's in Brazil but the Roman thieves are fast.  So you may or may not get to see any pictures of my Rome experience.  I might just go cameraless.  

I just want to know...who raises these thieves?...I guess other thieves.  I would be so ashamed if I raised a thief.  And the sad/bad thing is that this potential thievery has me giving dirty crusty looks to pretty much everyone I see in Italy...especially the guys.  Which is really sad to me because thus far on this trip I have been assuming that all the people I meet are good people who aren't out to hurt me (unless I get a feeling directing me otherwise)...but in Italy I have kind of been assuming the opposite...that everyone is bad.  By the way, I'm like 99% sure I saw some mafia guys in the subway tonight...they just looked like mafia.  But then tonight on the bus, a nice man, to whom I had previously been giving dirty crusties, gave me great directions to my hostel and he didn't rob me or anything while he was giving me directions and he was really nice.  So, you never know.  

So I don't know what to think about Italy just yet...I haven't made my final judgement.  One minute I love it and want to stay here forever (like when I'm eating gelato or gnocchis or seeing something really cool) and the next minute I hate it (like when I smell a bad smell or get stuck in a big crowd or feel sweaty) and I want to leave ASAP and never come back.  My opinion of Italy is actually quite bipolar.  

Italy is a pretty dirty, disgusting, crowded, stinky, did I say dirty?, place.  It really is.  And it's not like I haven't been to dirty, disgusting, crowded, stinky places before, because I have been to plenty of them, but I just would expect better out of Italy.  I kind of feel like I'm in a developing country in Africa or South America, but I'm not.  I mean the trains are crappy, the buses are crappy, the bathrooms are crappy, etc.  I guess I just would expect a place that is SO touristy to be a little more tourist friendly.  And it is just weird...Italy used to be so CIVILIZED...way ahead of the rest of the world.  Some of the first public health projects for sanitation and clean water occurred in Italy...and so much of the most amazing art in the world came out of Italy...and really early on...when people in Northern Europe were still acting like Barbarians, Italians like Michaelangelo were carving statues like David.  

Oh, and by the way, yesterday I went to see David by Michelangelo in Florence and it was SOOOOOO cool.  Seeing pictures of it does not do it justice at all, but rarely are things as good in pictures as they are in real life.  It was so moving to see it in person and to know that it was carved (or chiseled or whatever you say) over 500 years ago by 26 year-old Michelangelo.  Pretty impressive I'd say.  

The statue is 17 feet tall...I had no idea it was that big until I saw a plaster replica of it in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  I decided that I wanted to see the real deal after seeing the copy.  I am not sure why it is such a moving piece of art...there is just such life and movement in it which seems like an amazing accomplishment to get so much life out of a piece of marble.  

I tagged on to a couple different English speaking tours (one of the benefits of traveling alone...nobody notices one extra person leeching onto a tour) and learned a lot of interesting little facts about the statue...one being that is thought that the statue represents the moment between conscious choice and conscious action.  It is David right before he kills Goliath.  And he looks so confident and powerful and yet so humble at the same time.  I just amazed me how Michelangelo has captured that...in stone...500 years ago.  


Anyway, here's David...

Don't worry if you have kids at home...I edited him for the blog...I've got to stay at a PG-13 rating you know.  I think Michelangelo would understand.  

And, sadly, here's what David looks like today...

39 years after the first McDonald's opened in Europe.  Sad but true.


Anyway, I'll let you know how Italy comes out in my plus or minus rating system in a few days.  I haven't yet had a country come out negative...a few just barely made it to the plus side, but a plus is a plus I guess.  


My friend Corrine and I invented this little game back in 2005 when we were in Amsterdam and came across a really jerky guy at the train station ticket office.  I remember that after leaving the ticket office one of us said, "well, minus 200 points for Holland!"  And thus was born the plus or minus country rating game. It is just kind of a way to feel in control while traveling, even though you aren't...and to just deal with things and move on.  


It's mostly a subconscious rating system.  When traveling with friends we may verbalize once in awhile a plus or minus score when we're feeling particularity strong in one way or the other about something or someone but for the most part it is subconscious.   And when I'm traveling alone I just kind of think the scores to myself.  And nobody is keeping score exactly, but you just know in the end how you feel overall.  


I won't tell you my whole scoring system, as a lot of it is made up along the way, but I'll give you some examples.  


Smell of urine outside -10
Smell of urine inside -20
Smell of urine while I'm eating -50
Smell of urine while I'm eating gelato or gnocchis -100
Dog poo on sidewalk -30
Dog poo inside a building -60
Lady with a mustache +20
Seeing a McDonald's -10 and then +10
Seeing a Disney store outside of Disneyland-20
Seeing something cool +100
Seeing something really cool +200
Being inspired by something I see +400
Meeting someone helpful and or nice +100
Meeting someone really helpful or really nice +200
Encounter with someone rude or creepy -100
Encounter with someone really rude or really creepy -200
Getting something for free +100
Nice hostel or hotel +100
Not so nice hostel or hotel -100
PDA -30
Really disgusting PDA -100
Pigeon pooping on me -100
Pigeons in groups of 10 or more -50
Encounter with a gypsy -70
Actually finding the LDS church building on Sunday in time for church +200
Great food +50
Great gelato +100
Great gnocchis +300
Cigarette smoke in my face -50
Cigarette smoke in my face at just the right time to cover up a bad smell +50
Loogie on sidewalk -20
Loogie inside a building -50
Seeing a loogie hawked -100
Seeing a loogie hawked on an escalator -200
Stepping in gum -100
Sitting in gum -400
Confusing public transport -50 
Well-planned and easy to understand public transport +50
Seeing a good looking guy +20
Seeing a really good looking guy +40
Eye contact and a smile with a good or really good looking guy +100


Anyway, I'm sure there are many more things that I subconsciously use to judge a country on.  


I also sort of do the same with people...plus or minus, plus or minus on and on as my opinions are formed.  And you may say, "Becca, that's so bad to add up everything a person is and does and then just say plus or minus about them," but actually I think it is the nicest way to form opinions about people...a little at a time.  Because I don't want to just have one bad encounter with someone and then not like them anymore...because maybe they were just having a bad day.  So I give people TONS of chances and I hope people do the same for me.  Because we all say and do stupid stuff.  I think the plus or minus game is actually quite fair and forgiving...I mean I have yet to give a country a minus, and I RARELY give people minuses either.  


I won't bore you with the whole list of how I decide whether people are plus or minus in my book, but will just leave you with these few...


Leaves a comment on my blog at least every 5th post +100
Leaves a comment on my blog at least every 10th post +50
Leaves a comment on my blog once every few months +10
Never comments on my blog but tells me that they read my blog when they run into me at the mall -50
Never comments on my blog and then tells me all the grammar and factual errors I've made -100


Well, wish me luck.  Tomorrow it's Becca vs. Rome!