Piove

So I got Chinese take-out on Sunday night, just like I would at Emory, but it was the most horrible Chinese food I have ever eaten in my life. The portion sizes were TINY. I bought three dishes and two cartons of rice, but it only came to 2 meals. It was expensive too, which surprised me because everyone has been telling me how cheap Chinese food is. The restaurant owners were very nice, though. We talked about the earthquake, which occurred near my father's home.

In the meantime, I think I will stick to delicious Italian food.

Francesco has been coming over a lot. He has something of an Irish accent when he speaks English, which is TOTALLY random because he has never been there. Eleonora is studying for her upcoming exams. It seems like Italian students get a lot more reading than American students. She says she has to read about 700 pages for each course. I know I do a lot of reading for my classes too but think 700 pages probably covers my entire semester.

So, it seems like the easiest way to put out a lit cigarette is to mash it with your heel, but mashed cigarettes on the ground don't usually get picked up and binned. It's a shame that the streets are filled with cigarette butts.

Today I gave a presentation on my project for my honors thesis. I don't think several people understood, unfortunately, but there were some interesting questions. Two people in the lab are working on a clinical study with disulfiram and alcoholics and other drugs if the subjects are taking them.

Yesterday, we got 8 cabinets from IKEA and we began putting them together for the new rats to come. It's good to actually have something to do while we wait for those rats. It's amazing how many of these boxes I've put together and I still get confused. Michele Celetano and I were putting them together yesterday, and we kept joking that we had to chant the mantra, "Remember, every one is like a new one." Michele has an exam tomorrow, so he was not in today. I finished putting the doors on some cabinets this morning and then put together three whole cabinets by myself! I got better at using the electric drill but I think it will need a new set of drill bits now.

It's raining today and it makes me wish I could have carried 100 kg of stuff with me instead of 50 :( Thankfully I only have about 750 meters to walk back to my apartment, but I can't find my umbrella. On Friday night, if weather permits, there will be a party at my PI's house in northern Rome. I wonder if this is customary, and if it is anything like a BBQ party, haha. Oh yeah, and Michele got me a phone!!!!

For those of you who like pictures, here is a picture of a cat that lives in the temple ruins of Torre Argentina cat santuary. They are fed by the gattare, or "old cat-ladies." If you are asking if it tried to get food from us, the answer is yes.