Rome, Work, and Half Marathon

It's been a busy week. We were in Rome last weekend (which I'll get to in detail later) and when we came back we immediately had a big presentation for class and then a final exam for our 3-week intensive class. Busy busy busy! On top of that, I started work at Barcelona Ecología. So. This is going to be a long post. Thought I'd let you know in advance.

Rome
We left Barcelona eaaaarly Friday morning (I left my apartment at 4am) and caught one of the night buses to the airport. It was the luckiest morning we could have asked for. I clearly don't know how to read maps (and/or my brain wasn't firing at total capacity at 4am) so I almost got on the bus going the wrong way, but I ultimately figured it out. When I met up with Katie and Grace, the two girls I was traveling with, on the bus, we realized that the terminal we were supposed to get off at wasn't printed on our ticket. AND Ryan Air flies out of pretty much every terminal at El Pratt Airport. Nice. We just kind of guessed and luckily got off at the right terminal. So. Lucky.
After a short flight, we arrived in Rome. Katie had booked her room at the hostel on a different reservation and they ended up having to move her to their sister hostel. The inner pushy Greek woman in my was NOT having Katie stay in a different hostel than Grace and me, so I made a little bit of a scene and got us all moved to the other hostel AND got our room upgraded. The Greeks are the greatest people in the history of the world (ignore the current economic crisis).
We got settled in to our room and ventured to a neighborhood near Plaza Trilussa where we were told we could get a good lunch for a reasonable price. We were told correctly. We chose one of the first restaurants we saw and it was INCREDIBLE. As we walked in, an older woman started talking to us in rapid Italian. It was clear we had no idea was she was saying, but she kept plowing through. After a few minutes of her telling us about the restaurant, the menu, cracking various jokes, and probably explaining the current political atmosphere in Italy or telling us about her favorite vacation destination (she talked for a LONG time), we ordered. We decided to get a bottle of red wine (when in Rome...right?), but when we ordered a liter of the house wine (we had no idea how much a liter was), the old Italian woman, or Mama as we came to call her said, "Liter? No. Medio." and would only give us a half liter. Good to know we have mothers all over the world keeping an eye on us.
After lunch, we wandered around for a while, weaving through the streets of Rome and trying to find our way back toward our hostel. Our navigation tools could have been improved upon: a Rome guidebook in Spanish I borrowed from Nikki's homestay family and a VERY incomplete map. After a long walk (with a stop for gelato) and lots of picture taking, we finally made it back to the hostel. We took a quick nap, got dinner in the bar of our hostel where they served free pizza, and then went out exploring again. We made our way to a bar near some famous plaza (I know...I hate myself too for not remember the name) and chatted up some locals and tourists.
The next day, we got up early and set out to see the sights (with a plan and a better map!). We started at Villa Borghese, a museum housing Bernini and Caravaggio works. It was beautiful and a little overwhelming, but definitely one of the highlights of Rome. After spending a few hours in the museum, we tried to make our way over to the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. Here's a riddle for you: How many college girls does it take to read a map?

Answer: 3. And an old Italian woman.

Obviously we had a little trouble navigating our way over to the sights, but once we did it was incredible. Trevi Fountain is iconic and seeing it in person leaves you awestruck. It's beautiful, huge, and entrancing. If the weather had been nicer (it was rainy) I feel like we could have sat and looked at it for hours.
After Trevi, we made our way to the Pantheon. Again, like most things in Rome, it was old, beautiful, and almost a little overwhelming. We read about the history in our Spanish guidebook and then decided to meander home.
One of the coolest things about traveling at this age is that there are so many other people our age traveling around. In our room in the hostel were two other girls. The first is a young Brazilian girl named Lana. Because Brazil is in the southern hemisphere, she's currently on her summer vacation spending two months traveling around Europe alone. She's only 19, but seems much older. She speaks four languages (including PERFECT English), is incredibly sharp, and obviously, very adventurous. The other is Brie, a college grad from New Zealand who is currently working as a stewardess on a Russian billionaire's yacht. No joke. She's on a vacation from work right now, so she's meeting up with friends around Europe. Again, another incredibly bright, adventurous girl. After our day of sightseeing, we had dinner with Brie and Lana and then the five of us all went out together. It was a wonderful night and we made close friends with Brie and Lana (both of whom are spending time in Barcelona during their travels!).
Katie left Sunday morning, so Grace and I went sightseeing with Lana. Even though she's younger than us, she planned the whole day and acted as our tour guide (even though it was her first time in Rome as well). We went all over: famous plazas including Plaza Venezia, the Forum, the Coliseum, Campo Fiori, the Spanish Steps, and I'm sure more places. We returned to the hostel for a little rest then went back to the restaurant we visited on the first day to get more delicious food and visit Mama.
Rome was wonderful. It was great to get to know Grace and Katie better and getting to meet two new friends in the hostel was a treat. Lana visited Barcelona last week and Brie is spending a couple weeks here during February when the yacht is getting some work done. How great!

The Week
As I mentioned, we had a busy week with school. We had a presentation for class and then our final. However, that didn't keep us from having a little fun. Lana was in Barcelona starting Tuesday, so Wednesday and Thursday night we met up with her and introduced her to two of our other friends on the program, Nikki from Wellesley and Shaun, a girl from Tufts. The first night we went to a famous bar in Barcelona called Bosc de les Fades, a fairy tale themed bar. As you walk in, magical (there's no other way to describe it) music is playing and there are trees and waterfalls everywhere. Lots of fun. The next night we had dinner in Plaza Real, a famous and beautiful plaza off of Las Rambla. Saying goodbye was hard. We'll probably never see her again, but she left such an impression on us. Smart, adventurous, and fun.
I started work on Wednesday which was...interesting. No one really speaks English and a lot of people in the office speak Catalan to each other so it was a little overwhelming. I spent my first day doing a small translation project and learning about the organization. I still don't exactly know what I'll be doing for them, but I believe in the agency's mission and what they do. From my understanding, here's what they're all about: BCN Ecología is a government agency that effectively acts as a think tank that focuses on sustainable development and the "greening" (in both senses) of the city. There are various initiatives and programs in Barcelona, ranging from public transportation to recycling programs, that this agency conceptualized and designed. Other cities throughout the world are starting to turn their sights to the BCN Ecología and asking for aid in implementing similar programs. That's where I come in. I'll be handling translation and correspondence in English to countries that don't use Spanish. Exciting stuff!

The Half Marathon
This morning was the Barcelona Half Marathon. I didn't register, so I was an unofficial runner. When I made my way to the start this morning, they were checking numbers and timing chips and since I didn't have one, I decided to hop in the race about 1K from the start. I jogged down to the 1K mark and waited for my pace group to come by. Fun fact about Libby: sporting events make me very emotional. The past two years in the Boston marathon, opening ceremonies of the World Cup, and sports movies...tears. TEARS. Today was no exception. As the lead pack went by, I felt that all too familiar wave of emotion hit me. It was a pack of Africans and then a few Spaniards trying to hang with. Unfortunately according to the results, they didn't last long. Once I got it back together, I saw my group and hopped in a little past the 1K mark. It felt fast, but I figured it's just because I'm a little out of shape. However I checked my watch as I went through the 6K (so my 5K). Shut the front door. 21:03?! I settled into a rhythm and started to feel pretty good. Then came the rain. At first it was just a little sprinkle that felt nice... then the downpour started. I was wearing a cotton t-shirt so I was SOAKED the rest of the race. I continued on through the 7, 8, 9, 10K feeling fine, but a little cold. I stuck w/ two guys in their 30's for most of it, and they started chatting with me (obviously not working hard enough, guys). They were pretty excited to be running the race. They had been running for most of their life and had never run a road race without the other. Cute right? The half today was their 75th race together. I managed to keep the tears down this time, mostly because it would have made breathing tough. However as we went through the 12ishK the lead pack was on their way to the finish and running the opposite direction as us. Everyone, runners included, cheered and clapped for the 4 Kenyans FLYING through their last few kilometers. Incredible.
The final part of the race was uneventful. I felt pretty awful the last 5K or so (3 miles...which feels really long when you don't feel great), but I managed to pull out a small kick for the last 200 or so. My finishing time was right around 1:40ish (give or take a bit) but remember I started 1K in. Still...that's a huge half PR for me. Pretty pleased. That said, the course was virtually totally flat and when the course turned, bottle necks occurred (especially during the beginning) so I cut a lot of tangents. Next on my running agenda: finding the running store in Barcelona that I've been searching for during the past few weeks and seeing if I can join a club or find some other races.

Well. I guess that's all for now. Siesta for me.

New obsessions: hostels, banditing road races (not new...but still obsessed), discovering cool spots around Barcelona, and my homestay mom's cooking.

Hasta!