sethbc’s (infrequent) blog…

Well, I had an absolutely lovely day in Roma today. I got to see Caravaggio’s “Calling of St. Matthew” (which was gorgeous), had some wonderful coffee, and a couple of good meals with Paiger. We walked up to Spanish Steps, up to Piazza del Popolo, and back down to the Pantheon and had lunch. There was an amazing gellato place up there — I swear they had about 900 flavors! For dinner, Paiger and I went out to Taverna Trillusa. I’m very impressed with that place. The food is just incredible!

I must say, I’m so sad to be leaving. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in Europe over the last couple of years, and I really love it. Hopefully at some point I’ll be able to come back over here for work!

Well, Peace out Roma. I’ve got to get some sleep because daylight savings time kicks over tonight, and I lose an hour of sleep on top of the fact I have to wake up at 7:30!

God I can’t believe it’s almost my last day!!! I’m so depressed. I really love it over here. Seriously, the more I see of Europe, the more I wish I lived over here.

On a complete non-sequitur, I found out from S&S that I’m going to be working in New York. That’s not a depressing thing for me, I’ve got no attachment to NY or DC, but I really liked the CM people I worked for this summer. Hopefully things are going to be cool in NYC. I’m flying out there to see some practice groups in the NYC office, and hopefully from there I’ll be able to decide where to preference things. I loved IP there, but I really loved CM in DC. We’ll see where things end up!

God, I’m so sad to be leaving! I love this city! Seriously, I didn’t know how much fun I would have here (even though the weather was absolute crap).

Alright so it was a little bit weird that they were laying sod on the Rue Soufflot, but I’m game. Apparently for the last three years they’ve been doing a fundraiser for cancer, and it has involved a number of little displays between the Pantheon and the Jardin du Luxembourg. Deborah claims they won’t get as much as they spent for the fundraiser, I think she underestimates the power of tourism!

Deborah had to leave early to go to a committee meeting regarding funding for the Jessup team, so I met her at Le Comptoir du Pantheon after her meeting. The robocops were out in force again, so it took me a while to get there.

Afterwards, we went out to a little cafe on the square we spent Bastille day in! Deborah had to show me a ridiculous sign there. I had a croque monsieur (what a breakfast), and Deborah had some crepes. Afterwards, we walked back to the RER B stop at Luxembourg and I headed back to CDG. All in all, I had a great three days.

Last night we went out to eat at Canal St. Martin (think Amelie). We had the best time! I had an assiette du fromage et jambon. I’m sorry to say that Deborah both hates cheese and keeps kosher, so she was unable to partake in this particularly French meal. Regardless, she had a fig dessert, and we both enjoyed our meal immensely.

Last night, we stayed up (again) until five in the morning. Quite unlike last night, we had to wake up at seven. Thankfuly, I’m going to meet Deborah at Le Comptoir du Pantheon after ten sometime.

Well I got to Paris last night, I forgot how much I missed it! Deborah’s apartment is really cool, the view is amazing, and it’s in the coolest little neighborhood I’ve ever seen!

First time I’m back in almost half a year, and I get to see a riot like ’68! No seriously, there were a million robocops out and about using tear-gas on protesters. Quite an amazing thing to see being from the US. Hey, what can I say, it’s not often you see people ripping cobblestones from the streets to throw at the cops.

I did a little work with the Paris Jessup team. Amazing, I’ve been coaching and judging this problem for a couple of months now, I feel like I could have been on the US Team! The Sorbonne team is actually quite good. Peter, Sonia and Deborah have their work cut out for them, but I’m pretty sure they’ll do great!

Amazingly enough, Peter is a Hungarian at school in Paris. “Jo napot.” No seriously, I felt like I was back in Hungary; it was cool to hear the language again!

Deborah and I hung out all night. We did dinner at a little Greek/French place in her neighborhood, and went out to a communist bar afterwards. I had a great time! In typical fashion, we stayed up till 5 in the morning. I’m embarrassed to say I fell asleep while we were talking, but hey I’d been up since 6 that morning.

I can’t wait to cruise around today, even though the weather looks pretty crappy! I love Paris!!!

I succeeded in getting a picture from the keyhole, but the quality is not what I would have liked. It was quite difficult as the keyhole is considerably higher off the ground than I expected, but oh well!

Today was supposed to be a day of churches, but I couldn’t face walking all over. I hyper-extended my knee on a run two days ago, and I just haven’t quite felt up to pounding the pavement as much as I was the beginning of the week.

I finally watched Brokeback Mountain tonight. It really was an amazing movie; it was artfully directed and there was some spectacular cinematography. Obviously, the plot was somewhat controversial (particularly where I’m from), but I’m of the opinion that in another 10 years, people won’t be looking at this movie that way (other than as a trail-blazer). It was a little weird

Dinner tonight was at Taverna Trilussa Trastevere. Needless to say, it was fantastic. I had an unbelievable meal!

Right now I’m going to go try and shoot St. Peter’s from the Courtyard of the Knights of Malta.

Today was a relatively relaxed day. Paige and I went out and did some light fountain photography! We tried to go photograph the turtle fountain, but it was under construction!

We did lunch at Obika.

Unfortunately, after lunch both Paige and I had some work to do. She headed over to school, and I headed back home to get some social security work done.

We finished the night doing dinner at Dar Poeta. I ordered the crust doppio impasto tonight, and I had a Patataccia Pizza. Patataccia, for those not in the know (which included myself before an examination of the menu) is a pizza composed of mozzarella, sausage, ricotta, and potatoes. I was (pleasantly) surprised to find that this combination was quite wonderful.

I’m pretty sure I walked 16 miles today. Using the key on the map, I walked at least that much, but I don’t really know how far I walked in the Forum.

The rest of the day was spent shopping! I got a bunch of suits and stuff, all in all a productive day!

I had dinner at Pizzeria Vittorio, a cute little place in Trastevere.

Today was spent going through Borghese Gardens and walking around Piazza d’Spagna. I also got the most ridiculous sunglasses you’ve ever seen on a human being. Prada makes some real winners! Okay so they might look a little ridiculous, but honestly, thats how I roll. Shopping on Via Condotti is addictive, but lets be honest, I can’t exactly spend € 300 on a T-Shirt from D&G.

Lunch was at (no lie) a Sushi Place. What can I say, I like sushi and I haven’t had good sushi since I was in DC.

I had dinner at Dar Poeta. Now I know I said that the pizza at Ivo was good, but this stuff was out of this world! Apparently they let the crust rise for 24 hours (instead of one), and I’m sure that has something to do with it.