oh mamma mamma mamma, oh mamma mamma mamma, lo sai perche', innamorato so', ho visto ale del piero, ho visto ale del piero, ehi, mamma, innamorato so'

the past couple of days have been a whirlwind of emotions...i still have in my head the screams, noises, horns, flags, people, squares, fountains, jerseys...it was definitely memorable and unbelievable, but we made history: italy won its fourth football (soccer) world cup, we are the world champions!!!
i am in rome of all places, so i watched both the semifinal and the final at this huge place with hundreds of thousands of people, and it was amazing! the 2 goals in 3 minutes with germany after 118 minutes of suffering were like a huge thunder in a clear sky, and i really enjoyed that night because it was just as amazing as it was unexpected...
the final was much more full of tension because of france and our history with them, and the penalties are always a low blow to your heart anyway...when we won i could not believe it, it had never happened ever since i can remember (ok, the last time was in 1982) so i didn't really know how to react...the crowds got crazy in the streets all night long, i fulfiled my childhood dream: to throw myself in a fountain for a big football (soccer) celebration!!!
then last night was the last and possibly big emotion, since it came as a total surprise: an open deck bus with all the players and the world cup toured the streets of rome and ended the parade at circo massimo, the huge open-air space where i watched the last two games...i read that there was about 1 million people there last night, a lot more along the streets of rome to sing with and shout at the players...
i was waiting for the bus with the players to pass by although i didn't know how close it would be or anything...well, when it did come by it was an incredible feeling: i could see the players and coach and the world cup from 5-10-15 meters, depending on the craziness of the crowd and the speed of the bus...so i started following the bus the whole way to the circo massimo, and i got to see them over and over and over again, it was really unbelievable, something that is hard to describe with words...
i was there, they were there too...this whole thing is just such a big coincidence that it is incredible to even begin to realize what's been going on...
i even bought myself 2 new original jerseys that i've been wearing this whole time! hehe

the eternal city.

yes that's correct, i am in rome...i got here tonight on the fancy eurostar train, after barely one day at home...rome is really beautiful at night, i had forgotten about it...i am on a campus in montemario, a nice green area with big houses...i have my own room with fridge and it's nice and cosy i think, i am happy i can go to the supermarket and keep food in my room and eat good stuff...that's a nice life!

oh, i forgot...

CS's website crashed and it seems like everything was lost...it's incredibly sad...what's worse is that it looks like the creator/founder/whatever doesn't want to keep doing it after this problem,...hopefully some positive developments soon!

back home...

it's strange to wake up at home after 5 weeks around, although i will be sleeping in rome tonight, and changing this frequently keeps me alive...maybe i should have planned to be here a couple of days, i don't know...because now i have so much to do and so little time...
anyway, my way back home was nice. from vilnius, lithuania i took a bus to gdansk, poland. i stayed in sopot, a nice polish beach resort, for one night, got to visit there and then have a full day in gdansk, which is beautiful i think...full of tall, skinny houses that remind me very much of a port on the baltic sea, not too dissimilar from hamburg, germany for example...but gdansk is much prettier! ah, my host G took me to a microsoft convention she was attending in the center...haha since the convention was in polish i just went for the free breakfast and showed up a few hours later for the free lunch...so it was nice! getting back to bratislava from gdansk was a little complicated and i had to pay way too much for a train ticket, because it was an international one...so i went to warsaw at night, waited there for an hour, got on a train to wien, although i only went as far as breclaw, in czech republic on the border with slovakia...and from there i took my final train to bratislava, which welcomed my last day of travel with quite some rain...i still managed to watch the quarterfinals there and it was fun...it always seems to be full of drunk brits, but i am a tourist too after all so whatever...i also met an australian guy who was going there for the weekend to write about the stupidity of the movie "hostel"...i haven't seen it, only bits and pieces at somebody's house in poland, but i have to say it seemed pretty nonsense, totally unrealistic and simplistic...but i could see some people buy into it...
ok, tonight it's rome where i will be for about 2 weeks teaching to some SMU students, and then we're going to tuscany for about 5 days, and we're ending it up in bologna for the last 10 days...should be fun, i won't be posting as much because i am not technically really traveling...but yeah.
my wonderful host T in bratislava suggested i look into submitting my travel pictures to some magazine or online something about travel photography, so as soon as i get to look at the pictures i will be giving it a shot...if anybody is reading this and has an idea, feel free to bring up suggestions...