Taking the Plunge

Thursday night was one for the record books. The temperature in Rome was in the mid 90's, probably our warmest day yet. After our afternoon of independent study presentations on Caravaggio and the Ecstasy of St. Teresa, Mona and Norm hosted a party in their apartment. We feasted on appetizers galore. My favorite was the cheese and salami. Lisa even brought Prosecco for us to toast with. Yum!

Mayme and I finally got to challenge Ben and Peter at wine pong, an event long in the making. Several of us rendezvoused at Ben, Peter, Alex and Yogesh's apartment, and after making some grilled cheese sandwiches, got down to business. Wine pong, we reasoned, was a much more appropriate game to play in Rome than traditional beer pong. I of course had never played any sort of drinking game, but I was pretty confident that I could excel. Unfortunately, Peter was on fire and sank nearly all our cups in no time at all. Mayme did get in one good shot for good measure, but we were ultimately defeated. :( Later in the night I partnered with Peter and we beat Ben and Yogesh, no problem at all. I really upped my game this time and made most of the shots for our side! I should include a caveat here and say that the total wine consumed by me in these two contests definitely did not exceed 2 or 3 normal glasses, which had no effect on me whatsoever. Though others were drinking some, no one was really drunk. That's how we honors kids do it, most of the time anyway. We all had a great time with the wine pong, as well as listening to music and dancing. But, as midnight came closer, and the temperature had still not dropped much below 90, we were itching to jump in a fountain. It was kind of a long walk through Trastevere, but we arrived at our destination brimming with excitement. However, we were somewhat taken aback by the large number of people milling around, so we sat down on the edge of the fountain in a corner to reconsider our options. The restaurant immediately to the left of the fountain was full, and many people were sitting near the fountain or standing at a nearby overlook point. Furthermore, our friend the Spanish embassy guard kept walking around talking to various people about parking or something. We debated for a while sitting there, but in the end we decided we just had to do it. The water is only about 2 feet deep near the edge, so on the count of 3 we just turned around and splashed on in. I had some trouble because my flip flops fell off and floated, so I had to collect them before I could get out. We were in and out in a flash, and running off down the hill around the corner, where we gathered for some laughs and a big group hug. There's no better feeling than taking a risk with good friends! This night was one when we truly lived.