Happy Birthday, Big Mama!

yesterday me and momo had the luckiest night of our lives. like, seriously. it was the last night of the 3 day celebration of Rome's first house of blues---Big Mama. talk about being misinformed! we were under the impression that it was a JAZZ club (as according to the lame e-mail sent by the school) so we were really shocked when the first performer strumming on the guitar started playing familiar blues tunes. but first!:

let it be known that the most difficult bus to catch in Rome in the 23. it's just HARD because it come once in a blue moon when u really need it to come. so me and momo left extra early preparing to wait at least 30 minutes to catch the stupid bus that would take us to the hallowed area of Trastevere (a charming place with restaurants and bars often overrun by obnoxious tourists). so, luck number 1? after not even 3 minutes me and momo almost died of shock when the bus came barreling our way! 

but we got lost. lol---we got off at the right stop, yeah, but Trastevere is full of winding side streets. good thing it's just as beautiful at night as it is during the day or else we woulda died of fright. empty streets didn't sway us tho---we asked for directions and everyone was pretty sweet about it. and since i now understand directions in italian it was so cool for someone to say "a fondo a Via San Marco, girare a destra!" and I would know to turn right at the end of the street. anywho---eventually we found our way to Big Mama. lucky number 2? the night was extremely warm! i had nothing on but thin jeans, tank top, and leather jacket and i was beyond comfortable! even after getting lost almost 40 minutes out of our way we were STILL early (that's how awesome it was to catch the 23 immediately!) the guy in the ticket booth was really nice (and really hot--hehehehhe) and we bought memberships to the club for 13 euro. not bad considering that we could now go to future shows for free. even tho we didn't book a table and had to stand the whole time, the show was AMAZING! i always liked blues music and old school rock and roll but hearing it all live just made it that much more wonderful. even though majority of the performers sang in english---there was one blues artist (and AMAZING guitarist) who sung in italian. it was SO beautiful! 

majority of the crowd was older but there were some italians there that were in my age range. overall it was a wonderful night! me and momo didn't leave until the very end. lucky number 3? because we're some damn lucky we caught the ever evasive N10 bus all the way to ottaviano. so because we're fatasses rather than walk home we bee-lined over to the infamous Old Bridge gelateria and got ice cream! THEN we walked home. momo is honestly so wonderful to be around. we laughed and chatted the whole time there and back and danced during the show. it was just awesome to have a carefree, stress free night. on a monday! i have one month left here. i'm so sad! i don't want to go! once again another chapter of my life is coming to a close...

for dinner tonight i finally got my hands on most of the ingredients needed to make african red stew! i wanted to cry with nostalgia---hadn't had african food in MONTHS! so i made the red stew with rice, chicken, and fried plantain. yum yum!!!!! and YES i like my plantain burnt! it wasn't an accident! i made a huge nasty mess but the result was painfully delicious. ^_^