A/N- Hey! Honestly, I did not know this was going to be the next story I
was going to update, but I figured, I am learning Italian, so I am in the
mood to update this story. Thank you so much for all the reviews! I
appreciate them all! Please review this chapter. This is not the last
chapter; this title just seemed like it fit.
Translation might be in order for some of y'all, so in [] I have translated the stuff that isn't English. Lizzie doesn't know the translations, though.
Disclaimer: I own Disney, the moon, Earth, and seven of the eight other planets. I am looking to sell them, so look for them on E-bay. Thanks! Proceeds go to charity.
Chapter 30: Lizzie Speaks What?
22 June 2002
Dear Diary,
Today being our last day, Lucy said we were going to Pompeii, the lost city before we head for the airport. I was personally excited about this because I saw a special on the Discovery Channel about this city, and it looked so fascinating. After we go there, we are climbing Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that made Pompeii get buried and unknown forever.
After breakfast, everyone brought down their luggage and put it in the compartment below the bus. After that, we all stood outside the bus while the chaperones did a head count for probably the bajillionth time this trip, and everyone was outside the bus, all thirty-three of us.
We then loaded the buses and Mrs. Gregory once again counted to make sure no one slipped or ran away from the bus and wow, once again all of us were there. Sorry, I have developed issues with Mrs. Gregory. She has something up her butt these days and was especially mad this morning because no one bothered to wake her up apparently. I commend the person that attempted to leave her, but unfortunately she found out, and thought is necessary to yell at Lucy. Lucy is not in charge of waking everyone up. In fact, Mrs. Gregory usually wakes up at like five and watches the early morning soap operas, so I seriously wonder what her malfunction is.
Anyway, I no longer have to deal with her anymore.
The bus ride was long, but nice and scenic. I sat with Anna, and everyone in our group sat near us, only this time, Kate joined us. She sat with Matt, the Gordo-look-alike. I wonder what happened with her and Jeremy. I made a mental note to ask her while we were in Pompeii. In the meantime, Anna and I ended up talking about her love life.
"So, what is the deal with you?" I asked.
"What do you mean? I am having fun on this trip, if that is what you mean," she responded.
"No, I mean yesterday, you said you were dating someone on this trip, but you never said who."
"Oh, well, I guess I am just secretive like that," Anna said and she smiled.
"Well who? Don't tell me it is Justin. Is it Justin?" I asked.
"Justin? No! He is way too young for me and I can't stand his mother. We are good friends, though."
"Well, then who is it?"
She sighed loudly. "I guess you would find out eventually. I am actually going out with Larry," she said without hesitation. Larry? That seemed like a name from the past. I didn't really talk to him on this trip nor ever think about him, but now that I thought about it, he was sitting in the back of the bus.
"When did this happen?"
"Sometime yesterday at the Coliseum. He reminds me a lot of my best friend back in Atlanta, except he is obviously different. Anyway, yesterday, we were at the Coliseum, and the setting somehow reminded me of Shakespeare, so I quoted Marc Antony in Julius Caesar, and he said the next line, and I don't know, afterwards, we started talking and hit it off. By the time we were in the Vatican, he asked me out, and I said sure," Anna explained. Wow, I guess Larry can be sort of a romantic. Larry isn't all the disgusting anymore, in my opinion, and I really think he is a nice person, so I am happy for the two.
Does anyone here in Rome in our group not have a boyfriend or girlfriend? I guess Ethan, Kate, Jeremy, and Justin are still a mystery, but this is really odd, like everyone got together in Europe in one of the countries.
Anna and I continued to talk, and eventually, Sarah joined in, and Sarah and Anna started to talk and I listened to both of them speak, but discovered I had no idea what they were talking about. I then turned my attention to Gordo, who had a seat all to himself and he was sitting with his feet up on the seat listening to his headphones and staring out the window. I decided to kick his foot, which caused him to react by jumping a little. He then turned his music off as well as his headphones and looked at me. "What?"
I smiled. "Nothing. I just haven't talked to you today, so I just wanted to say, 'buongiorno,' [good day] Gordo."
Gordo smiled back. "Buongiorno, signorina [good day, Miss] Lizzie. What's up?"
"Not much. Just bored, that's all."
"You want to sit next to me?" Gordo asked as he took his feet off the seat.
"Sure," I said as got up and I slid into the seat next to him. "Looking forward to today?"
"Oh, yeah, it should be benissimo!" Gordo exclaimed in a fake Italian accent. I laughed. I have to say Italian is probably the prettiest language, French not far behind, while Spanish is also pretty nifty.
"Yeah, benissimo," I agreed. We talked for a while, in English, about the rest of the summer and our plans and all this other stuff, and the next thing I know, the bus stopped, and Lucy directed us to stay seated while she tells us a little about this city.
"This city was a prosperous city with a lot of rich people over two thousand years ago. No one knew about Volcanoes back then, so the day it erupted, no one was prepared and no one was able to escape, so everyone died and the city was covered with the hardened magma for a long time, until about a hundred years ago, when someone was digging, they came across an artifact, and soon, the whole place was dug up. The people then discovered that this was a lost city and made it a public place for tourism, so in a minute I will introduce our tour guide, but first, let me say something. This place is very cool, but sometimes confusing, as it has a lot of ruins. With this being said, it is very easy to get lost, so if you get lost, find the worship house, and stay there. Head counts will be done every once in a while, so just stay at the worship house and we will find you soon. Okay? Good."
After this, she introduced us to our tour guide for Pompeii, Rosa. Rosa was short and a little on the heavy side. She also was very European in the fact that she had underarm hair . . .a lot of underarm hair. She was also wearing a sleeve-less shirt, as it was very hot. She seemed like a nice woman, but she had a very thick Italian accent, so I had a hard time paying attention to her.
Once out of the bus, we started heading for the site and I kind of hung out in the back and listened from there. Kate also happened to be in the back, so I seeked the opportunity to talk to Kate and ask her about Jeremy.
"So what is the deal with you and Jeremy?" Wow, am I original or what?
"What? Oh, Jeremy apparently has this girl at home waiting for him, so he is off limits," Kate explained.
Kate and I stayed in the back of the group half listening to Rosa and making comments every now and then for our own humor about our surroundings. As interesting as this place was, on the other hand, it was hard to pay attention to because of the think Italian accent.
At one point of the day, we looked at one of the houses, and just as we were leaving, Kate stopped and asked me to help her find her earring. I went back into the place and helped her look for her earring. We were both on our hands and knees and Kate was freaking out because apparently this earring was a pearl earring that her mom gave her for her 15th birthday. After looking at the dirt for about five minutes, she finally found it.
We exited the house and started toward the direction I thought the group headed towards, but the group was nowhere in sight. I pointed this out to Kate, and she started to panic.
"What are we going to do? They can't leave without us!" Kate exclaimed.
"They won't. Lucy said we should find the worship place, so we should just head towards that area," I said, trying to remain calm.
"Right," Kate agreed, "Where is the worship place?"
"I don't know," I said.
"What are we going to do then?"
"Uhhh," I said thinking quickly, "Why don't we ask someone for help."
"Right," Kate said, still a little tense. "I have an Italian dictionary."
"Okay, let's find someone."
Kate and I started walking to search for someone who looked like they could help. Finally, I spotted a guy that looked about our age and was alone, so I figured we wouldn't be interrupting anything.
I started to speak, "Uh, scusi, signore?" [Excuse me, mister?]
The guy turned around and smiled. That is where I froze. The guy we ended up asking happened to be very cute, and not to seem dumb or anything, but I don't know that much Italian, so I just sort of stared at the guy. "Si . . .? Prego?" [Yes? Can I help you?] He finally said.
I looked at Kate. She had the dictionary. She looked something up, "Uh, Parla inglese?"[Do you speak English] Kate said, but it sounded more like a plead.
The guy frowned a little. "No. Mi dispiace. Parlo italiano e francese. Non parlo inglese," [I am sorry, I don't. I speak Italian and French. I don't speak English.]
Darn, I thought. Wait, francese? Isn't that French? I think it is. Maybe this will work out. "I take French, Kate, let me try," I muttered to Kate, and then said to the guy, "Je parle francais! Uh, Ou est l'eglaise?" [Where is the church?] I asked.
The guy looked at me as if he was really confused. Maybe French was not going to help after all. I took the dictionary from Kate. I figured I could do the best I can. "Il duomo, per piacere?" [The Cathedral, please?]
I think this still confused him, but gave him a better idea of what we were trying to ask, because the next thing I know, he is saying stuff and using his hands to point. Wow, he comprehends what I am saying.
"Il duomo รจ a sinistra e sempre dritto," [The cathedral is on the left and straight on] he said, but he seemed to be talking really slow. I didn't know whether to be glad or insulted.
"Ah! Grazie!" [Thank you] I said and then added, "Arrivederci!" [Bye!] and he walked off. He might have been cute, but he didn't have much of a personality or much patience.
I looked up what I heard him say and tried my best to follow the directions, and sure enough, the guy guided us to the worship place, and sure enough, that happened to be where the group was at the moment.
Wow! That was fortunate. Kate and I tried to sneak back into the group, and just when we thought we were successfully back into the group without anyone noticing, Gordo came from behind and said, "Where did you two wander off to?" and he came in between us.
"Gordo . . .what are you talking about?" I asked trying to act dumb.
"Lizzie, you and Kate have not been with the group for the past twenty minutes. Where were you?" Gordo asked.
"Kate lost an earring so we stayed back to look for it, and once we found it, the group was not in sight, so we were temporarily lost. Did anybody else notice?"
"Yeah, I pointed it out to a few people, but I figured I just couldn't find you. Then I saw you come in and so then I knew I was not crazy. Glad to see you are okay, though," Gordo said. We moved to the next part of Pompeii and continued to walk. I didn't want to get behind the group again, so I stayed with Gordo and Kate in the middle.
We were about to go to the bathhouse when I heard a loud familiar Italian voice say, "Scusi, signorina! [Excuse me, miss!] Elizabeth McGuire!" I looked over and sure enough, the guy that gave me directions was running towards me.
Confused, Gordo asked me, "Do you know this guy?"
Confused myself, I responded, "What? Yeah, he helped us find you."
"Why is he saying your name?"
"I have no idea."
The guy finally caught up with me and handed me something. "E qui," [here] he said and he smiled.
I looked down, and sure enough it was an American passport. When I opened it up, I discovered it was my passport! I must have dropped it.
"Grazie!" I said.
"You welcome. Good bye, Elizabeth," he said slowly, struggling to say the English in his Italian accent. After saying this he disappeared.
"That was odd," Kate, said suddenly, "I mean, obviously, he was nice and sort of cute and you need that, but it seems to me like he was flirting with you," Kate said as she nudged me in the arm.
"Or maybe he is just a nice person," I suggested as I put the passport into my bag.
*&*&*&*
A/N- This story ain't over yet! It has at least three more chapters. In the meantime, review per piacere!
Translation might be in order for some of y'all, so in [] I have translated the stuff that isn't English. Lizzie doesn't know the translations, though.
Disclaimer: I own Disney, the moon, Earth, and seven of the eight other planets. I am looking to sell them, so look for them on E-bay. Thanks! Proceeds go to charity.
Chapter 30: Lizzie Speaks What?
22 June 2002
Dear Diary,
Today being our last day, Lucy said we were going to Pompeii, the lost city before we head for the airport. I was personally excited about this because I saw a special on the Discovery Channel about this city, and it looked so fascinating. After we go there, we are climbing Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that made Pompeii get buried and unknown forever.
After breakfast, everyone brought down their luggage and put it in the compartment below the bus. After that, we all stood outside the bus while the chaperones did a head count for probably the bajillionth time this trip, and everyone was outside the bus, all thirty-three of us.
We then loaded the buses and Mrs. Gregory once again counted to make sure no one slipped or ran away from the bus and wow, once again all of us were there. Sorry, I have developed issues with Mrs. Gregory. She has something up her butt these days and was especially mad this morning because no one bothered to wake her up apparently. I commend the person that attempted to leave her, but unfortunately she found out, and thought is necessary to yell at Lucy. Lucy is not in charge of waking everyone up. In fact, Mrs. Gregory usually wakes up at like five and watches the early morning soap operas, so I seriously wonder what her malfunction is.
Anyway, I no longer have to deal with her anymore.
The bus ride was long, but nice and scenic. I sat with Anna, and everyone in our group sat near us, only this time, Kate joined us. She sat with Matt, the Gordo-look-alike. I wonder what happened with her and Jeremy. I made a mental note to ask her while we were in Pompeii. In the meantime, Anna and I ended up talking about her love life.
"So, what is the deal with you?" I asked.
"What do you mean? I am having fun on this trip, if that is what you mean," she responded.
"No, I mean yesterday, you said you were dating someone on this trip, but you never said who."
"Oh, well, I guess I am just secretive like that," Anna said and she smiled.
"Well who? Don't tell me it is Justin. Is it Justin?" I asked.
"Justin? No! He is way too young for me and I can't stand his mother. We are good friends, though."
"Well, then who is it?"
She sighed loudly. "I guess you would find out eventually. I am actually going out with Larry," she said without hesitation. Larry? That seemed like a name from the past. I didn't really talk to him on this trip nor ever think about him, but now that I thought about it, he was sitting in the back of the bus.
"When did this happen?"
"Sometime yesterday at the Coliseum. He reminds me a lot of my best friend back in Atlanta, except he is obviously different. Anyway, yesterday, we were at the Coliseum, and the setting somehow reminded me of Shakespeare, so I quoted Marc Antony in Julius Caesar, and he said the next line, and I don't know, afterwards, we started talking and hit it off. By the time we were in the Vatican, he asked me out, and I said sure," Anna explained. Wow, I guess Larry can be sort of a romantic. Larry isn't all the disgusting anymore, in my opinion, and I really think he is a nice person, so I am happy for the two.
Does anyone here in Rome in our group not have a boyfriend or girlfriend? I guess Ethan, Kate, Jeremy, and Justin are still a mystery, but this is really odd, like everyone got together in Europe in one of the countries.
Anna and I continued to talk, and eventually, Sarah joined in, and Sarah and Anna started to talk and I listened to both of them speak, but discovered I had no idea what they were talking about. I then turned my attention to Gordo, who had a seat all to himself and he was sitting with his feet up on the seat listening to his headphones and staring out the window. I decided to kick his foot, which caused him to react by jumping a little. He then turned his music off as well as his headphones and looked at me. "What?"
I smiled. "Nothing. I just haven't talked to you today, so I just wanted to say, 'buongiorno,' [good day] Gordo."
Gordo smiled back. "Buongiorno, signorina [good day, Miss] Lizzie. What's up?"
"Not much. Just bored, that's all."
"You want to sit next to me?" Gordo asked as he took his feet off the seat.
"Sure," I said as got up and I slid into the seat next to him. "Looking forward to today?"
"Oh, yeah, it should be benissimo!" Gordo exclaimed in a fake Italian accent. I laughed. I have to say Italian is probably the prettiest language, French not far behind, while Spanish is also pretty nifty.
"Yeah, benissimo," I agreed. We talked for a while, in English, about the rest of the summer and our plans and all this other stuff, and the next thing I know, the bus stopped, and Lucy directed us to stay seated while she tells us a little about this city.
"This city was a prosperous city with a lot of rich people over two thousand years ago. No one knew about Volcanoes back then, so the day it erupted, no one was prepared and no one was able to escape, so everyone died and the city was covered with the hardened magma for a long time, until about a hundred years ago, when someone was digging, they came across an artifact, and soon, the whole place was dug up. The people then discovered that this was a lost city and made it a public place for tourism, so in a minute I will introduce our tour guide, but first, let me say something. This place is very cool, but sometimes confusing, as it has a lot of ruins. With this being said, it is very easy to get lost, so if you get lost, find the worship house, and stay there. Head counts will be done every once in a while, so just stay at the worship house and we will find you soon. Okay? Good."
After this, she introduced us to our tour guide for Pompeii, Rosa. Rosa was short and a little on the heavy side. She also was very European in the fact that she had underarm hair . . .a lot of underarm hair. She was also wearing a sleeve-less shirt, as it was very hot. She seemed like a nice woman, but she had a very thick Italian accent, so I had a hard time paying attention to her.
Once out of the bus, we started heading for the site and I kind of hung out in the back and listened from there. Kate also happened to be in the back, so I seeked the opportunity to talk to Kate and ask her about Jeremy.
"So what is the deal with you and Jeremy?" Wow, am I original or what?
"What? Oh, Jeremy apparently has this girl at home waiting for him, so he is off limits," Kate explained.
Kate and I stayed in the back of the group half listening to Rosa and making comments every now and then for our own humor about our surroundings. As interesting as this place was, on the other hand, it was hard to pay attention to because of the think Italian accent.
At one point of the day, we looked at one of the houses, and just as we were leaving, Kate stopped and asked me to help her find her earring. I went back into the place and helped her look for her earring. We were both on our hands and knees and Kate was freaking out because apparently this earring was a pearl earring that her mom gave her for her 15th birthday. After looking at the dirt for about five minutes, she finally found it.
We exited the house and started toward the direction I thought the group headed towards, but the group was nowhere in sight. I pointed this out to Kate, and she started to panic.
"What are we going to do? They can't leave without us!" Kate exclaimed.
"They won't. Lucy said we should find the worship place, so we should just head towards that area," I said, trying to remain calm.
"Right," Kate agreed, "Where is the worship place?"
"I don't know," I said.
"What are we going to do then?"
"Uhhh," I said thinking quickly, "Why don't we ask someone for help."
"Right," Kate said, still a little tense. "I have an Italian dictionary."
"Okay, let's find someone."
Kate and I started walking to search for someone who looked like they could help. Finally, I spotted a guy that looked about our age and was alone, so I figured we wouldn't be interrupting anything.
I started to speak, "Uh, scusi, signore?" [Excuse me, mister?]
The guy turned around and smiled. That is where I froze. The guy we ended up asking happened to be very cute, and not to seem dumb or anything, but I don't know that much Italian, so I just sort of stared at the guy. "Si . . .? Prego?" [Yes? Can I help you?] He finally said.
I looked at Kate. She had the dictionary. She looked something up, "Uh, Parla inglese?"[Do you speak English] Kate said, but it sounded more like a plead.
The guy frowned a little. "No. Mi dispiace. Parlo italiano e francese. Non parlo inglese," [I am sorry, I don't. I speak Italian and French. I don't speak English.]
Darn, I thought. Wait, francese? Isn't that French? I think it is. Maybe this will work out. "I take French, Kate, let me try," I muttered to Kate, and then said to the guy, "Je parle francais! Uh, Ou est l'eglaise?" [Where is the church?] I asked.
The guy looked at me as if he was really confused. Maybe French was not going to help after all. I took the dictionary from Kate. I figured I could do the best I can. "Il duomo, per piacere?" [The Cathedral, please?]
I think this still confused him, but gave him a better idea of what we were trying to ask, because the next thing I know, he is saying stuff and using his hands to point. Wow, he comprehends what I am saying.
"Il duomo รจ a sinistra e sempre dritto," [The cathedral is on the left and straight on] he said, but he seemed to be talking really slow. I didn't know whether to be glad or insulted.
"Ah! Grazie!" [Thank you] I said and then added, "Arrivederci!" [Bye!] and he walked off. He might have been cute, but he didn't have much of a personality or much patience.
I looked up what I heard him say and tried my best to follow the directions, and sure enough, the guy guided us to the worship place, and sure enough, that happened to be where the group was at the moment.
Wow! That was fortunate. Kate and I tried to sneak back into the group, and just when we thought we were successfully back into the group without anyone noticing, Gordo came from behind and said, "Where did you two wander off to?" and he came in between us.
"Gordo . . .what are you talking about?" I asked trying to act dumb.
"Lizzie, you and Kate have not been with the group for the past twenty minutes. Where were you?" Gordo asked.
"Kate lost an earring so we stayed back to look for it, and once we found it, the group was not in sight, so we were temporarily lost. Did anybody else notice?"
"Yeah, I pointed it out to a few people, but I figured I just couldn't find you. Then I saw you come in and so then I knew I was not crazy. Glad to see you are okay, though," Gordo said. We moved to the next part of Pompeii and continued to walk. I didn't want to get behind the group again, so I stayed with Gordo and Kate in the middle.
We were about to go to the bathhouse when I heard a loud familiar Italian voice say, "Scusi, signorina! [Excuse me, miss!] Elizabeth McGuire!" I looked over and sure enough, the guy that gave me directions was running towards me.
Confused, Gordo asked me, "Do you know this guy?"
Confused myself, I responded, "What? Yeah, he helped us find you."
"Why is he saying your name?"
"I have no idea."
The guy finally caught up with me and handed me something. "E qui," [here] he said and he smiled.
I looked down, and sure enough it was an American passport. When I opened it up, I discovered it was my passport! I must have dropped it.
"Grazie!" I said.
"You welcome. Good bye, Elizabeth," he said slowly, struggling to say the English in his Italian accent. After saying this he disappeared.
"That was odd," Kate, said suddenly, "I mean, obviously, he was nice and sort of cute and you need that, but it seems to me like he was flirting with you," Kate said as she nudged me in the arm.
"Or maybe he is just a nice person," I suggested as I put the passport into my bag.
*&*&*&*
A/N- This story ain't over yet! It has at least three more chapters. In the meantime, review per piacere!