Birthday!

Yesterday was Mike's birthday so we went out to dinner. His sister had told him about an intriguing restaurant so we researched it and decided to go. It's called L'Eau Vive and it's run by a French order of nuns. That's pretty cool. The proceeds all go to charity and the nuns all wear their native dress; a lot are from African countries so there are bright prints and such. Lovely French food and wine. A tad expensive but worth it for celebrations and interestingness. Another highlight of this place is that every evening at 9:30 the nuns sing a French and English version of the Ave Maria. Everyone in the restaurant joins in and it's quite lovely. We sat upstairs, up a long flight of circular stairs. There the ceiling was painted in beautiful frescoes. Apparently this place is popular with a lot of priests and bigwigs from the Vatican. I don't if that's true or not but rumor is Benedict used to eat here before he became the Papa. The table next to ours was 5 priests so who knows. The nuns also brought Mike a gelato and the restaurant sang Happy Birthday to him in French. Not a bad birthday, certainly memorable.
Then we went and got gelato at the place by the Pantheon that's always in the guide books and people say is the best gelato in Rome. It might be but I haven't eaten all the gelato in Rome. It had some cool flavors though. I got chocolate and cheesecake. So we hung around the Pantheon and then went to Mad Jack's 'Irish' Pub. It's totally fake Irish; only Italians work there. But now I know and will not be deceived. So we had some drinks and good talks and then called it a night. A fun way to say goodbye to everyone before spring break.
Oh but then I had to take my last midterm exam this morning. I was ill-prepared but that didn't matter because it was super easy. Now I am skipping classes to pack and pull myself together before I leave. And that's that.