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In the summer of 1995 I arrived in Rome with my family and on September
I started my senior high-school year at the American Overseas School of
Rome.
Before long I met William Croisettier and Elad Shaham, the
core of the then not-yet-existant ORGANIZATION. Mattias 'The Swede' Persson
was responsible for keeping things 'sane' within THE ORGANIZATION, as
well as providing a most excellent venue for parties at his 'hotel'.
The school halls, Galen, and Physics classes (among other
things) were not the same again after William and yours truly began their
campaign of subtle madness in AOSR. Even Mr. Ceen's usually incorruptible
Graphics Class atop the Villa's Tower was not spared. There Galen's bright-orange
pencil-case 'disappeared' many times,
sometimes out of the window. No one but the indomitable FRANKIE
could have CRAWLED ON THE DAMN FLOOR under desks (and more impressively,
under threat of Ceen Capture) to 'borrow' Galen's pencil-case.
Okay, Galen, if you're reading this don't get angry
- but that blue stuff on the contents of your 'briefly misplaced' backpack
during Mayfair was the product of an electrical fire-extinguisher. We
thought it was CO2, honest! And it was Will's
idea!
The AOSR basketball
team was a colourful one, with colourful personalities such as the
'Rebounder' Bertrand Betulli, 'Water-Boy' Colin 'Keg' Hourihan, and Coach
Fairbanks himself. (Sound courtesy of Marcus Ciuffreda). Unfortunately,
I suffered a bad ankle injury only three games into the season, leaving
Elad 'Charlie' Shaham
and the others to get on with it.
There are many other memories from AOSR, such as Renee
talking with the Carabinieri, 'shouting in the halls', Dessssooooooola,
How-Wei, Chung-Ta, Night&Day/The Fox/Mattias' drunken guests, Oliphant,
the sleep-over, Interview With THE BOSS, Operation Neighbour Bombardment
(Will, c'mon, you have to write this one up!!), prom, after-prom, etc.
If I had to pick one favourite one however, it would have to be the sports
trips. They were the most fun times I had there, even when I was 'manager
in crutches', and I'll always miss them. I'll be sure to organize a reunion
trip around the Caribbean when I win the lottery!
Other people, especially Jennifer
'Pocahontas!!' DiMattia (another long story!), Ruti
Levtov, Lee DeLuna, Senai Kebedom, Ben Sayagh, Zack, all the Perssons,
Mr. Ceen, Mr. Zimmerman, The Gwins, Jen
Wheeler and Erika 'Cheeky Monkey' DiMassino are fondly remember from
Rome - so send
me more stories and pictures to include if you hear me people! (And
don't get mad if your name isn't here - do something about it and refresh
my memory!!)
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