Ho Felice!

'Sono Stanco!
Just kidding, that is Italian for "I'm sleepy" and I am definitely not sleepy after the THREE hour nap I just took, which is more than I have been sleeping at night. I have not been sleeping well lately....difficulty falling and then staying asleep. I am always just in a "twilight" sleep where I can still hear what is around me  (most frustratingly when cars screech and honk outside your bedroom throughout the night) and I can still think. Hopefully that nap will help in aiding my sleep deprivation. In other news, my Italian is coming along fantastically, which Ho Felice!!!  ( I am happy about!!) We had a "quiz" today, covering every single topic that has been discussed since  the school year started. It was more like a mid term and included numbers up to 100, basic greetings, nationalities, idiomatic expressions, vocab, masculine/feminine words and a listening section. As usual, I probably did the worst on the listening section. Who can understand jibberish spoken at 5 million miles per hour?

 I wanted to send a BIG Birthday shout out to my most favoritest great aunt, Aunt Florence. Happy 25th!!!!!! At age 85, she is truly such a blessing to my family and we love her very much!  She is the only extended family (besides our wonderful grandparents) to remember each of our birthday every single year. (And people ask me how I remember eleven names!) No matter how large our family has grown, Aunt Florence has always mailed a birthday card with a kind greeting and some cash so that we could enjoy something fun on our birthday. In fact, my birthday card even arrived a month early so that I could utilize it on the purchase of pizza and cannolies here!   Her constant generosity and kindness is truly an inspiration to me! We love you Aunt Florence!!!

Yesterday,  my History of Ancient Rome class took a field trip to the Appian Way. The Appian Way is an ancient Roman Road that soldiers and merchants once utilized for easy access to the rest of Italy. The road is straight, runs all the way to Naples, and is still preserved and used today! The road was peaceful, surrounded by ancient roman ruins or green pastures on either side. There were many funeries along side the road, which is an ancient tomb. One of the funeries is so big that in the midevil times it was turned into a castle! It is interesting because the wealthy spent enormous amounts of money to create grand funeries in order that their name may live on. Sure enough, thousands of years later, many of the funeries still have the inscription of the deceased on them for the hundreds of passerbyers each day to "ooh" and "ahh" over.

Today we had a field trip for my Art History class to a museum. The positive side was the museum was just one room filled with just one monument for my teacher to dissect. The negative side was I paid 6.5 euro to observe this one monument. It was called the Monument of Peace and was built by the Emperor Augustus during the Golden Age. Augustus built the monument to exhibit and to portray an allusion of prosperity and peace in the kingdom so that his reign would be remembered as "The Golden Age".  Probably the most important thing I learned from the museum is that history is merely what the elites want us to believe of it.

I was absolutely starving when I got out of class at 2:30 today so I decided to stop for pizza. The woman stood behind the counter saying, "Prego, Prego, Prego" (READY READY READY!), rushing me to order. I hurridly orderered what I thought was just plain cheese pizza, but was instead covered in thin potatoes. Being extra hungry I ordered an extra big slice, which I regretted upon biting into a potato covered pizza. Pizza in Italy is actually very different than how we imagine it back home. Even "new york" style pizza is not authentic italian pizza. Authentic Italian pizza does not have marinara sauce covered with cheese! It is simply bread (thick crunchy pizza crust), with toppings such as cheese, mozzarella, sausage, proscutto, mushrooms or a combination of the above. If you want marinara sauce then you order marinara pizza, which is simply pizza crust with marinara sauce on it, and who wants that?

Probably one of the highlights of my week was skyping my dad. He texted me that he would like to skype at work so I instructed him how to download skype and set up an account. After thirty or so minutes of figuring out skype (and this wifi), we finally connected on video just to find out that his dinosour of a laptop doesn't have a microphone! This didn't bother my quiet dad as I talked at 500 miles per hour for over an hour telling him every single detail of my time here in Italy. Mostly he laughed or would scribble a message on paper, which he would then hold up to the camera on his laptop until I got through to him that he could actually do this CRAZY thing called TYPE and INSTANT message me. From then on he filled me in on the happenings back home through skype Instant Messaging. I gathered that Grace turned 8, my mom ran 60 miles that week, and he built his 10,00th paper airplane for Ben at dinner the night before. My dad is probably one of the greatest people on earth, and I admire and love his ability to authentically listen. 

One of the scariest moments of my week happened on Saturday evening. While I was cooking dinner the gas stove started clicking and would not stop. After trying for a whole 30 seconds to get it to stop by myself I called over for Ben, who lives across from me to "fix it!". I watched my stir fried veggies, chicken parm and egg plant parm turn cold as Ben struggled to fix the stove. Eventually we ended up turning off the gas to prevent a fire, and turning off the fuse to end the clicking caused by a broken spark lighter. Turning off this fuse also turned off our fridge so I decided to finish cooking my elaborate dinner at the guys apartment and to bring all of our perishable refrigerated items to the boys fridge after dinner. I ended up blowing the guy's fuse 4 times, because they have an electric stove and an electric oven so the circuit breaker could not support all the energy I needed to cook my dinner. (I have yet to figure out why Italians insist on living so backwards, with little heat, wifi, or energy) Finally though, my dinner was complete, and I brought my egg plant and salad back to my apartment to eat by myself. (My roomates were in Florence for the weekend) I went back to the guys apartment to grab my pasta and meat, slamming my apartment door, which just happens to lock automatically leaving my egg plant, salad, and contents of the fridge rotting on the inside and me starving outside a locked apartment door. ( with roomates not returning until the next day)

 I dejectedly returned to the boy's apartment wondering how and where I would sleep with no bed and with contacts and uncomfortable tights still on from attending mass earlier in the evening. Luckily my pasta and homeade tomato sauce was still in the boy's apartment, and it was still delicious despite taking two hours to prepare. Luckily for me, I talk loud and get even louder when I am mad so the elderly man (You may remember him from earlier in the semester when he helped me find a church to attend) heard me through the thin walls and next thing I knew was leading me to his apartment where he has an extra key to every apartment! Turns out he is sort of like the supervisor of the apartment complex so I had definitely made friends with the right person! He unlocked my apartment and attempted to fix my stove. Despite his old, fragile age he resisted my helping him to lift the heavy oven away from the wall so I played with his shaggy dog, which shed over the apartment and tried to lick me. Unfortunately, he couldn't completely fix the stove but he got it to the point where we could light it with a lighter. "Non ho lighter"  I said, throwing my hands in the air. "Capite????" (I don't have a lighter do you understand??) After a moment he said Ohhhh okay! okay! and left the apartment returning a moment later with a cigarette lighter for me.   "Gratzie mille" I said, thanks a lot. "Prego Prego Ciao Bella!" he told me with a smile, while limping out my door. Maintenance was supposed to come Monday....Today is Wednesday....Precision is not an Italian strong suit. 

I haven’t posted in a while because I feel as if I haven’t done anything exciting. However, one could argue that I am in Rome so everyday is exciting! My favorite news is that I found running trails!!!! Karen and I were running our usual course around the city and her observant eye spotted a park. The park turned out to have at least 5 miles of running trails. The trails were even muddy and flooded just like the greenway! I ran there today and the gooey mud has mostly dried up because thankfully the rain has finally stopped! We had a beautiful sunny week with temperature highs at 70.  The first two weeks of constant rain definitely made us appreciate the sunshine!

 I had to go to a museum for my Art Appreciation class today, but I rushed through the museum so that I could walk around outside. I had actually already gone to the museum when i was in Rome a couple years ago and I hated it as much today as I did then. I tried so hard to read each description of each statue of a head but by the 5,992,983, 483,328, 200 head statues I couldn't concentrate anymore. I truly do not know what there is to appreciate about cold stone. I went to another museum for this same class the other day, and our professor acted as our tour guide. We were studying one of the million statues of heads, and she wanted to know what the facial features represented of the time period. I looked up at the face which looked like it had been smashed in by a hammer and had to use all my self control not to laugh. The nose was chipped and the mouth was nonexistent. Needless to say I am not a museum person and hope to never see another bodiless head statue.

We finally found a delicious apertivo! Apertivo is when you buy a drink and get to eat for free. My school took us on a tour around Travestere ending at one of the best apertivo places in Rome. Lorenzo De Medici bought us any drink we wanted and then we got to eat to our hearts content at the buffet filled with pasta, bread, hummus, seasoned rice, vegetables, fruit salad and more! It's funny because this place was actually the place my sister Katie suggested I go to, but she couldn't remember the name of it, only that it was next to John Cabot college. I am very happy to have actually gone to it because it is so hard to find these places that people recommend to eat at!

I went on a field trip to the catacombs underneath the Vatican yesterday. St. Peters bascillica was built on top of a grave yard, only because it was built over where St. Peter was buried and he was buried at this grave yard. So underneath St. Peter's Bascillica lies hundreds of decorated stone "funeries" (caskets). However, It is very expensive to excavate ancient ruins so they have only excavated about 100 yards of the dark, humid underground, which was enough for me because I found it creepy. Of the excavated part, they of course have removed the bodies from the stone caskets and placed the remains somewhere else, but I still found it eery to know that a dead body had been there. The only tomb that remains intact is the tomb of St. Peters, which they opened in the 1930's in order to confirm that they were the real bones of Peter. It was absolutely incredible to see the bones of St. Peter. I know Jesus told Thomas, "Blessed are those who believe without seeing", but let me tell you it is pretty darn awesome to see in real life what you believe in your heart. 

I am still loving Rome, but miss everyone at home. I am very thankful that Rebekah and I consistently text everyday. She and I never seem to run out of things to talk about!!  (#BFFPROBS) Karen pointed out that I talk about Bekah a lot, and I guess it's true because many things here make me think of the best sister ever. Hopefully she will get to visit! I am very proud of her efforts this week during Nation Ford's Water Week. She told me that W4W has raised $4,000 the past year and a half to build a second well in Uganda!!!!!! SO amazing!! 

It is about time for me to start preparing dinner (8:15 here, true Italian style) I think I will make egg plant parmesan with some homeade bread crumbs (Who knows how to say "breadcrumbs" in italian in order to find them in the store???) Yum Yum!!! Buonasera from Roma!

La vita è bella

Thank you to everybody for all the sweet birthday wishes! I had a wonderful day! I started it off running (of course) listening to "Here's to never growing up" and "never grow up" on repeat (of course) My roomate woke up extra early so that I could wake up to a birthday card with a chocolate croissant and beautiful flowers. Afterwards we walked to school and Karen asked me what traditions I had on my birthday. I told her  how last year I had gone to a mexican restaurant with my siblings and the year before had also had Mexican. We made it to the school where I endured 9 hours of straight class time while drooling of mexican food ...... On our walk home after our grueling Tuesdays, Karen and I have a tradition of stopping at the local gelato place. You can imagine my surprise and disappointment when she just walked by it without mentioning anything of my favorite dessert on MY birthday. I didn't say anything, silently accepting the sad fate of the day while plotting what I would scrape together for dinner. If you have never experienced a birthday at the Petersons, 1. you are missing out (Just ask Tim) and 2. they are a lively celebration with tons of delicious food and fun, so i was struggling to imagine a birthday without, at least, a cake. When I entered the apartment I immediately collapsed on the couch, failing to notice the spotless kitchen, more flowers, cards, a beautiful birthday cake, and amazing aromas of steak, stir fried veggies, mexican rice and green beans. It was the best Mexican food they could put together for me in Italy. I feel so blessed to have already met such great people! I truly appreciated the effort my friends and family put in whether in person or in text to ensure I had a great day. It really does  mean so much to me. After dinner we went to Campo De Fuere, a lovely plaza where lots of Americans hang out at night. Overall it was a wonderful day and I am so blessed to have gotten to spend it in the Eternal City!! 

Yesterday we were planning on taking an eleven o clock train to Tiboli with the girls who live in the apartment below us. I texted them at 9:30, but they still were not awake. Apparently they forgot to set alarms and were just going to hand around Rome for the day. We decided to do our "Own thing" and quickly looked up train times to Naples. There was a train leaving at 10;30. We looked at the clock, 9:40, and then looked at eachother "Lets do it!" I rushed to the shower, threw on clothes (stripes and polka dots match right??) packed an overnight back and within TEN MINUTES we were out the door headed for the train station, but not before I had grabbed my coffee which was conveniently still brewing in my French Press Travel Mug. Amanda, my roomate urged us on saying "we're going to need to run." Karen and I looked at her and said clearly you have never experienced our speed walking. And so Amanda jogged beside us, as we power walked the 20 minutes to Termini. We bought our tickets and were peacefully sitting on the train, sipping coffee, twenty six minutes before the train actually left. 

On our way to Naples I read up on what Rick Steves had to say about the place that I imagined as a quaint town similar to Assisi, and saw it was crime ridden, mafia driven, and contained 1/3 un employed inhabitants. I thought to myself 
"What a wonderful place for three girls to go to...if they are looking to die." The rest of the train ride I clung to my safety alarm, (Basically a high tech "rape whistle" that puts off a siren) that my dad had insisted I take, while pondering news headlines of what they would say about the three girls who went to Naples for pizza and pastries, never to return.

Despite sitting next to people who we insisted were part of the "M" word, we made it to the sketchy train station. Brian, Elisabeth, Let me tell you this train station makes the PARIS train station look like its located in the Hamptons. Some of you may remember how Annaliese used to love to draw on our walls around the house, well every building here was covered in graffiti, every side walk littered with trash, and grime oozed from the cracks, doors and people. We put on our confident, "mean" face, bought a map and began our sightseeing. We ended up finding THE BEST Pizza place in Naples (Technically it wasn't the one Rick Steves recommended but his direction stunk and we like to go where the locals go) A gigantic and DELICIOUS margharita pizza was just three euros. I decided to give this city another change, at least I would die content I found the best pizza in the world right? I actually got my pizza with prosciutto, olives and mushrooms. It was the closest thing to what my mom always orders, and I always likes what she gets. It was still only 5 euro and a coke zero was only .50 cents so I drank that instead of "sparkling" water. After pizza, we made our way to the more touristy, more beautiful part of Naples. I observed the Neapolitan people, who are much more coarse than Romans, but equally as nice. I suppose this roughness is a result of a city of people who live in fear of the mafia, while struggling to provide for themselves in a place with little job opportunity. We strolled through some famous plazas, prayed at a couple famous churches, and explored some magnificent ancient castles. Eventually we made it to the bay, where we relaxed by the sunny seaside on giant rocks. For me, the trip would have been worth it if we had just found the sea-I absolutely love the ocean. Here we watched the sun set, and watched a magical full moon rise above the mountains surrounding the bay.  

In the nighttime, we walked through a bustling ally filled with sweet aromas of  pastries and expresso, until we ended up at a charming bakery ourselves. Established in the 1800's it had an elegant atmosphere and produced the best pastries in Naples. I ordered a sfogliatella, which is a unique Neapolitan treat, filled with sweet riccota cheese. Munching our pastries, we made it back to the train station, pleased AND alive, in time to catch our 9 o clock train back to Rome. We arrived in Rome around 11:30P.M, happy and content with our chaotic, fun, exhilarating day trip to Naples. 

As the Italians say, "La vita è bella"- Life is beautiful.

I received good news at school today-I'M GOING TO EASTER MASS AT ST. PETERS!!!!! I applied for a ticket last week and the Vatican wrote back that they have a seat for me (it is very difficult to get a seat you must book months in advance) I know I am going to miss my family a lot on Easter so I am glad that I am getting to experience a very memorable mass at the Vatican!

Today is cold and rainy (Shock!) So I made lentil soup for lunch, but not before stopping at the bakery next door to pick up an Italian pastry, filled with almonds, some sort of fruit, and a rum taste. It wasn't what I was expecting but still delicious of course. Normally I don't like fruit at all and especially not in desserts, but Rome has a way of enticing you to try new things! I just had one class today, Italian so I am going to do my homework and then we have to do a scavenger hunt throughout Rome for our culture and religion class tomorrow. Thank goodness I brought my water proof mountain hardware--for the first week I refused to wear it because it is so bright and automatically people spot me as tourist (the pink rainboots don't help either!!), but now I'd rather be warm and dry than appear Roman.


We are going to Naples and Pompeii this weekend-we haven't decided a day trip or overnight. We have heard that Naples gets sketchy at night because it is run by the mafia. My Italian Film & Mafia class is extremely interesting, but also frightening. Luckily the mafia tends to stay in Naples, and the police in Rome aren't (as) corrupt. We heard that the police here get paid by the hour which is why we often see them just standing around doing absolutely nothing unlike in the U.S where police get commission based off of tickets they write. 

I am sooooooo tired of our apartment being FREEZING. I often sleep in that big mountain hardware coat and we can usually get away with taking the boys heater several hours a day. Unfortunately whenever we go into their apartment we accidentally  comment on how cold it is and they realize it's because we have their heater and come steal it back!!

I keep forgetting it is my birthday tomorrow so this is my last day of being a teenager. I'm thinking I should call my mom and fight with her just to say I was a typical difficult teenage girl :)

Papa Francesco!!

Today Karen and I woke up early (9a.m) in order visit the Vatican and receive a blessing from Papa Francesco! He actually gave a short sermon before the blessing, but obviously it was in Italian so we  understood little. I did catch on that he has a great sense of humor, and also something about "persone", "lumine", and "mondo", which I took to mean "Be the light of the world". In actuality, I wasn't that far off because I googled the transcript and found he said this "Let us always go forward with the light of Jesus!”(see his whole speech @ http://www.news.va/en/news/angelus-christians-are-burning-lamps-bearing-the-l)  Although the pope's language was foreign to me, it was simply incredible knowing we were standing inside the Vatican Plaza where Christianity all began, and where the very first pope is laid to rest. Something I loved at St. Pauls yesterday was seeing the portraits of all the popes, from St. Peter to Pope Frances hung up around the enormous church , demonstrating that the Catholic Church began with the words of Jesus. No matter the language barrier, there was definitely a sense of timelessness echoing from the mouth of an apostolic successor, and I was grateful for the opportunity to be in his presence.

After the Blessing from the pope we met up with some of Karen's friends from home. They actually are next door neighbors with the Pope-literally! St. Peter's stands right next to their apartment-just in case you thought you had a nice view to wake up to! We took a long walk through that very unfamiliar part of Rome for me in order eat at a delicious bakery. I enjoyed the walk because it was interesting seeing a different, more residential side of Rome. We got the most melt-in-your-mouth delicious canolis ever. I also ordered a cappuccino for the first time since being here, and I loved it! I have been using a french press in the morning, which has worked nicely but I wanted to experience coffee the Roman way today. We also hiked up a very tall hill and once at the top, desperately tried to capture the panoramic view of the ancient city on our cameras. Pictures cannot do this city justice however, you will all just have to visit here someday!

Assisi!

Yesterday we took a day trip to Assisi, a quaint hill town that was once home to St. Frances of Assisi and St. Claire. We left our apartment at 6 a.m in order to make a 7 oclock train and maximize our time in Assisi, which actually has a lot to do. I insisted we validate our tickets, even though nobody with me believed we needed to or even what that was. Our group ended up getting separated, so Amanda (my roomate) and Ryan (guy across from us) didn't get their tickets validated. They had to do some persuasion with the train officer to avoid a pricy ticket for failing to validate their ticket. Assisi was more lovely than I remembered, with spectacular views and historical churches. I searched every little store filled with tacky souvinirs until I found the crosses my mom (and I) love! Don't worry momma I bought enough until the next Peterson ventures to Italy :) We went to the cloister of St. Claire down a long, long hill, which was fun going down and a struggle coming up. I pointed out that St. Claire probably became a cloister nun so that she never had to hike up that difficult hill! 

We paid the 3 euros to enter an ancient castle seated on the very top of the mountain of Assisi. We had so much fun climbing towers, ducking through tunnels and dreaming of days of knights and princesses. We  also took some cool pictures in castle windows with the stunning scenery in the backround. I'll try to upload them to facebook soon! 

We took the train there and coming back it seemed we stopped more than we moved so it took 3 hours instead of 2 hours. It must have been for this reason that I was anxious to get off the train and convinced everyone that we were at our stop in Rome, Termini. After we got off the train it was very clear we were not at Termini and instead were at the other only train station in Rome. We had to take the metro in order to get back to our apartment, but of course I did not have my metro card (I only brought my backpack to Assisi and my card was in my purse) so I had to pay the 1.5 euro for a metro card, which the others found hilarious since it was my fault we were in the predicament in the first place. By now they are used to my delusional sense of direction and can laugh whenever I lead them the completely wrong way while assuring them that I know precisely where I am going. Ryan said that from now on we will go in the opposite direction that I say to go in. It reminded me of something my own brother, Brian would say to me, but it is so true! Today Karen (my other roomate) and I were running, and found this cute cafe called Amelia's we decided we would have to come to sometime. Well we ran out of the plaza and thought we were heading back to our apartment when we ran straight into Amelias again. Turns out we had run in a giant circle! Eventually we found our way back after questioning a few unsuspecting pedestrians,  "Bonjorno! Dove Via Nomentana??"

After our run we went grocery shopping and I bought so much fresh vegetables!! Two heads of broccoli are only .80 cents!! After shopping, lunch, (a delicious sandwich with fresh bread, mozzarella, and tomato) Karen and I went to St. Pauls, one of the first churches in Rome. We just hung around until 6 p.m and got to go to mass! It was SO incredible to celebrate mass, IN the church where St. Paul (Saul) is buried.

Bout to eat dinner!! GOing to the audience with the pope tomorrow so i'll let you know how that is soon! Ciao!!

Settling in rainy rainy roma!

Sorry it has been awhile since my last post,  I am so busy!!!!!! Classes started this week so an ordinary day means waking up, running, school, sightseeing after school and then dinner. I have found that Italians like to give Americans things. They love us! We were at a restaurant and the owner came up to us and had the waiter bring martinis, chocolate covered strawberries and tiramisu “on the house”.  Unfortunately, every time an Italian realizes we are American, all they want to do is practice their English, when all we want to do is practice our Italian! I can introduce myself, and ask how you are now in Italian. Oh, and order a gelato. We found THE best gelato place in all of Rome, which happens to be conveniently located on our walk to school! After a nine-hour day of classes on Tuesday, my roommate, Karen, and I rewarded ourselves with big scoops of chocolate biscotti gelato for the first time since we’ve been in Rome. With homemade fresh whip cream on top, it was the perfect “pick me up” after an exhausting day.

 Classes are miserable. There is no other way to describe a two hour and thirty minute class period. The material is interesting, but I have an extremely hard time focusing for such a long amount of time. By the end of the day  on Tuesday (class from 12-9:00 P.M) the left side of my face was completely numb, something that hasn’t happened in a while so I know I must have reached my limit of “brain power”. I am taking some very fascinating classes, which are mainly taught through field trips to local museums and even to the Vatican! For my Religion and Culture in Italy class, we get to go to the Vatican Archives with a Vatican tour guide, which is apparently a rarity for the average tourist. I am very excited! I am glad the school plans our trips to museums because there are more museums in Rome than Starbucks in NYC so it is hard to know which ones to go to. We haven’t yet visited any museums choosing instead to venture into random churches and buildings. We learned in Religion class the first four Christian churches ever are here in Rome! I thought that was SOOOOOO cool that the first church built in 300 AD (Christianity was illegal until then) dedicated to Jesus and now called San Giovani is here in Rome with the relics of the actual holy cross. I cannot wait to go! Honestly, whether you are religious or not Rome is definitely a pilgrimage because the whole city is extremely influenced by religion from the earliest days of the Christian (catholic) church. 

I feel like everybody is always asking me what I eat, so I'll give ya a little gist. For breakfast I usually have fresh eggs---mine came with chicken feathers still on the shell... or yogurt with an orange. The yogurt taste a lot like my mom's homeade yogurt...healthy and sour but luckily the oranges are delicious and sweet! I can't wait until spring when all the fresh fruit is in season..I just may have to become a fruit lover!! We usually try to eat at least one of our meals in, so I make up an anti pasti or pasta with olive oil and fresh cheese. Otherwise I get pizza by the kilogram, so a huge slab of square delicious pizza is only 2 euro. The nuttella pizza is my favorite!!!! All my clemson friends know how much I love dessert pizza, and now so does Leonardo the worker at the pizza joint. If we buy pizza then he gives us nutella pizza for free! I told you Italians LOVE Americans!  My goal for this week is find a canoli! I honestly haven't seen any anywhere....very strange! 

As the title of this post implies, the weather here is very very very very very rainy rainy rainy roma.  Well, one day I left the apartment when it was sunny and returned drenched, swimming through puddles longer than the Nile. To dry my shoes, I decided to put them by a space heater (We stole an electric space heater from the guys across from us because we were tired of being cold all the time), and then I went to bed. I was awoken 10 minutes later by a terrible smell of burning plastic from the kitchen. I went in to find that the heater had burned a hole through my shoe. Must be karma for stealing the heater! Guess I'll have to do some shopping!

 This week was a monumental week in my life as I learned how to read a map. If you know me, you know my sense of direction is as good as my sense of mathematics. Well, I tucked my Rick Steves book under my arm and set off for the Coliseum. I ended up on the very outskirts of Rome, closed in by the Ancient Roman wall. The wall signals you are about to enter a not so pretty, ghetto graffiti part of Rome so I quickly walked in the opposite direction, found a friendly looking park, sat down and re oriented myself. Eventually, I found the coliseum and ultimately now feel like I have a better grasp of where I am, and how to get places in the city. I live on 25 Via Nomentana, a very residential area, which is nice because the food is authentic and grocery stores are cheap. It also means, that we are about a 30 minute walk from the center of Rome…. BUT we do get to see a lot of everyday living in Rome just walking to tourist destinations. I did end up going to a pub called “Bandana Republic” for the super bowl. A pub here is like a restaurant that also serves alcohol. A “bar” here is a café that serves pastries, coffee and alcohol. I had to have a guinness in honor of my mom and also because it reminds me of my trip to Europe last time with Elisabeth, Brian and Phillip! We met another American woman in her 50’s who is working in Rome for 6 months. She was very thankful to meet us as she said she is lonely here. I am not lonely yet, I think I am still in the “honeymoon” stage and I plan on staying in it for as long as I can. I try to keep very very busy and really this is such an incredible place, and I’ve met such wonderful people that it is difficult to be homesick. In fact, I am already dreading leaving in 4 months! I know the time is going to fly by and it is incredible living in this kind of alternative world, so different from my normal everyday life back in the states. I have only been here a week but it feels like much longer!  Tomorrow we are going to Assisi because there is supposed to be a ray of sunshine (literally!!!) out of all these days of constant rain! I am looking forward to it. Assisi was a place that I wish I had had more time at when I visited it last time. I wish Brian and Elisabeth were with me again! I think it would be so fun for my whole family to come here to Rome. Turns out we already have a legacy here because my sister, Katie also studied abroad with the Lorenzo de’ Medici program and she is very warmly remembered. I was surprised they still remembered her since she studied here three years ago, but I am automatically in “good standing” with my professors and administrators because of her so that is very nice!!! Hopefully I can live up to her :) 

settling in

I feel like I have to keep everybody updated on my blog rather than attempting to respond to text and email because it seems whenever I try to text, they rarely go through. The WIFI IS THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING IN ROME!! Well, it's a close tie to the Romanians who harass you to buy their cheap umbrellas everytime you walk out the door (even if you are already holding an umbrella). Apparently it has rained more here in the past week than it usually does the whole month of January.  I had my first class today, just one, Italian but it was an hour and 40 minutes long! Not sure I have enough attention span to sit through that! After class everybody just wanted to go back to the apartments and nap, but I figure I can sleep all summer so I ate a quick lunch at a little hole in the wall pizza place where they serve square pizza by the kilogram. It's where most Romans eat, I think the big circle pizzas normally served at restaurants are mostly for tourists.  This was 2.20 euro for the best pizza I've had since I've been here. After that I just decided to adventure on my own. It's quite peaceful wandering by yourself. I made my way all the way to the coliseum and then walked back for a wine tasting at my school (9 miles walking today) We made pasta for dinner at our apartment, which is a very cheap meal. A huge thing of pasta is only 39 cents. Food here is cheap. Anyways,  trying to get to bed early so that I can run in the morning before class at 12. I have class from 12-8:30 tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

Sunday Funday!

 Read post before this  or you'll be confused.
I was pretty disappointed that I had foresaken my morning run to go to church that turned out not to be church so after breakfast I decided to make my day semi productive (everybody else was still sleeping at 11:30 so I couldn't go sighsteeing yet) and go running. As I was leaving I saw an older man who lives in my building. I hadn't quite given up my goal of going to church in the capital of Catholicism, not to mention I can't remember the last time I skipped mass and so I asked,
"Parle en inglesia?". Although he didn't understand so much as hello in English, he kindly ushered me to his apartment where his wife spoke English. I found out that there was a mass at 12 in a church RIGHT ACROSS the street from my apartment! I looked at the time-11:46 and ran back to my apartment, quickly showered, and rushed to mass. I made it just in time! The church was simple but still beautiful and actually crowded. I was very thankful to hear the familiar "Alleluia"  as it was the only words I understood. 

After mass,  a few others and I left the apartment bundled in coats and umbrellas for an unknown destination. We just aimlessly walked the bustling streets until we found something of interest to go inside. We ended up at some ancient Roman baths, the Spanish steps, a beautiful bascillica and San Agnes. Next Sunday me and some of the kids in my program are going to try out one of those churches-we even picked up the English mass times schedule. After walking some more, we actually found ourselves at the Vatican again, which is a full 5 miles from our apartment! I calculated that yesterday I walked 12 miles and ran 6 for a total of 18 miles! Maybe I should sign up for that Roman marathon after all! Just kidding but after another 12 miles of walking today my feet are very sore. I am refusing to wear my tennis shoes because I am trying, and failing, (thanks for the Red hair mom & dad) to fit in as a Roman.  Halfway through the day today, several girls had to go back to the apartment because their shoes were sopping wet. Thankfully I was able to adventure onward, because my sister Katie had insisted I bring rainboots. Katie I cannot thank you enough!!!!!! It has been raining nonstop since we got here!! 

 I came home around 8 p.m and fell fast asleep. I just made dinner (at 9:30-true Italian style!) of a delicious anti pasti. I've been wearing my coat around the apartment because the heat, like the wifi, tends not to work. In fact I turned the gas stove on with a pot of water on it just to heat the kitchen up. Tonight is the superbowl, as I am sure you all are aware because you are probably munching on buffalo chicken dip and chips as I write this.  We are thinking about going to a pub to watch it. It advertised that there will be English commentary. Even though it doesn't start till 12 A.M here, I think I still want to watch it. As my good friend Nick pointed out, "You are so far away.", I am so far away from home and watching some "American Football" will help make me feel a little closer to my small town home in South Carolina! 
Oh, yeah classes start tomorrow. I just have my one Italian class so I'll be done at 10. I'm very excited!

Busy days

It is hard to post frequently because the wifi here is terrible. Usually I have to write in a word document and then upload it whenever the wifi decides to work. Yesterday was a whirlwind of sightseeing from leaving our apartment at 12, energetic the sky full of sunshine to stumbling in at 8,  wet and cold. Yes, Rome is exactly like London if that entered your mind-Rain Rain Rain!! There are two guys in our program who live across from us and they are always up for an adventure so my two roomates and I decided to go with them rather than go shopping (weighing in at 50.0 my suitcase can’t hold anymore clothes!!) We made our way all the way past our school (20 min walk from our apartment) to the pantheon, Travestere, Campo Di Fiori, and eventually the Vatican! The 4.8 mile walk was worth it once we reached the absolutely stunning Vatican. We all stood in awe! Unfortunately, audiences with the pope are Wednesday mornings, so we’ve decided that we will have to use up one of our two absences to go to it. Travestere is more of an area than a destination. While I can’t say the river was beautiful-murky, dirty water- the area was nice. As soon as we got back I googled churches for today, I found one just a mile away and online it said the service was at 10. I traversed through the rain and made it to San Something with a couple minutes to spare, to be welcomed by a locked door that said services were held at another San Something with an address for “directions”.   I guess there aren’t enough practicing Catholics to actually have services at the many churches throughout this city! Very sad. I came back made a breakfast of stir fried peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and eggs with fresh cheese and a blood orange (Takes getting used to something that’s juices ooze red-ewww!), which is actually delicious, and CHEAP! Only 1.5 euro for a huge bag. I had three yesterday. Gotta save my euros for important things like Italian cookies and chocolate croissants!!

Beautiful Sunshiney Day in Roma!!!

Just got back from a splendid run around this beautiful city. Luckily I found a running partner, the girl who lives below me, Liz, who likes to work out as much as I. ( notice I didn't say "me" ma). We stayed mainly in the residential areas to avoid traffic and people, but it was still lovely and pretty. Roman houses are GORGEOUS!! Think Charleston on steroids. Wish I knew how to put up pics on here, but they are all on my phone. I will upload some to Facebook soon!! 

I have to share a quick adventure from last night. I set out around 4p.m to do my grocery shopping by myself, (all the others had gone when I went to get Italian cookies instead #SweetToothProbs) 
I couldn't find the grocery store that is of course "Right by the apartment" and "You can't miss it". I did, however, see a deli with fresh meat and cheeses. Based on my knowledge of delis from Rick Steves (Shoutout to Elisabeth for getting me hooked && Glou for getting me the newest edition!!!!), I knew deli's were a good value for a delicious meal. I was very apprehensive about going in, there was just one guy working, and I was afraid the language barrier would be too difficult to accurately say what I wanted and how much of it I wanted. I stood at the entrance reading the sign,  and sighing and wishing I knew Italian, I walked past. 
And then I walked back and re read the sign. 
I walked past again. 
Gathering my courage and swallowing my indecisiveness I once again turned around, and entered the store.
"No parle en italiano" (Is that even italian for I don't speak italian???) 
"You want to speak in english?" said the guy working. 
"Si Si!!" I said excitingly, "Parle en iglesia??" 
"Si!! Si!!" he said excitingly. 
 Inside I was screaming with joy, and so began an hour long intriguing  conversation, which ended up including Palo's girlfriend and uncle! It turns out it is a family run bussiness, and Palo had spent 3 months in New York where he learned English. The girlfriend was very excited to speak English with me because she had just come from "University" where she had been taking an extra class-English!  When I left, I left with my hands full of a pastry, prusciutto, and fresh mozzarella cheese...GRATIS! In case you know as much Italian as me, that means free. That experience taught me that you can't wait until you are proficient in the language to talk to new people, or wait until their criminal backround check is in to get to know them, because you will never know the language as well as the natives, and you will never get a backround check.  A wonderful experience abroad depends on your ability to step outside your comfort zone in order to interact with the Roman Culture. 
Need to go shower now, we have to take advantage of this gorgeous sunshine to do some sightseeing!!!!