Last weekend in Roma!

Friday was by far our longest day. We got up early in the morning for a tour with Ruggero around Rome. We went to the Piazza del Popolo, the first Church of England in Rome, the Spanish Steps, a french church and the Crypt of the Capuchin monks. Quite the long tour for just one morning. The Cappucini crypt was definitely the strangest of everything we saw. It's a crypt where some monk hundreds of years ago had the bright idea to dig up all the graves of old monks and make Christian art out of the bones. The entire crypt is just lined with heads, spines, femurs, you name it, all in artful positioning (see picture above). After that we went to get lunch near the Trevi fountain where I had Vodka Spaghetti (the same one Steph had last year that she still raves about). It was quite delicious. After Lunch we walked to the Vatican for an afternoon tour of the museums, on the way getting gelato from my favorite place (but they were out of blood orange gelato:(! ) Then Ruggero gave us a tour of the Vatican museums, saw the Sistine Chapel, Raphael's rooms, the old Roman statues, and their current missions in Australia rooms. Very interesting to see. After the museum tour we went to the grocery store to get snacks because we were watching the Godfather II that night. The movie was good, but definitely not as good as the first movie. After the movie we went and hung out at the boys apartment, playing games and just chilling until late in the night and ended up just crashing on their couches and sleeping.

This morning we all woke up really late because the boys apartment has very few windows and it looked as dark as night at 11am. We got up and some of the girls went to the grocery store and we made chocolate chip pancakes, sausage, and eggs for breakfast. Then we just chilled with the guys, watching the Big Bang Theory on one of their computers until we finally decided it was a good idea to go home and shower. So we did that and then hung out at our apartment for a little while before going out and wandering around the Vatican area. The beatification of John Paul II is tomorrow and the entire area around the Vatican was already packed with people at 6 camping out for the beatification tomorrow at 10am. Craziness. There are people of all nationalities carrying around flags and singing. They actually moved all the bus stops around to account for the people. We had to take the bus back to Campo so we ended up wandering around for a long time just trying to find the bus. Once we found the bus stop, we took it back to Campo, met up with the guys and went and got gelato before going to dinner. After dinner we all came back to our apartment because the beatification starts so early tomorrow if we want to be able to see anything. So we're going to get up super early to be able to go see it!

Midterms, Villa Borghese, Bourne Identity, and new host mom

Venerdi

Got up this morning and went to our tour of museums at Villa Borghese. One was of a really cool museum of modern art and the other the house of sculptor. After that we caught the bus back to Campo de Fiori. From there I walked all the way past the Vatican to get Old Bridge gelato for lunch and then back home to work on our presentation on Easter for class today. We finished our presentation, caught a bus back to class  and went to the Rome Center. We all gave our presentations, had a quick meeting with Claudio and Ruggero about moving to Rogliano next week and then we had our class about Ancient Rome. About ten minutes into the class, Ruggero's computer decided to shut down for no reason, officially ending class for the day. Then we headed home to just chill for a while, we had dinner, watched the Bourne Identity on TV, got friended by my host mom on facebook (Giusy Angotti) and am now headed to bed.

Mouth of Truth, Freak Rain Storms, and Dinner with the Teachers

Wednesday:
We got up and went to class where we had our last grammar lesson with Ruggero. Starting next week Claudio will begin teaching us for the rest of the quarter. Then we headed back home to eat lunch and work on our presentation on "Easter in Italy" that we had due today. The weather was super hot and muggy, but very sunny. Then at 3:30 Claudio was leading an informal optional tour of Rome to the Boca della Verita and Santa Maria di Cosmedin. We all met up for that and then started walking. I got picture with the mouth of truth and we toured the inside of the church and then walked up a hill in Rome to see the garden of oranges at the top. Right as we got to the top it started to sprinkle rain. It started to rain a little harder so we decided to end the tour for the day and head back to Campo de Fiori. But right as we started walking back down the hill a full on deluge of rain started. Claudio actually took cover underneath a bush and a bunch of us followed him. Then we started hearing thunder and seeing lightning so we, in all our infinite wisdom, realized the downpour wasn't going to be stopping any time soon so we decided to make a run for it back down the rest of the hill. At the bottom we took refuge in a small church with some nuns for a few minutes before deciding to keep going. I had my rain jacket on, but not my hood because it was full of water and one of the guys, not realizing it was full of water, tried to put it on my head and a ton of water just went streaming down my back. Whereas before I was relatively dry beneath my jacket then I just became soaked. The roads actually started flood as we ran across them trying to get back to Campo and finally by the time we got close the rain started to lighten up a little bit. We were all so soaked at that point that a few of us decided that "what the heck"why not go to the Pantheon to see it rain through the occulus. So me and a couple of the others kept going while everyone else went back to the boys' apartment to dry off and we ran to the Pantheon. Of course by the time we got the Pantheon it was just sprinkling rain again, but there were a ton of people inside who must have been watching it during the downpour. I bet it was really cool to see. Then three of the boys and I decided that naturally, since we were so soaked, why not go get gelato at a really great gelateria nearby? So we split off and went and got gelato. We got so many stares from people everywhere. All the tourists and Romans were either under cover or using umbrellas. Of the group, I was the only one wearing a rain jacket; the boys were just wearing thin button up shirts. We were absolutely sopping wet. The guys who sell umbrellas kept coming up to offer umbrellas and then realizing it was a lost cause since we were obviously too far gone for an umbrella to help. It was quite entertaining. After we finished our gelato we went back to the boys' apartment because the whole program (including Claudio and Ruggero) was coming over for dinner that night and we were helping to make it. Once we got there, I immediately begged for the boys to spare me some clothes which the other girls making dinner had done the same. We all looked ridiculous in the super oversized basketball shorts and t-shirts. Then we all made dinner and hung out. One of the guys tried to teach me how to play guitar and then took my iPod and put over 400 songs on it that he believes I need to listen to. By that time a bunch of other people started showing up so we girls changed back into our now warm and dry clothes from the dryer. Ruggero and Claudio showed up an hour late (typical Italians :P) and it was a really fun and entertaining dinner. We were eating off of plastic plates and of course within the first five minutes I managed to crack my first plate at the bottom so hot chicken sauce spilled all over me so then I got a second plate to put beneath it, which then broke about 20 minutes later so I had to get a third. My pants were covered in sauce by the end of the night. Then I helped one of the boys make cannoli's for everyone. Claudio and Ruggero ate their cannoli and then took their leave of us. After that we were all just hanging out until some of the guys and girls decided to go to the Irish Pub for discount night and the rest of us went home to go to bed.

Assisi #3 and the rest of the week-McDonalds, Trains, La Bella e La Bestia, e Qui Da Noi

Monday morning we all woke up when one of the girls, who had woken up early, came back to let us know that checkout was in half an hour. We all frantically jumped out of bed and packed up all our stuff, turned in our sleeping bags, checked out, and then went to go shower and change in the campground bathrooms (which had no toilet paper or soap, by the way). After that we had a quick breakfast at the campground and then hiked back into town to catch the bus back down the mountain to the train station. Once we got there, first the ticket machine was broken so we had to wait until people arrived at the ticket window a half hour later and then we bought the first tickets out of Assisi. We still had an hour and forty five minutes to kill after that and we were all starving so we ended up going to McDonalds (Yuck, yes I know, I didn't want to do it). McDonalds was completely packed. It took us a good 30 minutes just to get through the line and the food was more expensive than in the states, but it also appeared to be much better quality. I got a fried chicken sandwich that was actually quite delicious. Then we headed back to the train station to wait for our train. Our first train ride only lasted 10 minutes and then we had to to transfer to a different train for the rest of the trip. Not too bad. We ended up getting back into Rome by 6 and we just hung out, did homework, and watched Inside Man (which happened to be in English on our TV for some odd reason) with some of the boys that had come over. They finally left and we all went to bed.

Tuesday:
Tuesday morning we had to get up early to go on a tour of Villa Torlonia. We had no idea where we were going and Ruggero wasn't answering his phone so we ended up just getting on a bus and hoping it was the right one to take us where we wanted to go. Luckily it was and we ended up at the right spot, but it was looking pretty sketch there for a while. The Villa Torlonia was really beautiful and entertaining. The original owner had become an aristocrat through gaining wealth rather than by blood so to make his property more prestigious he added fake ruins and erected gigantic fake egyptian obelisks. The house on the property was really cool, each room had been dedicated to a different art style through the ages so it was kind of a mish-mash but cool to see all the different styles. The last owner of the house actually rented it out to Mussolini for 20 years before the end of WWII and then the American troops took it over in 1943 which also happens to be when the house sustained the most damage (whoops). Then there was another house on the property dedicated solely to stained glass. Absolutely gorgeous. So much craftsmanship goes into those things. After the tour we had lunch in the Piazza Bologna at a delicious Pizzeria and then I went back to the Rome Center to study for a quiz we had that day. Then we had the quiz and a break where I got a nutella crepe with strawberries (delicious!) then a short culture class and the school day was over. After that we went home and chilled, made dinner, and then Irma and I got ready to go to a play. Irma and I went to see La Bella e La Bestia (Beauty and the Beast: the musical). It was so amazing. My favorite night in Rome so far. The acting, singing, and dancing were all absolutely fantastic, the costuming was gorgeous, and even when I couldn't understand what they were saying (since it was in Italian) the play followed the storyline of the Disney movie so I understood what was going on. My favorite song was "Qui Da Noi"-the italian version of "Be Our Guest". It looks very cool on stage. I ended up buying the soundtrack afterwards (I can never resist a good soundtrack). Then we left and got gelato, then went home, did homework for a little while and went to sleep

Assisi #2-La Massa di Pasqua, Santa Maria, and more wanderings

Wow I'm falling behind so fast!

Sunday-
Early Sunday morning, me and 3 others woke up early (disturbing everybody else with the super squeaky bunk beds) got ready and headed to Easter mass at San Francesco. I had never been to mass before so it was a whole new experience for me. We walked in the church and it was absolutely packed with people. The the service started and everybody started singing and crossing themselves and we had absolutely no idea what to do. Once the actual sermon started I could kind of follow it because it's easy to figure out the word "Cristo" and "Gloria" "Alleluia", etc. There was standing room only and we ended up standing right behind this family with a little boy. He looked to be about 4-5 and he was the cutest darn kid I've ever seen. You could tell he was really bored because he kept trying to find stuff to do. At one point he ended up playing "I can't see you until I peep my head around my dad's leg and then I'm going to hide again as soon as you see me" game. It was so adorable. Then his dad picked him up and he leaned around his dad's neck and kept playing peek-a-boo. I love little kids. Then during the service there was communion and then one last song and it was over. I was very surprised because it was only about 45 minutes long. When we had first gotten to the church it was really rainy and overcast, but when we walked out of the church sunlight was just streaming down around Assisi. I looked up and the clouds had parted in a perfect circle just around Assisi but everywhere else there were clouds as far as the eye could see. It was totally cool. After that we all went and got lunch at a little restaurant and then wandered around Assisi, accidentally running into the rest of the group. They then went and got lunch because they hadn't eaten yet and we wandered some more around the town. We saw the building where San Francesco was born and we had pretty much covered the whole town within a couple hours. Then we caught back up with the rest of the group at Santa Chiara, saw the tomb of Santa Chiara and then wandered around the town some more. We ended up at the top of the town overlooking a gorgeous view of the surrounding area. Right next to the spot where we were was a little church called Santa Maria della Rosa. We went inside and instead of a church it was an art exhibition. The artist had created this statue of the Virgin Mary out of 33 different kinds of wood from all around the world to represent the unity of christianity and the age Christ was when he died. Depending on the direction you're looking at the statue it represents different parts of Mary's life, such as, the annunciation, being pregnant, carrying the baby Jesus, and holding her arms open to protect and love the world. On it's side it represents a dove.  There was big giant version, supposed to represent Mary and her love and protection for the world and a little tiny one that can fit in the palm of your hand to represent Mary and her love and protection for you. It was a very modern statue, but very moving. I ended up buying the smallest version of it because it was just haunting me when I first left the church. After that we wandered a bit more around town before going and eating dinner at this restaurant near San Francesco that overlooks the entire valley. It was a little pricey but we got to sit out on the balcony and the food was absolutely amazing. I had handmade ravioli and chocolate mousse for dessert. It was the most delicious dinner. After that we walked the long walk back to our bunkhouse and stayed up late playing Mafia, drinking wine, and just in general being silly and ridiculous. Then we all went to bed.

Assisi#1- Roughing it, San Francesco, Castles, and "That's hella defensive" Mafia

Saturday
Early on Saturday morning we got up and went to the train station to catch our train to Assisi. We bought our tickets, met up with the boys and caught the train. On the train ride over I slept and read and chatted with everybody. Once we got to Assisi we had to catch a bus from the train station up to the old medieval town on the top of this big hill. The buses were packed and two of us actually got pushed out because everybody was pushing and shoving their way on. So Rosin and I ended up taking a different bus (much nicer, with very few people). Once we got off the bus and met back up with the rest of the group only to discover that the road we had to take to get to our hotel was all uphill for at least a mile. An exhausting hike up to our hotel and when we finally get there they told us we couldn't check in yet. So we left our bags there and wandered around the property for an hour. The area had a hotel, a youth hostel, a campground, and several bunkhouses on it, along with a kids playing area and several miniature donkey pastures. We went to the kids area first and played on a spinning wheel thing and the slides first before going off to go find the miniature donkeys. I loved this whole area because it smelled strongly of pine trees, which remind me a lot of home. When we found the donkey pasture we found a momma donkey with her little albino donkey baby. Most adorable thing I've ever seen. Then we saw a dog that looked almost identical to Brandy (my dog at home for those of you who don't know) and I petted her for a long time before we finally went to lunch. Lunch at the hotel was decent and cheap, which is always a relief. After lunch we decided to go explore Assisi. We walked back into town and decided to go see the fortress castle at the top of the hilltop first. That was amazing. The climb up there was beautiful, but that's when my camera battery died and I had no way of charging it all weekend. :( We walked up to the castle and then wandered around inside. It was a really old and cool medieval castle. We wandered around all the tunnels and towers before we ended up sitting on this wall at the top of it that overlooked the entire surrounding area of Assisi and all of the region beyond. Absolutely gorgeous. That was my favorite part of the entire weekend. It was drizzling rain a little bit, but it was just so peaceful and beautiful that a couple of us stayed up there for a long time just talking about life. After the castle we went down into the town and explored all the churches there. The churches were all very old and beautiful. My favorite was la Chiesa di San Francesco. The church itself is part of a franciscan monastery and it has two basilicas on two different floors along with the tomb of St. Frances beneath. The painting inside were all gorgeously done medieval art and the entire church was just fantastic to see inside and the multiple floors made it especially cool. After we finished wandering around the town we walked back up to our hotel to check in. That was an interesting experience. Because there were 10 of us, the only place they had for us to stay was this tiny bunkhouse in the middle of the property. We walked in and there are 12 bunk beds with no pillows or blankets and no heating system. None of us knew it was going to be like this so none of us came prepared. We ended up having to ask the hotel for blankets and luckily they were able to lend us enough military style sleeping bags for everyone. Then we decide to go check out the bathrooms on the property and of course they have zero toilet paper and soap, most of lights don't work on the bathrooms and there are bugs everywhere. We were truly camping. After we finally settled in we went back to the hotel restaurant for dinner. I had the most delicious hot chocolate there. It was essentially like drinking a cup of melted chocolate bar. Amazing. Then we ended up going back to our bunkhouse and played Mafia and drank wine until late into the night. I fell asleep long before everybody else and apparently they kept yelling my name to wake me up but I was so out cold that I didn't hear them. I did wake up in the middle of the night though, completely terrified, having no idea where I was and believing that I had no idea where everyone else was. It took me a good 10 minutes to figure out I was still sleeping in the same room as everybody else and that nothing bad had happened. Totally weird.

Well that was a long one and it was just one day so I'll stop for now and write the rest tomorrow.

"Leave the gun, but take the cannoli"- The Godfather

Thursday-
Thursday morning we got to sleep in because we didn't have class until 2. Yahoo! We just chilled, ate breakfast, and headed to the Rome Center in time for class. Class was interesting because we talked more about the roles of women in Italian society and how that has affected italian law. Only recently were laws abolished that stated 1. If you caught your wife, sister, or daughter in an illicit relationship and you killed her, you could only serve up to 7 years maximum in prison because you were defending your family honor. 2. A woman that got caught by her husband in an affair could be sent to jail for 1-2 years. 3. If a man raped a woman, in order to "restore" the family honor he could offer to marry the woman. If she accepts, all honor is restored and life moves on. If she refuses than shame and abuse was heaped upon her for being a) dishonorable to her family and b)no longer pure because of the rape. Crazy stuff, I'm telling ya. After class I walked to the grocery store to buy some food and then went back to the apartment to make dinner and then got ready to go out for the night. There was a "Ladies Night Out Pub Crawl". This was quite an interesting experience. We went to two bars and one club and then got a free t-shirt. The bars were fun because we got to meet a bunch of foreign exchange students from Australia, Germany and England. After the bars though we went to a club that was just awful. It was packed with people, everyone kept stepping on my toes, smoking was allowed inside and I swear a guy almost lit my hair on fire when he was lighting his cigarette. Then a guy came up and danced with me and I kept having to push his hands off me and then he grabbed my face and tried to force me to kiss him which is when I just walked away. So gross. Then another guy came and danced with me who was absolutely terrible at dancing which is always a buzz kill for me. After that we decided we were done with the night out and we wanted to go home. We went and grabbed our pink "Ladies Night Out" free t-shirts and hopped a taxi for home.


Friday-
We had to wake up early on Friday (today) which meant we got an average of 4 hours of sleep from going out the night before. We rolled out of bed on time though and headed to class, downing some capuccinos along the way. Today's tours were of 4 churches in Rome near the Rome Center; 3 Baroque churches and the only Gothic church in Rome: Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. The first two churches we went to were the two first Jesuit churches in Rome and they were incredibly ornate and decorative, very much in the baroque style. I liked Santa Maria Sopra Minerva the best because it was a Gothic church, which happen to be my favorite style. I like the tall ceilings with flying buttresses and lots of stained glass windows. This church also happened to have the body of St. Catherine which was cool to see. Then we saw a french church that housed some Caravaggio paintings and finished our morning tour. After that we were all hungry so went and grabbed a quick lunch of pasta. Then we went back to the boys apartment to chill until 3 pm, when we had a movie day in the Rome Center watching the Godfather. I had never seen the Godfather before and boy was it an interesting experience. I can definitely see though, why it has received so many accolades because it is a very well made film. After that we went to get dinner and then tried to go to the Coliseum where the Pope was putting on a torchlight processional for Good Friday. We got there a little late though and it was completely packed so we ended up being so far away that we were able to see nothing but a burning cross they had placed on a hill across from us. That was cool, but we got cold after a while and headed back to the boys apartment to grab our stuff from earlier. This ended up with us staying at the boys apartment for another hour or so playing the childhood game Mafia (which is actually a very fun game). Then we caught the bus home to pack for Assisi tomorrow since it's rise and shine in just a couple hours so we can be at the train station by 7AM. Oh joy. I'll write when I get back on Monday.

Fairly boring day

Mercoledí
Yesterday, we finally sent Kelsey on her way out of Rome. Casey and I were sad to see her go! She walked with us to school and then caught a bus to Termini while we went to class. Class was just an hour long so afterwards we went back and chilled at our apartment for a while and then later met up with a girl from the other apartment to go shop. Some of the girls wanted to buy dresses to go out clubbing in tonight. After that we went back to the boys apartment and made them dinner because it was our turn. We made spicy chili with noodles and bread. After dinner we went to get gelato at the gelateria the boys claimed was better than our gelato place. They didn't have blood orange and their cioccolato was substandard so I gave it a B-. They did have champagne ice cream though, which, surprisingly, tastes like champagne. I just tasted it though because I felt that buying champagne ice cream takes it a little too far. After that we wandered around to the bars which were completely packed because of the double soccer matches going on so we ended up back at the boys apartment playing card games until we went home and went to bed!

Movie Screenings, Bars, and Soccer Games

Monday-

Trying to catch up on my blog as fast as I can. On Monday we went to class for the first time in a week! My life is so awesome. After class we met up with Kelsey, had lunch, and then walked to show her the Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. The Pantheon is so cool and it was fun showing Kelsey around Rome. After we did our little tour we took her to Zara, which she had never been to before. I saw those sparkly shoes I was eyeing last time and I still love them! But I'm saving my money for my shoe purchase until the last week in Rome. After that we walked around some more and then went back to the Rome Center where they had set up a movie night. We watched an italian film called La Nostra Vita and as soon as it was over the director came in for a question and answer. It was such a well done movie and the director was so awesome! I definitely recommend that movie for movie lovers and foreign film lovers. The cinematography was fantastic, most of the script was improv and very well done, and the entire thing was filmed and edited in only 10 weeks. Crazy. After the movie we ended up going with the boys to a greek place for dinner where we had kebabs. Totally delicious. I enjoyed it a lot. Except they mosquitoes there and I ended up getting three mosquito bites, all, of course, on my face. Since I have that weird reaction to mosquito bites, one of them looks like I just have a gigantic goose egg on my forehead. Lovely. After dinner we went back to the boys apartment to hang out for a while and then we went out to the bars because we found one where they were doing a 2 for 1 drink special for students. I definitely got a little drunk and decided it would be a fantastic idea to drunk dial Mom and Stephanie. Luckily, they thought it was hilarious. After a couple hours at the bar (we ended up leaving when they closed at 2) we all headed home and went to bed where I learned the joys of the room spinning when you first lay down when you're drunk.

Martedi-

Our morning field trip was cancelled today so we didn't have class until 2 so I didn't even get out of bed until 11:30. Such a wonderful relaxing morning. I caught up on homework and blogging and it was just a wonderful morning. Then we grabbed some pizza on the way to class. Class was interesting today. In 103 we talked about suffixes and number ordinals. All very fascinating stuff. But I learned how to say swear words! "Parolacce". Then we had the culture class where we talked about the Italian Family, the attitudes of men towards women, and the laws that go along with that attitude. We learned about how divorce only became legalized in Italy in 1973, but even then you had to be separated for 7 years and have proof for the judge that you tried to work it out before a judge would grant the divorce. All of this is a direct influence of the catholic church on italian politics. It took until very recently for them to be able to lower the amount of time you have to wait from 7 to 3 years. Then we learned about how 50% of Italian men admit to cheating on their wives and 40% of italian women admit to cheating on their husbands. Cheating is considered to be the lesser evil compared to divorce in italy because if you cheat, you confess to your priest and get in minor trouble, but you get divorced and you're barred from every taking holy communion again. It's all very political. 

After class we walked home and made dinner real quick before we had to walk to the Piazza del Popolo to go to a soccer game with our entire program! It was Inter Milan vs AS Roma. I still think soccer is boring, but watching the crowd was so much fun. It reminded me of high school basketball games where everybody knows special cheers and songs and when to use them and everything. Totally fun. They were waving flags and yelling every swear word that exists in Italian (I officially know them all now), and throwing fireworks on to the concrete part of the field: M-80's, flares, and other smokers and sparklers. Totally freaked me out when I first heard an M-80 go off. Inter Milan scored the only goal of the game. We all left 5 minutes early though so we could beat the crowds. One of our professors is from Milan and he said it was very hard to restrain himself when Inter scored (he was wearing a AS Roma jersey so he wouldn't get beaten up. All the Inter fans were in a tiny section surrounded on all sides by security guards). Then we walked back to Campo for crepes and then back home to go to bed! And now I am officially got up with my blog. Finally. Buonanotte!

I'm getting so behind!-Venice part 2 and the weekend

Sorry it's been a while. The last couple days I've been super busy, but more on that later!

Friday-
Friday morning I had a nutella and banana crepe for breakfast. A great way to start the day. :) Then we all met up with the rest of the program to go on our tour for the day. The weather was a little bit chilly in Venice the entire time, but that day felt especially cold. We took a ferry from Venice to Burano with our tour guide. Once we got to Burano though, they let us loose on the island to go explore, take pictures, and observe. Burano was so cool and colorful! Every house was painted a different color. We wandered around taking pictures, going through small alleys, and adventuring about. At one point we found a little kids park and spent a good hour playing on all of the toys, taking pictures, and just generally acting silly. It was really fun. After that we wandered around the island a bit more. Burano is famous for making lace and boy was there lace everywhere. There were lace table clothes, clothes, bread baskets, toilet roll hangers, handkerchiefs, you name it, it was there. I bought my great grandma, Mimi, a present there that I'm excited to give her when I get home. After some more wandering we stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the main part of town. This was by far the most tourist trap oriented place I've been so far. They had a 10% service charge, a cover charge per person, as well as a bread charge. This is the first restaurant we've been to that added that many charges. Stupid. Lunch wasn't all that great either. But after lunch we went to a pasticceria that was quite fabulous. I had a little tart and a chocolate mousse thing that was so sweet I almost couldn't eat it. Then we went and saw some famous person's house and I don't remember what his name was, but his house was by far the most cool and colorful of them all. Then we met up with the rest of the group and headed back to Venice. Back in Venice, we went back to our hotel room to rest for a few minutes and then wandered back out again into the city. I took some of the girls to a store called Promod that I'd been to last time I was in Venice. They had a great time shopping there. After that we met up with some more people and went mask hunting because everyone wanted masks. I bought a little tiny one that has gigantic green and black feathers surrounding it's head. It's really cool. We then took a gondolier ride because everyone needs to do that at least once in their life. Our gondolier man was really funny; he bought asparagus from a passing boat while he was taking us around. After the gondolier ride, we wandered a bit more and then headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the program. From there we all went out to dinner where they gave us a very strange seafood apperitivi and pasta and a delicious tiramisu and chocolate tort dessert. Then our tour guide gave us all little easter presents and they sent us on our way. It was still pretty early, but we were tired so we just went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Sabato-
Saturday morning I woke up early and walked with Irma to get a croissant and cappuccino for breakfast. On the way back we popped in to a beautiful small church that was on the same street as our hotel. It was very pretty inside, but not as ornate as a lot of churches I've seen. Then we all met up and took the train back to Venice. On the train ride one of the boys lent me their iPod to listen to a remixed version of the Tron soundtrack by Daftpunk. That was awesome. I enjoy cool techno music. After the train ride we went back to our apartment to rest, we went to the grocery store and then that night Kelsey Ondrak, a girl from Chi Omega who has been studying in Spain came to visit us. She's spending Saturday through Tuesday night with us, which so far has been really fun. She, Casey, and I just sat around our kitchen table and talked for hours after she arrived.

Domenica
Sunday morning we got up late, completely forgetting it was Palm Sunday. Some of the girls went to mass, but four of us decided to take a bus to a really beautiful park we had heard about. It was really hot on the bus ride over, but of course the second we got to the park with our little picnics, the weather turned cold. The park we wanted to go to, Villa Alda, was also supposed to be really big and the park we ended up at was very small so we honestly have no idea where we were that day. Once the weather turned cold we ended up going back and catching the bus. Right after we got on the bus it started to rain so we were glad we left! We ended up getting gelato (Nutella, Cioccolato, e Arancia Rossa) and then going back to the apartment to chill. Right after we got back to the apartment, the rest of the girls showed up with the entire boys apartment. They had brought dinner to make us and a movie to watch. Dinner was delicious and then we watched an old comedy called Grandma's Boy and then the Hangover. It was a fun and entertaining night.

We came, we laughed so hard we cried, we luckily didn't fall in the canals-Venice Part 1

Wow it's been a while. Venice was an awesome trip with our entire program. All 30 of us, including the teachers went. I'm gonna go day by day with this like I did for the Florence blog entry.

Wednesday:
Wednesday morning we all rolled out of bed packed our stuff really quickly, did the dishes, and ran out the door to make it to Stazione Termini on time. We met up with the rest of our program and our teachers at the Nike store in Termini before we all headed to the trains. Ruggero and Claudio were like mother hens the entire trip, making sure we were getting off the train at the right stops and that we were all ok and enjoying ourselves. They were hilarious. On the train I split my time between sleeping (I was so exhausted from the night before) and reading the Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. The book was good and so was my nap. Our group took up almost the entire train car which made for an enjoyable ride. Once we arrived in Venice we met our tour guide, Rita, just outside and she walked us to our hotel which was on the other side of Venice from the train station. If we had all had suitcases, we never would have made it. At the hotel, our room was very nice. I stayed with three girls: Katie Bradner, Irma, Dorantes, and Erin Murray (first and last names are so you can Facebook stalk them if you wish :p). Our teachers gave us a twenty minute break before our first tour so we went and got sandwiches and coffee. I had the most delicious espresso that was called caffe macchiato, which was just milk, espresso, and cocoa powder on top. Delicious. After that Rita came and took us on a tour to Ponte Rialto, which is the big stone bridge that traverses that grand canal. Then we walked over to see San Marco square. They let us loose after that and we decided to walk inside the church San Marco. It was absolutely stunning. The entire ceiling had gorgeous paintings set on top of gold backgrounds so the entire church glowed on the inside. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Totally cool. After that Irma, Katie, and I ended up getting separated from the rest of the group so we decided to go wandering off on our own. We walked along side of Venice that borders on the Ocean which was really cool because there was a storm brewing and you could see it whipping the waves up a couple miles away from us. We then decided to wander through tiny alleyways and streets and we stumbled across la Chiesa di San Zaccharia. This church was much smaller than San Marco, but had a much bigger impact on me. The walls were lined with gorgeous post-renaissance paintings, each of them incredibly intricate. Some of them have gotten so dark over the years you could barely tell what it is now. There was a back room you had to pay 1 euro to get in to which we decided to do. Back there you could see all the items the church was renovating, including a gorgeous all gold triptych altar. We also got to see the crypt back there which was eerily cool and the path through it was surrounded by water. Katie was so engrossed with taking pictures that she accidentally stepped in the crypt water. For days we were making jokes about how her foot is gonna fall off now from gangrene or some other gross disease.
After San Zaccharia we just wandered around Venice, looking at all the really cool mask shops that are almost every other store. Then we walked back to our hotel for a short break before meeting up with the rest of the group for dinner. Dinner with the group was awesome because the program paid for dinner instead of us. Yay! I got pasta, chicken, salad, and the most amazing desert. It was called a Profiterole and consists of a gigantic cream puff that is covered in chocolate. It was the most amazing thing I have ever had in my entire life. I wanted to just eat only Profiteroles forever and ever. After dinner we walked back to the hotel which has a bar right beneath it. During the day they sell smoothies and at night they sell Sangria and other mixed drinks. I had a vodka sour which was just a bunch of blended strawberries with a teeny tiny bit of vodka in it. I liked it because there was so little vodka I couldn't even taste it. Awesome. I still fail at this whole being a college student and "liking alcohol" thing. Oh well, whatever.
Then we all walked back to Rialto bridge to enjoy the view for a little bit. While we were up there a huge group of people came up and asked us if they could take pictures with us. They were a group of turkish tourists in Venice for only 2 hours and naturally they wanted to take pictures with the Americans. Weird, but funny. They took a bunch of ridiculous pictures with us and then went along their merry way. After that we just went back to the hotel and slept.

Thursday:
First morning with the curtain-less shower (see pictures on Facebook). Stupidest invention ever. The bathroom floor had two drains in it, but they didn't seem to accomplish anything. By the end of my shower the entire floor was covered in water. Not helpful for getting ready in the morning. We all got up and got ready and then had a breakfast at a little café by our hotel and had yogurt, a croissant, and a cappuccino. Then we all met up for our tour with Rita. For that day she had decided to show us the non-tourist part of Venice which was really cool. We walked all throughout the Cannareggio region of Venice which is where a lot of the locals that still live in Venice have their homes. It was a much quieter tour than the one the day before, but it was cool seeing the more normal parts of the city. We saw some guys repairing a boat and parents taking their children for walks. It was cool. After our tour, a small group of us decided to walk to the opposite side of Venice from where we were so we walked through San Marco to the Accademia bridge and wandered around over there looking at mask shops and just generally got lost. We saw the Antonio Vivaldi museum of music and helped an old man with directions to get back to his boat. We oggled all the designer stores as we scoped out their crazy expensive window displays. We had pastries and pizza, saw some unique masks and at several points had zero clue as to where we were. Eventually we ended up back at the hotel, but about half an hour later we ventured back to where we had been to eat at a restaurant we had seen in our wanderings. Best. Dinner. Ever. The food wasn't that great. I had lasagna that looked like it had been regurgitated, but the company was fantastic. We laughed so hard we cried for pretty much the entire dinner. Our group of 9 was louder than the group of 20 german tourists that were also eating dinner at that restaurant. It was so much fun. By the time we left, I laughed so hard my stomach muscles hurt. Thursday was also the day I learned to at least partially roll my "R"s finally too! I've had a problem with this ever since I was a kid and I've never been able to figure out how everyone can do it. I'm the only member of my immediate family that can't so it obviously wasn't a genetic thing. One of the girls in our group, Katie, is majoring in Linguistics and she is the one who taught me how to do it. She said that in English 50% of people learn how to say their R's one way (rolling) and 50% learn how to do it another (flat). I just happened to only learn the flat way so my tongue muscles for rolling my r's just never developed. By the end of the day practicing it I could say most of my r's with a roll and after several days of practicing I can roll pretty much all of them. YAY! Katie is my lifesaver so now I don't have to sound like a stupid American with my accent when I talk in Rogliano. My life is now complete.

That's all I'll update you on for now. More to follow tomorrow on Friday-Sunday.

Sono Stanca

Today has been a rather long day. We got up and went to the Campo de Fiori where we met Claudio to go on a tour of a museum he had never been to. He was all worried that not all of us would make it on to the bus so I volunteered to be in charge of group two if anything happened. Because of this he now knows my name and was very impressed by me. Yay! The museum was different but cool. It was a museum that was in a building that orginally was a steam making factory. Now they display industrial art with classical statues to have an interesting counterbalance. After the museum trip we all took a bus back to Campo de Fiori and went and had lunch. I had the quattro formaggi pizza which is quickly becoming my favorite pizza here. Then I had some amazing lampone (raspberries) and cioccolato gelato for desert. Then we had class which focused on the Italian economy. Apparently the future of the euro is dependent on the future of Italy's economy. If italy declares bankruptcy like Greece, Ireland, and Portugal it will send the euro down the tubes. After that lovely piece of information we had a short break and then a quiz on "si impersonale", "espressioni negativi" e "espressioni pronomi indiretti e relativi". I believe I did really well on the quiz. After the quiz we got to leave early so I went back home and took a nap before we all had dinner and then went out to Scholar's Irish Pub again for karaoke night. That was fun. I got to sing twice this time, Raise Your Glass-Pink and Hungry Like the Wolf- Duran Duran. Fun times. Had my first Tequila Sunrise which was apparently very poorly mixed according to the others who tried it. Who knew that Italians would be bad at making Mexican drinks? :P Then back home to pack real quick for Venice and then up early to go to the train station tomorrow.

I probably won't have internet access in Venice so expect the next report on Saturday. Ciao!

Lunedi

Oggi é Lunedi. Monday. Today was a good day but not super exciting. Got up this morning and went to school where we were supposed to have a test which I had crammed for on the train last night. But when we walked in to class today Ruggero said that since we had all been gone this weekend he wanted to move the test to tomorrow and just review for today. 10 points for Ruggero!!! That was rather exciting. After class we went to the grocery store and got some food to eat for the next two days before we go to Venezia and then we just chilled at the apartment, reading awesome books for the rest of the afternoon. For dinner though, the boys apartment invited us over because they wanted to make dinner. So went over, taking a bottle of wine and some bread with us. One of them made flank steak with a pesto tomato pasta. It was soo good! I was actually rather surprised. I did not believe they could cook, but the proved me wrong. Later we were all just chilling, sitting around in their living room while they passed a guitar around and one of them decided it would be a great idea to make all of us take shots of absinthe. Most disgusting thing I have ever tasted in my entire life. Worse than Robitussin or Nyquil cough medicines. I chased it with coke (I hate coke) and I thought it tasted fantastic compared to the absinthe. Then we all went out to a bar and the boys convinced me to take a shot of strawberry vodka. That was a little better but still gross. Surprisingly it didn't make me that drunk at all which is good, but all of the boys and the older girls promised to take care of me if anything happened anyways. Then we all walked to the Trevi fountain which was beautiful and empty at night. We just fooled around taking pictures and goofing off before coming home to go to bed. That's all for now folks! :)

Firenze Part 2

Saturday:
Saturday morning we got up and had the terrible free breakfast at the hotel. It was essentially some rolls of bread and terrible coffee. Then we walked to l'Accademia to see the David and the rest of the paintings inside. The musuem was really cool, showing off half finished sculptures by Michelangelo in the hallway leading to the David and a ton of medieval tempura paintings. After we saw that we decided to walk around Florence and explore a bit. We walked just a few short blocks and saw Firenze's il Duomo which was just gorgeous! The line was fairly long to climb to the top of the dome, but we decided to do it anyways. It had these super small spiraling stairs going almost all the way to the top. A lot of the girls got dizzy and claustrophobic while we were going up, but I thought it was fun. The stairs right at the top were super steep and actually curved out so it was steepest right at the middle. Very strange. The view from the top was absolutely fantastic. You could see all of Firenze laid out before you. After that we were waiting for the boys to go up through the Duomo and we got some gelato. That was an interesting mistake. The gelato place was set up so you got your gelato outside and then paid inside and they had no prices anywhere. So I got a waffle cone because those are my favorite back home and I was craving one. The kid piled ice cream onto it ridiculously high and then told me to inside where they told me it was 15 euro! Ridiculous! Every other place I saw waffle cones they were 7 euro at the absolute max not 15. We found little tourists traps like that all over Firenze which is weird because we haven't found that in Roma at all. But I ate that entire stupid ice cream because there was no way I was going to let it go to waste. Luckily it was quite good, but definitely not worth 15 euro. After that we went down to the Piazza where the David originally stood which was quite beautiful. We wanted to go to the Uffizi at that point but the line was about 3 hours long so instead we went inside il Palazzo Vecchio, an old Medici residence. That was super cool, the paintings on the ceilings in every room were very detailed depictions of ancient Roman/Greek gods to exemplify the divine right of the Medici family.   After that we went up with the boys and walked across Ponte Vecchio, the bridge filled with gold and jewelry sellers. The jewelry was gorgeous, but priced insanely high. Then we walked around Florence shopping for a new birthday dress for Katie since we essentially celebrated her birthday all weekend long.
After that we met up back up with everybody and we went and had a delicious dinner. I had Spaghetti Pomodoro which is awesome with fresh tomatoes. Then we all went back to our hotel and got changed to go out to a club that night. Once we were all dressed up and ready we went to the area around the Duomo to figure out where to go for a club called "Space". While we were wandering around the piazza looking for it we ran into a young American couple who were looking for the exact same club and they were from Portland! What a small world Firenze is. Once we figured out where the club was we walked there and went inside. It was the first club I had ever been in and it was an interesting experience. It was loud and crazy and packed with people (mostly guys, very few girls). First we went to the bar and they gave us all a free shot of peach schnapps for being first timers at the club. Disgusting. I still can't stand the taste of hard alcohol so I didn't drink any more after that even though we were all supposed to get a free drink by paying the cover charge. Then we decided to all go dance and the guys swarmed on us like leeches. It was ridiculous. I had one really sweet Spanish kid come and ask me to dance. That was an interesting experience because he spoke very little english and very little Italian. He was from Madrid and only spoke spanish. I thought that I still remembered some, but clearly after attempting to talk to him in spanish it was a complete fail. He did manage to tell that he was "professional dancer in Madrid" which he definitely didn't dance like it, but he told me I was a good dancer after he tried to "teach" me how to dance. It was a very strange dance, but did involve spinning me around a lot which I did enjoy. After that us girls went to go find the rest of our group who had somehow managed to find a group of people from Washington that are in the army and just happened to be on leave in Firenze, Italy right now. Crazy! They were all nice, but a little on the older side for my taste. They were all hitting on us along with the five billion italian guys crowding our little area, but they were also willing to help us get away from the Italian guys which was nice. One italian guy who was a little older and rather unattractive asked me to dance and when I said no we ended up sitting and chatting for a while, him speaking in English to me and I spoke Italian back to him which was fun. Then after a while he grabbed my hand and dragged me on to the dance floor. I really was not into dancing with him he was way too touchy feely, but at least he wasn't a groper which was good. We danced for a while and then one of the girls came and grabbed me and told me we were headed home so I walked back with them to the hotel and we went to bed.

Sunday:
Sunday morning I was planning on getting up early and going to the Uffizi right when it opened, but I was so exhausted from getting home so late from the club that I didn't manage to get myself out of bed when my alarm went off. So instead we all slept in and checked out of our hotel and then went to go spend the day in Firenze until our train at 5. We went to a small bar cafe for breakfast where we had amazing pastries and fresh squeezed blood orange juice. Absolutely amazing. Then we were planning on walking down to the Uffizi to check out the line but we got distracted by the leather market we found on the way there. We weren't planning on spending a long time there, but we ended up spending a couple hours just wandering around. At one point I accidentally got separated from the group (the market was like a maze) and ended up just walking around randomly looking at stuff when I saw somebody I knew.

Now let me give some background on this person. Last summer my mom, my sister and I came to Italy for my graduation present and we came to Firenze. While in Firenze we came to this same leather market, wandered around and checked out all of the leather jackets. At one point we ended up going into a store where the owner, a man named Paolo, was super sweet and totally had the hots for my mom. We bought jackets from him and he gave us gigantic discounts on them and then he just stood and chatted with us for a good hour. Right as we were about to leave he asked if he could take us all out to dinner that night at a local restaurant. We said yes, met up with him for dinner that night at a restaurant called ZaZa (the same one I went to Friday night actually) and had a great time hanging out with him and talking about Italy and the culture and everything. His english is flawless because he went to NYU for college. At the end of the night though we all said goodbye to him and never thought we'd see him again.
Well I was walking down the line of leather shops when I saw him sitting in a chair in one of the stalls. It totally surprised me but I went in and asked if he remembered my mom, my sister and I. It took him a few minutes (apparently he was really hungover), but his assistant remembered me and then he started to remember too. I ended up standing and talking to him for an hour about Italy and school and life and everything. He totally remembered Stephanie and how smart she was and how pretty my mom was. He was actually upset at first because I hadn't come the day before to say hi. He said because I came the day I was leaving he couldn't show me good "Italian hospitality" like he normally would and said next time I come to Venice I have to go see him first. Very funny. Finally I told him I had to go find my friends and he gave me his business card and told me if I get into any trouble at all to call him and he'll come help me. He was very sweet. After that I went and found my friends (who had bought beautiful leather jackets while I was gone) and we shopped around a little bit more before deciding to walk to la Basilica di Santa Croce and get gelato on the way at a place Rick Steves (the travel guy) reccommended because they have rice gelato. That was weird. It tasted like tapioca pudding. Definitely not as good as the gelato here in Roma. After that we wanted to go inside the Basilica but you had to pay to go in and we felt that on a Sunday you shouldn't have to pay to go inside a church. So instead we walked along the river, taking funny pictures, got more gelato and then went back to the hotel to grab our bags and go to the train station. The train ride was really long again and we were all exhausted by the time we got home. We all loved Firenze but we were happy to be home last night in Roma.

Firenze part 1!

Wow what a crazy few days it has been. Sorry this one is gonna be kinda long. I'll start with Friday and go from there.
Friday:
Friday morning we had a tour la Basilica di San Pietro at the Vatican. We all especially enjoyed this tour since it was right next to our apartment and we didn't have to get up early to walk somewhere. San Pietro is such a magnificent church. It's crazy how ornate and detailed the entire inside and outside is. After we toured the inside of the Vatican we also took a short tour beneath the Vatican to see all the tombs of the popes. We got to see the Tomb of John Paul II who will be canonized as Saint in just a few short weeks on May 1st. The had several Swiss guards guarding his tomb and the entire thing was covered in flowers from people. That was really cool. After our Vatican tour we went back to the apartment, grabbed a quick lunch and our bags and then went and caught the metro to Termini and from there we got our tickets to Firenze (Finally!).
The train ride was long (about 4 hours), but we were going through the beautiful region of Tuscany and it was fun to just sit and stare out the window. I ended up sitting by the most adorable young italian couple. The wife spoke a little english so she practiced her english on me while I practiced my italian on her. I could understand most of what she was saying too, which I felt was a good improvement. At first though, they didn't realize we spoke italian and the husband flat out asked her to go have sex with him in the bathroom. She said no. Hahaha I don't think he would have said that if he had known me and my friend understood him! But later on we spent a good hour talking to them and learning more italian from them. After the train ride we walked to our hotel which was kind of a hole in the wall place, it was just two floors of a five floor walk up right at the top. That was quite the hike every day. After we checked in we all decided to go out for dinner because it was one of the girls birthdays. While we were walking to the restaurant the weirdest thing happened. There was a girl walking down the street and I wasn't really paying attention to her until she got closer. She was actually a girl that I went to church with in Spokane. She used to work with me at the youth group for the little kids. Weirdest coincidence ever. Apparently she is studying in Florence, but goes home in just a couple weeks. Oh what a small world it is. After that we went to a restaurant called ZaZa that was quite excellent. I had the most amazing Rigatoni con Mozzarella e Pomodoro and we all at an absolutely delicious torta di cioccolato for dessert in celebration of Katie's birthday. After dinner we walked around Firenze and went to a bar called Astor. It was a weird bar. There were gogo dancers there who were dressed in strange fifties housewife see-through nightgowns with pin-up lingerie underneath and they were walking around the room spraying random things with Windex. Weird. They were also terrible dancers. At one point though we managed to get the entire bar to have a dance party with us in the middle of the room. Awesome. After that we got tired and walked back to our hotel and went to sleep.

So this doesn't get too ridiculously long I'll stop here for the night and fill you in on the rest of the weekend tomorrow morning. Buonanotte!

Tanti Musei

Today Ruggero took us on a tour of a museum in the outskirts of Rome. It was built by Mussolini and was filled of copies of statues and reliefs of art from all over europe. It was the first museum I've actually been bored at so far. There was nothing original in the museum and our tour guide was terrible. There was a really cool mini version of ancient Rome which apparently they used for the movie Gladiator whenever they show aerial shots of Rome. After that we walked back to the metro station and went back to Rome. We had lunch, went to class where we learned about the Italian Constitution and the Vatican. Then we wandered around the Campo de Fiori area for the rest of the afternoon until we went to dinner with Kelly's parents. Dinner was fabulous and her parents were fantastic. Now we've just spent the last hour trying to find somewhere to stay in Florence tomorrow. Who knew it would be so hard?! Anyways, off to the Vatican and Florence tomorrow. Arrivederci!

Un Giorno Noioso

Not much super exciting happened today. After our late night last night where I was already feeling sick, I woke up this morning completely unable to speak and with a mild sore throat. So after grammar class today we came home and after making delicious provolone quesadillas (who knew that would be good?!) I drank a bunch of tea and took a long nap. I felt much better after the nap, but still not 100% so I spent the rest of the evening reading a book and chilling with the girls watching crazy italian television. So my day was rather boring. But tomorrow is field trip day and sure to be more exciting! Buonanotte!

Imperial Forum and Karaoke night

Sorry this one is a little late! Yesterday we went to the Imperial Forum on a field trip. When we were there, somehow Claudio managed to charm the manager into letting us see the inside/top of a medieval tower that's never been open to the public before. Ruggero said that in his 50 years of life he had never been inside and didn't even think it was possible. The views from the top of the tower were so amazing! You could see all of Rome laid out before you. It was totally awesome. After the forum we went back to the Campo de Fiori and had crepes for lunch. The guy who works at the creperie always likes to put extra "surprises" in my crepe. Whatever it was, it was super sweet and mildly crunchy and it tasted like a really sweet custard or something. We asked it what it was, but he refused to tell us. It's a "surprise" he says. We ended up talking to him in Italian for a while. He was a really nice guy and since the creperie is right around the corner from the Campo I'm sure we'll go back. Then we all went to class. Grammar was first then Culture. In the Culture we learned about all of the different religions in Italy and about a lot of the racism that has sprung up because of it. After class Ruggero took us to the Jewish Ghetto which is the oldest community in the city. It was really interesting to learn about the history of that area. We saw a 19th century Jewish High School, a Synagogue, and a Jewish bookstore. The Synagogue is the only church in the city besides that Vatican that is protected 24/7 by the Italian police because of terrorist attacks in the past. It was all very fun to see. After that we went to a bakery and got some snacks, then to the grocery store then home. That night after dinner we went to Scholar's Irish Pub for Karaoke night. It was completely packed there at first because Rome's soccer team was playing and later because of Karaoke. Our entire group karaoked at various points of the night,  me included. Three of us sang Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. I swear more of us had fun singing along to all the songs being sung than anything else. After about an hour my voice gave out. I don't think it was from singing too much, I think I might be getting a cold. Still can't talk very well this morning. I sound like a frog. We finally walked home around 2:30 in the morning. Hence the reason I didn't write this last night because I hopped into bed since we had class in the morning. Well that's all for now folks. :)

Sono andata alla spiaggia

My life is so crazy unreal right now. This morning we got up, went to class and then went to the beach! We hopped on a bus to Termini, took the metro to another stop, and then took a train to the tiny town of Lido on the coast. The town was really quiet, but there were a fair amount of people at the beach. Not super crowded at all though. We laid on the beach and read books in the sun for an hour and then the boys from our group showed up and everyone played soccer on the beach. It was fairly warm except for a really chilly breeze that was pretty much nonstop the entire time we were there. Other than that though, the weather was beautiful. After we came back to Rome our entire group decided to go out for Chinese food at this tiny restaurant near our apartment. The waiters spoke no english and their italian was so hard to decipher with a chinese accent! Then a stop for gelato after dinner at our favorite gelateria and then home. It was a fabulous day overall. :)

A Lazy Sunday in Rome

I love Sundays and today was no exception. Last night we'd all gone to bed exhausted from walking around so much yesterday so we were a little slow to get up today. When we did get up though and got ready we hopped on over to the Vatican so we got watch the Pope's weekly Sunday prayer from his window over the square. While we were there I met up with my friend Kira Elmer from the states (she is here on spring break) and she hung out with us for the day. After listening to the Pope we decided to try going to the flea market again just like last Sunday, but take a different shorter route this time. It was a lovely walk along the river and through Trastevere and we got there much faster than before. The flea market was really fun. They sold everything you could possibly imagine. Kira bought a coffee pot there. I bought a cute necklace and a light jacket I can wear out at night and not look as casual as I do with my Northface. We all loved the market because it was filled with random cool items and everything was cheap. Perfect for a college student outing. :) After the market we walked up through Trastevere, had lunch, and then the girls went back to their apartment and I walked with Kira back to her hotel so she could give me the sunscreen she had brought for me (it's 18 frickin' euro here to buy sunscreen. It's completely ridiculous). Then I took her up to the best gelato place in Rome, near the Vatican where I introduced her to the immense joy of a cup of dark chocolate, nutella, and blood orange gelato in a cup. It's the best gelato combination of all time! She agreed that it was the best ice cream she had ever had in her entire life. Success! Then she came back to see my apartment and then went back on her way. After that my afternoon was boring. I read/finished a book I just started reading yesterday (whoops!) and skyped with my mom so I could watch my little sis compete in a horse show for the very first time on my horse. She did so well! I was so proud of her. I skyped Sam and Jamie then and that was the end of my night. Not very exciting for a Sunday, but it was a great  way to spend the day. :)

Creepy Old Man

 Today was a rather boring day. Everybody was tired from our night out last night and we were all rather slow getting out of bed. Rather than doing anything super exciting we decided to explore another part of Rome on foot. We just kinda walked towards the Piazza del Popolo and down Via del Corso and shopped a little. Popped in to any store we thought looked cool. The weather was gorgeous today, probably 75 degrees. So, naturally, we all wore shorts. I have never felt sluttier dressed in my entire life than walking around Rome today in shorts. Besides our group I don't think I saw a single person wearing anything but pants or a skirt with tights and long sleeved shirts. These Romans be crazy! It was so hot! But boy did we get stares from all of the guys. For days we've already been feeling like items being eyed at a meat market, but today was worse. At one point we heard guys behind us calling dibs on which one of us they liked. After a couple hours we became exhausted of walking and decided to take the bus home. Terrible plan. The bus was extremely crowded and somehow I got stuck in front of this really creepy old man. At first it seemed like he was just really close to me because of how crowded the bus was, but it soon became apparent as he started moving his hips forward and back that he was trying to hump me on the bus. SO GROSS! I tried to push him back with my elbows, but the bus was so crowded it wasn't working all that well. Finally when more people got off, I ducked under his arm and as far away as possible. I swear I'm going to avoid the buses from now on and just walk. It's really not that bad just walking everywhere. Once we got home we all just hung out, read books, ate dinner, and watched American kid movies in Italian on our brand new flat screen tv (the landlord just had it installed yesterday. We had no tv before that). We watched Stuart Little, Garfield (which was surprisingly adorable) and then Madagascar 2 came on. Tomorrow night during dinner, What A Girl Wants is playing. Totally psyched for that one. And yes I do realize I'm in Italy watching TV on a Saturday night instead of doing something cool. But sometimes it's nice to just relax a little and take a break. :)

Coliseum; Florence Train Cancelled; Mexican Food

Wow it was a crazy day. We got up super early today because we had to meet at the Coliseum this morning for class instead of at the Campo de Fiori. Normally we could just take the bus, but due to the strike the buses were going to stop running after 8:30 AM so we had to make sure we made the buses and had all of our stuff with us to go to the train station because it would be impossible to go home. So we lugged our backpacks with us to the Campo de Fiori, left them at school, and then booked it on over to the Roman Forum for a tour. Our tour was awesome! We got to see all of the Roman Forum, the Palatine, and the Coliseum, plus had a guide (Ruggero) who actually knew the history he was talking about. At one point he let us wander around the Barberini palace ruins and around the Palatine hill. Some of us girls wandered around and at one point we found a door that was left unlocked leading into one of the ancient buildings. The building was so cool on the inside! But someone that worked there came after us and kicked us out very quickly. She seemed to be yelling something about the door being closed, but clearly if we could get in then it was open. Apparently the tours of that building didn't start til later. We saw a ton of stray cats around the area too. Rome has a huge problem with stray cats, but at the same time have a ton of laws protecting them so they just wander around the historic district. After our tour for the day we decided to go grab our stuff and some lunch before walking to Termini train station (since the buses weren't working). Lunch was delicious. I had tortellini with prosciutto in a cream sauce. Lunch took a little overly long though (as it tends to do in Italy) and we ended up to have to practically run to the train station. We were about half way there when we realized there was no way we would all make it on time by walking. So half the girls grabbed a taxi and we kept running until the next taxi came along. Once we finally found a taxi for ourselves we discovered we had run much farther than we had realized and were almost there. Finally we've all raced and sweated our way to the train station only to discover our train ticket confirmation codes don't work no matter how many times we enter them to get our tickets. Lovely. And after that we learned our train had been cancelled due to the strike (all of the trains to Florence were still running except of course for ours because we were taking the longer much cheaper and less direct route. Ugh. Yay for being cheap). Luckily our tickets will work at the same time on another Friday so we will probably go next weekend. So we essentially had run all the way across town, only to discover it was pointless. So we took a taxi back to the Campo de Fiori and walked the rest of the way home. After a much needed break for our feet, a couple of us decided to get gelato at the "Old Bear" Gelateria. They're gelato was the best I've had here in Rome. It was creamy and sweet and cheap and utterly fantastic. I had Cioccolato, Nutella, e Fragola (strawberry) with whipped cream and it was only 2 euros! Awesome. Then back home for another break, where I caught up on my Grey's Anatomy (the musical episode was actually quite fantastically written fyi). Dinnertime came upon us so we decided to look for something new and we went out for Mexican food.
Mexican food in Italy is not that great, which I feel is to be expected. But the atmosphere was fun. We all ordered Strawberry Margaritas and they were utterly disgusting. I had two sips and just couldn't drink any more because they had been mixed extremely strong and tasted just like cough medicine. Yuck. The waiters made up for the crappy food and gross drinks. At one point one of them grabbed me and pulled me to the center of the room to Salsa dance with him. Totally fun. Then for the rest of the night they were walking by and screwing with our table. I even got to wear a sombrero. Then one of them came around and made shooters for our entire table. So gross, but I drank two. I still don't see why people like that stuff! Then they made all of us dance and then one of the waiters declared that it was my birthday and that therefore I had to compete in a race with a bunch of other birthday girls drinking a cup of Sangria out of a super long straw using no hands. I definitely did not win, but the Sangria tasted much better than any of the other stuff they gave us. It was a crazy night, and the other girls decided to go out dancing afterwards, but 4 of us decided it was time to head home to go to sleep.

So that was how we made up I guess for missing our train to Florence. Tomorrow we're going to explore the Castel di Sant'Angelo and Sunday we're going to go to a flea market. There is still a lot to do in Rome! Buonanotte.