Trip to Paestum and first two days in Rogliano!

Giovedi: Thursday morning we left Rome forever. :( We got up really early, finished packing everything up, cleaned our apartment really quick, and then dragged all of our bags down the stairs and out of our apartment and then we had to walk a half mile with our bags from the apartment to the bus stop. Once we got to the bus stop, Claudio and Ruggero were there but the bus was not. We waited a while for the bus before Claudio figured out it had gone to the wrong place, but finally they got it figured out and we all got on the bus. We were on the bus for a couple hours when finally we stopped in Paestum for the day. Paestum is a small town in Italy that was originally settled by the Ancient Greeks 2600 years ago. The ruins in Paestum are older than Rome. When we first got to our hotel we discovered it was right next to the beach so immediately we all changed into our swimsuits and ran off to the beach. We spent an hour or so at the beach playing soccer, playing in the sand (I built Mt. Doom from sand) and playing in the water. After that we all went and got lunch before Ruggero and Claudio took us on a tour of the ruins. That was really fun because we just got to run all over ruins, really getting to explore everything. After the ruins tour we went back to the hotel to have dinner. After dinner a couple of us just hung out chatting for a while before going out to the beach to see it at night. I'd forgotten how much I love the beach at night. It always reminds me of a book I read when I was little called the "Big Big Sea". Then off to bed!

Venerdi: Friday I got up early to go to the beach before we had to leave for Rogliano. I was surprised that I was the only one from our program out there because the weather was just gorgeous. I laid on the beach and took a walk until one of the girls came to tell me that checkout was an hour and a half earlier than we expected and that we needed to go clear out our stuff. So I went back to the hotel and packed up all my stuff and took it down to the bus before going back to the beach for a little while to hang out in the sun before we had to get on the bus. Since we had to leave so much earlier than expected and we weren’t supposed to arrive in Rogliano until a certain time along the way we stopped at the monastery of San Lorenzo. It was very obvious that this monastery was not normally a big tourist attraction for foreigners so it was cool to see something unique that was more of the typical southern Italy style. After the monastery we got back on the bus and rode for another couple hours before getting to Rogliano. When we drove into Rogliano there was a huge crowd of people waiting for us including the mayor. They herded all of us into this big room and then introduced us one by one to our families. Brent and I met our family which consists of nonni (grandparents) Ida and Pino, una madre Giusy, and un fratello Francesco. We met our family and then we said goodbye to our friends for the first time in 6 weeks and we went on our way. Brent and I each had two bags so in our host mom’s tiny car we ended up having to take two trips to get everything to our new house. The house where we live is huge. I think it’s originally meant to be apartments because there are 3 floors and each one has multiple bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen. The grandparents sleep on the ground floor and that’s the floor where everybody hangs out and where all the cooking is done. The rest of us each have our own bedrooms on the 2^nd floor and Brent and I each have our own bathroom. The house is very very cold though. It can be 70 degrees outside and it will feel like 60 degrees inside the house. They don’t use indoor heating and it’s just not hot enough outside to warm up the house so every single room is cold. At night I’ve been sleeping in multiple layers of clothing in order to stay warm. Outside though, the weather has been beautiful. Once we got to their house they showed us our rooms and then made dinner for us. So much food! Brent and I each had two portions of lasagna, two salads, two pieces of pork, and multiple desserts along with several glasses of wine that the grandfather made himself (he is very proud of his wine and every time our glasses were empty he would fill them up again). The grandparents are very sweet and Francesco is just a crack up. After dinner though, the grandparents and Francesco left to go to Genova until Tuesday for a family member's first communion. Once they had left the house was really quiet with just Brent, Giusy and I. We chatted with Giusy for a while (kind of one sided chatting, she talked a lot and we just kept saying "si" so she knew we understood) and then went upstairs to our rooms to finish unpacking and then went to bed. 

Sabato: Today was day 1 with my Roglianese host mom, Giusy. She had told Brent and I to sleep in so we got up late and had breakfast with her. Just a muffin and a cup of yogurt. After breakfast, Brent and I walked around town exploring. The town is very beautiful and I love how secluded it feels out in the country. Hills and green trees everywhere, I feel content. And we’re only 20 minutes by car from the beach. YAY! After a while though we felt lonely because we didn’t see anybody else from the program and we got stared at a ton, especially because of how tall Brent is (6’6” and a red head to boot). Somebody tried to ask him how tall he was in italian and he had no idea how to convert his height to the metric system. Every single person he meets asks him if he “giochi basket” (plays basketball). It’s rather entertaining. We got stopped by one old man who asked us if we were Italian and when we told him we were from the US he bought us Fantas from the bar, spoke to us in Spanish, and then sent us on our way. That one was pretty random. After that we went back to our house where Giusy made us lunch (Spaghetti alla Carbonara, tomato and cucumber salad, and chicken in a white wine sauce with mushrooms). She claims she’s not a very good cook, but Brent and I both thought the food was delicious. After that she told us we should go upstairs and take naps. Our house is super cold though so we ended up going outside on the balcony and chilling in the sun because it was so much warmer than inside. We were out there for a long time when we saw two other girls from my Rome apartment walking down the street and they told us everybody was meeting in the center of town so we went downstairs to tell Giusy we were leaving and walked back to the center of town. It was really fun seeing everybody and swapping stories about our respective host families. We were also all missing each other because it had been the longest amount of time we’ve gone without all of us being together since the end of March. We all got rather attached to each other. Then we all walked around Rogliano and Marzi, walking around to see everybody’s houses. After that Brent and I went back home but when we got there Giusy was gone and the door was locked so we ended up just hanging out outside until she came back. She was at the supermarket getting Fanta (because we came home with some earlier from that guy she thinks its our favorite drink now) and had ordered pizza. She took us with her to go get the pizza and when we got to the counter they handed her 4 pizzas for the 3 of us! At dinner she at half of one and then expected Brent and I to eat 1 ½ pizzas on our own. I had to tell her that my stomach is too small to eat that much pizza :P After dinner we went to visit her friend who is also hosting one of the girls from my apartment and we had espresso and strawberries before going on our town church tour with the rest of the program and Ruggero and Claudio at 9. After the tour a bunch of us ended up hanging out and meeting up with people’s host siblings at a bar, just getting to know more people. That was really fun, but I’m starting to get tired of being stared at all the time. It’s even worse than it was in Rome!