Sicilia, Accident, Pokémon-What a trip we had

Ok I left off on last Wednesday. On Thursday we had our program trip to Sicilia. We had to be at center of town at 7:30 AM to catch the bus which was wayyy to early for all of us. Once the bus arrived we all got on and took our seats. Mike had brought his laptop so we played Pokémon Emerald for the duration of the ride to Reggio Calabria, a town on the coast where you can take a ferry to Sicilia. Once we got to Reggio Calabria, the weather was absolutely amazing. Ruggero took us to a museum where they were restoring two ancient Greek bronze statues. After that we went and got lunch and chilled on the beach until we had to meet back up to take the bus to the ferry. The ferry ride was fun, we all went on to the top deck, hanging out in the sun and taking pictures of Calabria and Sicilia. They are only a mile apart so the ferry ride was really short. Once we arrived in Messina, the town in Sicilia on the opposite side of the crossing, it was our first view of Sicilia. I thought Messina was a very beautiful town. We went to the Duomo of Messina which was rather beautiful and then had Cannoli at a place that Ruggero, Claudio and Rita (our tour guide from Venezia came with us to Sicilia) claimed to make the best cannoli in all of Italia. They were completely right. It was the most delicious cannoli that I have had here in Italy. Absolutely amazing. After that then it was back on the bus to drive to our first hotel (and of course to play Pokémon in the interim). Our hotel for that night was absolutely gorgeous. I was in a four person room with Molly, Erin, and Casey. The room was huge, with a kitchenette and a gigantic balcony. The hotel also had a pool, gym, bar, restaurant and was right on the beach. It was fantastic. But that’s when the our luck changed. We were all just settling into the hotel, changing into our swimsuits and ready to head out to the pool/beach when one girl accidentally ran through the glass door to her room’s balcony. She cut open her leg in multiple places, one so deep it actually cut through muscle and tendon. We called the teachers and an ambulance immediately. Ruggero handled the stress of the situation beautifully but Claudio only made it worse. When he showed up, all he could say was “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.” Not helpful when people were trying to keep the girl calm because she still had shards of glass sticking out of her leg. When the ambulance came they took her with them because the cuts were so deep. Yet she still managed to somehow laugh and wave at all of us as they carried her down the hallway on a stretcher. She’s seriously one tough cookie. After they took her to the hospital, our excitement about being in Sicilia had definitely been killed. Everybody was really shaken by the accident. Some people still went to the pool and swam, but I went out to the beach and chilled on rocks to watch the sunset instead.  At dinner later, Claudio and Ruggero told us that Chelsea had to go in for minor surgery to repair the super deep cut on her leg and that she wouldn’t be released from the hospital for several days. They decided to continue with our trip though and leave Rita behind to stay with Chelsea at the hospital because we couldn’t afford to stay at this hotel multiple nights in a row. After dinner a bunch of us went out to the beach to hang out and watch the waves at night. I was still feeling a little sick from my cold still though and it was really windy so I ended up going back to the hotel room and attempted to go to sleep. Key word: attempted. Once I got to the room I could still hear everybody from the beach they were so loud. And then they got cold and decided to go play mafia in the room directly next to mine. Lovely when I’m trying to sleep. They were so noisy! The next morning we went and played on the beach for a few hours before getting back on the bus (back to Pokémon), and driving to Castellamare del Golfo, a town an hour or so past Palermo. We drove through Palermo at one point and I was really surprised by it. I expected to see a really idyllic Italian town and instead it looked like Albuquerque, New Mexico (for those of you who have never been to Albuquerque, we have nicknamed it the “armpit” of the US). Palermo just seemed very rundown and sketchy. I was glad we didn’t stop there. Castellamare del Golfo was a very beautiful town, once we got there. Sadly though, there was no real beach at our hotel, only a marina and a bunch of rocks. Our hotel was extremely nice though, 4 stars, which I was amazed that we could afford it, but I think the location, lowered the price. We decided to go explore the town and see if there was a decent beach near our hotel. We found one beach but it was extremely rocky. Two of us went swimming there anyways though because the water was really nice and the day was rather warm. After our little swim we walked back to the hotel to have dinner with everybody. All 27 of us students managed to fit into one restaurant (they just gave us the top floor). That was a really entertaining dinner. It was fun having all of us together again because we’ve all been missing each other. After dinner we discovered a bar next door to the restaurant that was having a karaoke night, which of course we were all over. We stayed there and sang many songs and had a lot of fun until late in the evening. The stares were worse here though than they ever were in Rome. I’m not sure the Sicilians knew what to make of 4 American girls singing Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” very very badly off key. Good night overall. 

 Saturday: Saturday morning we had an optional field trip with Claudio and Ruggero to a famous hilltop town in Sicilia called Erice. The weather was terrible that day and I wanted to see more of Sicilia anyways so I decided to go. Most of the other people on our program decided to go too, which definitely made the trip more fun. As soon as we got to Erice we expected a tour of some kind, but Claudio and Ruggero told us to just meet back up at that spot in 2 ½ hours so we were free to roam around the town. Erice reminded me a lot of Assisi. It was the same medieval town style complete with castles and everything. Right as we started to explore it started to drizzle a little bit. Brent, Mike, and I went to go explore the castle. The castle reminded me of all the castles in I saw in Ireland. Ancient and crumbly and surrounded by green. We tried to look out over the valley below the castle, but right as we went to do so, a huge bout of fog rolled in so thick you couldn’t see 10 feet in front of you. We stayed there for a little while when a bunch of our friends showed up and we all took a group picture. As soon as we took the picture the fog cleared and you could see for miles! It was absolutely stunning, you could see the ocean and mountains and the valley all laid out before you. After that the a couple of us went of to explore some more castle ruins and the rest of the town before grabbing some lunch. Once our trip in Erice was over, Ruggero and Claudio decided to take us to an area famous for making sea  salt. That was an interesting field trip. There were just miles of saltwater flats for miles around. We stopped at the museum for the area and it was just a total dump so after only spending half an hour there we got back on the bus and headed back to Castellamare del Golfo. We were supposed to head back to Rogliano on Sunday, but Chelsea (the girl who had the accident) wasn’t supposed to be released from the hospital until Monday so Ruggero and Claudio made the executive decision for us to stay in Sicilia one more day and drive home with Chelsea on Monday. Once we got back to our hotel we wandered around the town for a little while before all going out to dinner together again. After dinner we all went our separate ways and I hung out in my room with a ton of people watching Italy’s Got Talent (it doesn’t by the way). At least in the American version some people are talented; most of the acts on the episode we watched were absolutely ridiculous. Example: One man came out dancing in a speedo and then ripped it off to reveal a g-string thong with a bulls head covering the you know what. May I add the man was 60. Hilarious and creepy, but definitely not what I would call talent. After that I went over to another groups room to watch a movie (which no one had warned me was an awful slasher film). That was not fun. I hate movies that are gory and disgusting just for the sake of being gory and disgusting. After that I couldn’t find my roommates (who had the key) to get back in my room so Mike and I ended up playing Pokémon (naturally) until they got back.

Sunday: Free breakfast at the hotel Sunday morning before we had to pack up all our stuff and hop back on the bus. We were heading back to the hotel we had stayed at the first night near Messina. The weather was terrible so we didn’t mind spending the 4 hours on the bus (playing Pokémon the whole time of course). Once we got to Messina the weather was a little better. I was feeling totally restless from the bus ride so almost immediately after we checked into our rooms I went for a long walk on the beach exploring and just having a ridiculously fun time. Once I got back from my walk I discovered that everybody was playing a gigantic game of volleyball so I joined in. Soon we saw Claudio and Ruggero so we waved them over to join us. It was so much fun! Claudio scored so many points for our team! He was awesome! Ruggero, sadly, could not hit the ball without falling over, though he did score the winning point for his team. We played that for over an hour before a bunch of people ditched to go for a swim (it was really windy so I didn’t swim because I knew I would just be cold). After that we all had dinner together at the hotel’s restaurant. The program paid for dinner which was totally awesome. After dinner we all went out to the beach and then back inside to hang out, play games, and have a good time. Mike and I played a little Pokémon (as you’ve probably noticed we got a tad obsessed over the weekend)  and then went out to the beach to chill out and watch the ocean. It was really windy out there and out on the ocean it looked absolutely pitch black even with the waves whipping up everywhere. It was totally cool to see. Then we headed back inside to watch X-men: Wolverine Origins (Hugh Jackman is so hot in that movie) with some people and then off to bed.

Monday: Last day in Sicilia. L We were all sad about leaving Sicilia but we all felt awful for Chelsea. The hotel told us we didn’t have to check out until Chelsea was released (I think they still felt guilty about the fact that it was their glass door she had fallen through) so we spent the morning playing volleyball (which I’m absolutely terrible at by the way. I managed to hit the ball backwards off the court multiple times), swimming, and playing out on the beach.  Mike and I had an epic stick battle with giant sticks we’d found around the beach. His stick totally destroyed my stick, but it was hilarious to watch it get smashed to pieces. I think someone took pictures. We thought we were supposed to be leaving by 2pm that day, but Ruggero and Claudio ended up not being able to pick up Chelsea until 4 so we didn’t end up leaving the hotel until 5. Then it was back on the bus to Messina, then a ferry ride, then from Reggio Calabria to Rogliano. By the time we got back it was super late. Our family was waiting for us though in the main plaza when we got home. Francy came and gave me a huge hug and then we went home and had dinner because they had waited to eat for us.

Time Spent in Sicilia: 4 days

Time spent on a bus: 18 hours

Time spent playing Pokémon: 16 hours

Trip=Success

Part #2 from a while go

So where did I leave off yesterday? Oh right, the party. The party was so much fun. It was the first night in Italy I felt like I really just got to be myself and have fun not caring what anybody else thought (Nick always says my natural habitat is the dance floor. He’s totally right). The party was on the driveway of Mike and Brandon’s house and even had a DJ. Their host dad was out there dancing away like there was no tomorrow, it was one of the funniest things to watch. One of the other host parents told us that if we got him drunk enough, he would do hand stands. By the end of the evening Enzo had danced on chairs and done handstands. My friend Mike claimed at one point that he didn’t know how to dance so I taught him all my best nerdy dance moves, a.k.a. Wax on wax off, Q-tip throw it away, bus driver, monkey, and the sprinkler. He, in turn, taught me how to head bang. After the head banging and nerdy dance moves he asked me to teach him how to spin and dip a girl so we practiced that a much (he only dropped me a few times though I thought it would happen more). The rest of the evening was spent dancing and being ridiculous. After the party ended Enzo brought out fresh steaming hot croissants filled with Nutella for everyone. That croissant was one of the best things I’ve had in my entire life. Amazing. After that we decided to walk up to the bar in Rogliano and hang out, but once we walked all the way up there we saw that the bar was completely packed with people celebrating that the Milan soccer team had won the championship so we ended up leaving and walking home because it was just too crowded.

Sunday, I got up early to go to the Sunday Market in town. It was sunny and gorgeous outside (finally) and it was a lovely day to walk about the town. We walked around for an hour or so before coming back to the house to have lunch. After lunch we had to write an essay that was due on Monday and that took absolutely all afternoon. The essay was 3 pages in Italian about our impressions of the monuments in Rome. Crazy. After dinner we went and chilled at Mike and Brandon’s to use the Internet. Ended up staying there for too long, watching tv shows and hanging out. By the time we left my cold had gotten much worse so when I woke up Monday morning I was very sick and very miserable.

Monday was the day I had to register. Boy was that stressful. I got a ride over to Mike and Brandon’s (MB from now on) and set up all my class schedules so I could register when it opened to me. Of course as soon as it was time to register my classes got messed up and I ended up not getting into a single class I wanted. I couldn’t get into Italian because since right now I’m registered in “foreign study” the website wouldn’t believe that I had the prerequisites to sign up for 201. So that messed up my schedule and then I tried to sign up for Communications 201 and that was closed so I tried Comparative History of Ideas: Biocultures and the quiz section I wanted was full so it wouldn’t let me sign up for the class. Ended up having to register for Psych 101 and CHID: Intro to intellectual history. Then I emailed the Italian department so they could place me into an Italian class. Then after that I figured out how to get into the CHID class I originally wanted. It of course only took me over an hour to finally get my schedule right but now it’s set and I’m not changing it! After that it was time for class so Enzo drove Brandon and I to the Casa Della Cultura (which is the town’s library and where we currently have classes). After class we went home and had dinner and almost immediately after dinner I went to bed because I was very very sick, coughing up a storm. I haven’t been this sick since I had bronchitis in September! Managed to prop myself up with enough pillows in the middle of the night though that I managed to sleep without coughing and actually felt better on Tuesday. On Tuesday we had class in the morning, watched a movie called “Il Gattopardo” in Italian culture with Ruggero. It’s an Italian movie but the main actor is American, Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity anyone?). It’s a really well done film about the dying age of aristocracy in Italy when Italy became a unified country in 1860. After class we went home to eat lunch then off to MB to use the internet and chill. Brandon and I downloaded virtual Gameboy advanced onto our computers so now we can play Pokémon Red Version on our computers. We are now in a competition to see who can do the best hahaha. After that home to eat dinner, play with Francesco for a while (who won’t stop talking about Stephanie ever since I showed him her picture, “belllaaaaa” is what he said). It’s very cute. He told me last night he wants to write her a message and I told him I would translate it into English for him. Then everybody went to bed and I went to MB to hang out. Then home to bed. Woke up feeling much much better this morning. Today was our first day of teaching at the Elementary school! I got to teach 1^st grade with two other people from my program. It was so much fun!! I always forget how much I love little kids until I’m around them again. We worked on colors, names, and the weather in English. Now we have to figure out what to teach on Monday. I was thinking maybe an easy kids song (like really easy. They’re still learning Italian). If anybody has any ideas let me know!

Rogliano Week #1 part 1

Last week in a nutshell

On Tuesday the grandparents and Francesco came back from Genova. The house was so much noisier once they came back! But much less awkward. Francesco is really quite the crack-up. He really lightens the awkwardness every time he’s in the room. He likes to make jokes a lot and screw around. Typical 10 year old boy. He and I get along really well as do he and Brent. Meals that day had way less awkward silences and Brent and I felt like talking in Italian became a lot easier. We spend most of our late evenings at our friends Mike and Brandon’s house because they have internet and we don’t. Our host family talks about their host son Corbin from last years program every single day. I don’t think I have had a single conversation with them so far that didn’t mention Corbin in some way. Here are some of the following things we’ve been told about him: He didn’t like the other people on his program so he never left the house besides for school, spent all his time playing with Francesco outside, taught his family to play beer pong, wrote Francesco a long letter at the end of the program about him being his “fratellino” or little brother, spoke very good Italian, was very very handsome (our grandma and host mom stress this) and was essentially the perfect host child. They talk about him so often we feel like there is no way we can live up to his standard which is really hard. Our nonna told us that Corbin “will always be first in her heart”. A couple days ago he wrote Francesco an email saying in italian “there are no words to describe how much I miss you”. Awesome. I think it’s really cool how close they were/are to him, but it’s hard feeling like there’s no way we can be as close to them as he was. That’s rather frustrating.

Anyways, Wednesday we didn’t have class until 5 so I got to sleep in. Played with Francesco and that evening I went and hung out with Brandon and Mike after dinner which was fun. Mike and I ended up taking a night walk to Marzi, wandering around there, visiting the cemetery (which is really cool with a bunch of old mausoleums), and then sitting and talking for an hour before walking me home. That was a good night. Thursday, we had class from 10-1 then hung out with Francesco and the fam the rest of the day. Friday we went on a tour to Cosenza with Ruggero. We got to see the Duomo of Cosenza which was awesome and then we all hung out together and shopped and had lunch together.  Those of us that became really close in Rome have really been missing each other so our day in Cosenza was our day to catch up. It’s really strange not living with my girls any more and it’s weird not being able to hang out with all the boys every night. Don’t get me wrong, I love Rogliano, but I had just settled into my life in Rome and had really started to love everything about it and then we moved here. Oh well. I really hope I can keep all these friendships with these people when we get back to UW because I really like them all. We had chinese food for lunch (which actually wasn’t that bad) and then took a train ride back to Rogliano. Hung out with the family for a few hours, playing with Francesco, had dinner, and then that night there was an “American Party” at the bar in Marzi. Pretty much everyone went to that and the bar was completely packed. All 28 of us, plus many many more Italians (mostly males). I didn’t have that much fun that night because I was starting to get a sore throat and some of the guys at the bar started to creep me out. One guy had been going to multiple girls in our group almost every night last week, asking them if they thought I would have sex with him. Creepy creepy creepy. So not down with that. Hella creepster. That’s kind of putting me off Roglianese guys majorly. Not cool at all. Saturday I hung out with my family for the day, I woke up a little bit more sick but still ok. I took a nice long nap after lunch so I could go to a party Saturday night. Mike and Brandon’s host dad was throwing a “birra festa” for only the American kids and their older host siblings. So much fun. Best night I’ve had here so far. I got to wear my sparkly shoes that I bought in Rome and my blue dress that I love. 

Week 1: Rogliano

I woke up before Brent, got up took a shower and headed downstairs to hang out with Giusy. She made me breakfast and I showed her pictures of my friends, family, and horses that I had with me. Francesco’s favorite animal is a horse so she told me I have to show him the pictures when he gets back on Tuesday. After a while Brent came downstairs and had breakfast with us. After breakfast Brent and I walked up to the main piazza in town where they had their weekly Sunday market going on. We walked through the market and wandered around town taking pictures until it was time to go home for lunch. When we got home we had lunch with Giusy and her grandfather, which was really fun. We couldn’t understand him at all though because he only spoke in dialect. We had so much food for lunch though. A delicious meal of penne alla Bolognese, salad, chicken, and meatballs. Then we had multiple desserts along with an espresso before we finally escaped from eating more food. After lunch we walked to the house of some of our friends because they have Internet. We hung out with them for a couple hours before going home to have dinner with our host mom: mozzarella, tomatoes, cucumbers, fish sticks, along with an apple and multiple desserts. I’ve never felt so full in my entire life as I do here every single day. It’s crazy! We hung out with our host mom for a while after that, watching italy’s version of “America’s Funniest Home Videos”. That was really entertaining to watch and it was good bonding time for the three of us. Brent and I are speaking a little bit more Italian every day, which is good. We’re feeling a bit more confident as we go along. 

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! 

Soooo far behind! Last week in Rome!

Sunday: Sunday I woke up early in the morning to go to the Vatican and see the Beatification of Pope John Paul the 2^nd. No one else in my apartment got up because they were all too lazy, but one of the guys decided to walk around with me. It was 7AM and the police had already closed St. Peter’s square because it was so packed with people. There were people everywhere all over the area that it made it difficult to cross the street, especially since the Police kept blocking off areas to keep more people from getting to close. By 7:45 we knew there was no way were going to find our way anywhere near the Vatican so I ended up going back to my apartment and chilling until 10 am and I watched the beatification on TV as it was happening half a block away from me. That was completely crazy. After watching the beatification on TV for a while, we decided to get away from the Vatican area before the people started dispersing all over the city and making crowds a nightmare. So a couple of us walked to Campo to get kebabs for lunch and hang out with the guys a little bit. After that we walked up to an orange garden at the top of hill so we could look out over the city. The weather was beautiful so we ended up staying there for a long time before meeting back up with everyone else and going to get gelato. We got gelato at a place called the Frigidarium, where they dip all of their ice cream in chocolate after you order it. That was delicious but I somehow managed to get it all over my face and my hands while I was eating my ice cream. Lovely. Then we walked over to the Villa Borghese, which is this gigantic gorgeous park in Rome. We wandered around there for a long time just exploring the sights. It was quite the enjoyable afternoon. After that we went back to the boys apartment and made Mexican food for dinner, which, while not quite the same here as in the US, it was still good. I made quesadillas for everyone.  Then we went home and went to bed.

Lunedi: Monday was our first day of class with Claudio. His teaching style is definitely different from that of Ruggero, but we will be speaking more Italian in his class, which I think is more beneficial for the remainder of the quarter. After class Chris and I decided to go try and find a post office to figure out how we could mail stuff home before we go to Rogliano. We found the post office, but it was tiny and nobody spoke any English at all so we ended up heading back to the Rome Center to ask the people there what to do. While we were walking back, a camera crew stopped us. They were filming a tv show about fashion for an Italian style Disney channel and the host of the show wanted to take pictures of my dress. Then they made us sign all these forms to release our images to the public. So apparently I’m going to be on TV even though I have no idea when! After that we went to the Rome Center and the ladies who worked there told us about a Post Office that was rather far away but that spoke English and were very helpful. So we took the address down and then I went home to start packing a little bit. After I finished packing the bag I wanted to mail home, one of the girls and I got gelato before catching the bus back to the Rome Center because they were doing another movie viewing. The movie was called, “La Doppia Ora” and was kind of a psychological mystery romance film. Afterwards we got to do a question and answer with the three screenwriters who had written the film. That was really cool listening to them. After the movie screening we went back to the boys apartment and made dinner, chicken and pasta, and just hung out and played games. After that we went home.

Martedi: Tuesday morning we started the day off with a tour of the Macro museum, a museum of contemporary art. It was very different from everything we’ve seen so far in Rome, but it was nice having that change.  After the tour a couple of us stuck around the museum and explored a little more before they kicked us out for not having a ticket (Ruggero had it). So then we walked back towards the bus stop to catch it back to campo and on the way we spotted an Italian Mexican restaurant. Of course we had to stop and check it out. The food was decent but nothing like real Mexican food. I don’t think Italy even has the same ingredients to make Mexican food that we have. After lunch we got the bus back to Campo and went to class. Day 2 of class with Claudio was hilarious. Our class has a great energy to it with him as a teacher. I haven’t laughed so hard in class since class with Sra. Herbert and Mr. Lang in high school. After class we all went and got gelato at a place near the Pantheon that the boys really enjoy. Then we all went and hung out at the boys place until we decided to go out and get dinner in Campo for the first time. The food was delicious, but the restaurant was definitely a tourist trap kind of place. Some of the people I was with ordered a bottle of wine that ended up being much more expensive than they originally thought. Luckily I was just drinking a liter of water so I didn’t get caught in it too. After dinner we went back to the boys place and played games until we decided it was time to go home.

Mercoledi: Last day in Roma!! Boy was this a crazy day. Class had been moved back to late in the afternoon so Chris, Rosin and I decided to go to the post office in the morning and mail some stuff home before our trip to Rogliano the next day. We got to the post office at 12:30 and it was the one the ladies at the Rome Center had recommended as very helpful and English speaking. Let’s just say they were not helpful and they did not speak very good English and the only Italian they spoke was the Roman dialect. We couldn’t understand anything they were saying. Thus our “quick trip” to the post office last 3 whole hours. 3 hours of a lot of gesturing frustration and awfulness. We finally got our packages off and sent but at that point class had already started and we still had a 25 minute walk back to Campo so we essentially missed class because of the post office. Chris and I decided that if there is a hell it is the Italian post office. So since we had missed class we met up with some of the older kids that were already out of class and I went with the girls to go walk around Rome (the girls wanted to go to Sephora and Zara). After that we met back up with everybody and got gelato. My last gelato in Rome. :( It was delicious. After gelato we went with the boys to buy groceries to make our last dinner in Rome and then we went back to finish packing. After we finished packing we met back up with the boys and walked around Rome for a couple hours, exploring the city by night one last time. Then we got crepes and headed home to go to bed for just 2 hours before we had to get up and do the trek from our apartment to the bus stop. 

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!