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.