La Vita Romana

*Finally, there are pictures!!*

I apologize in advance that I am so slow in posting, but unfortunately I have been having computer issues, both at home and at school, at least in regards to posting pictures, so rather than make you wait any longer I'm just going to go ahead and post this without pictures. Hopefully I can figure out a solution to that problem in the near future, but in the meantime, here is a more basic first post. (With that being said, if you have access to Facebook there are a bunch of pictures I've been tagged in so you can at least get a feel for it - feel free to share with those that don't have FB.)

Anyway, I arrived last Tuesday morning after a very long, but uneventful day of travel. My first impression, just in trying to get from the airport to the Hilton where we were to meet our shuttle, was that it is really hot and incredibly humid here. After about an hour or so, and a rather scary shuttle ride through the chaos that is Roma, we, my roommate from SMC was also on my shuttle, found our apartment. We are in the old part of Trastevere, a neighborhood about a mile and a half from school. Besides my roommate from SMC, there is 1 girl from UCLA, and 2 girls from Pace in NY. Everyone is very nice and we all get along well, although my roommates do seem to be a little more focused on going out than I am.



So about an hour after I got settled into my apartment, I went and met up with a girl from WWU, she was also on our shuttle into the city, and, in an attempt to help fight off the jet lag, wandered around aimlessly until we wound up in Campo di Fiori. (We would come to find out later that this is the most popular night life spot for American students.) At that point the jet lag was starting to set in and we still wanted to figure out where school was, so we headed back across the Tiber. By the time I got back to my apartment at around 6p I was exhausted and, after taking a shower to wash off the sweat and dirt that is Roma, I crashed hard!



The next day, Wednesday the 31st, was a rather boring day of orientations. First our SAI (Study Abroad Italy - the organization that we are going through) orientation, a lunch break, and then our JCU (John Cabot University - the school we're actually going to) orientation along with a presentation from the U.S. Embassy on all the stupid things not to do.

While at the JCU orientation we met Andy Steves, Rick Steves' son, who apparently also did a semester abroad at JCU. Having just graduated himself, he's started his own travel business geared towards students and is around all semester hocking his tours. As it turned out though, that night he was doing a free walking tour followed by dinner, so I met back up with my friend from WWU and her roommates and we tagged along.



He took us from Piazza Trilussa (right next to campus), where we met, to Campo di Fiori (here we learned the true nature of Campo), to Piazza Navona (quite large and we learned that it was actually Noah that led the Israelites out of Egypt! I had to call BS on that one), and then finally over to the Pantheon where we had dinner.





I have to admit that seeing the Pantheon for the first time, maybe it was just because it was night and therefore not quite as well lit, I was somewhat disappointed. I expected it to be more impressive and it just didn't jump out at me -I would later come to change my mind, I've since been back through said piazza numerous times.



Dinner was great - just around the corner - 15 euros for a multi course meal (I wanna say 4 or 5) and all the vino you could drink - suffice it to say some over did it. It was fun to be able to get to know people though and, at one point, Andy and I spent some time talking about home. Apparently he was offered an internship in P.A.







After dinner, we walked another couple of blocks to his favorite gelato place. I can't say that I had a whole lot of room left over after dinner, but . . . when in Roma!! I couldn't possibly pass up gelato and it tasted GOOD!!!



Thursday, the 1st, was a SAI inclusive (we didn't have to pay anything additional for the day) excursion to Ostia Antica followed by a 4 course lunch at a working farm/hotel. Ostia was a port town (right next to Fiumicino airport) circa 8 BCE that has been preserved over the centuries by the flooding Tiber. While I am still having a hard time with the juxtaposition of ancient among modern (standing in the middle of Ostia watching airplanes fly overhead), it was really cool to be able to walk through the town as a lot of it still exists in fairly good condition.



After our tour of Ostia, we were shuttled to Borgeso Italian Farm where we had an amazing lunch in an absolutely idyllic setting! It was still incredibly hot and muggy, but if we were ever in doubt that we were in Italia, we couldn't deny it there. The food was great and the farm itself felt as though we were sitting in a movie - it was a rather surreal experience.



From here on out things slowed down a bit - thankfully!!

Friday, I took a lazy morning and then met up with a friend after lunch before heading off on JCU's navigation 101. Had we known, we would have skipped it, but being the unknowing newbies we are we forged ahead. In the following 4 hours or so we walked all the way over to the Colosseum, took the metro to the Spanish Steps, and then walked to Trevi Fountain. At that point, my friend and I had already made plans to meet up with Andy again for dinner and had to head out, so we skipped out and made our way back to the Pantheon.









Once we finally made it over there, Tom, my friend from SMC (we've pretty much been planning this study abroad thing together) finally showed up!! (His flight had been cancelled and rescheduled due to his layover in Newark and Irene.) I hadn't seen him since May so it was great that he was finally there and he joined us for dinner and gelato!







Saturday was a really lazy day - hung out at home watching movies and then had dinner with Tom.

Sunday, Tom and I met up with another SMC girl that we had a class with last semester and her two roommates for some touristy activities. More walking!! We walked to Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, Piazza di Popolo, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and back home. It was a lot of walking (at least I don't have to feel so bad about all the carbs and gelato!!), but everything here is and it was fun.





Finally, this week is my first week of classes. My earliest class is at 10:30a, so it's kind of nice to be able to sleep, especially in respect to the Roman time table. So far all my classes seem like they're going to be really interesting and probably quite a bit of work too. I still haven't met my Middle Eastern politics professor yet though, he is apparently stuck in the States (still have to go to class this afternoon though). I can say without a doubt though that Mondays and Wednesdays are my favorites as I am done with class by 1:15p. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a nearly 4 hour break in between classes, so, right now, I'm coming home for the duration before heading back.

Tomorrow is another SAI inclusive excursion, this time to the beach at Ostia. I'm sure it will be incredibly hot, but it should be fun, too!!

Enjoying the Roman life, but now it is time to head back to class.