Roma, continued!

Anyways, as I was saying...

Our hotel room is beautiful. The bathroom is very small; there is just enough room to turn around. Sitting on the toilet is funny because my knees hit the shower doors. The shower is another funny story--it is a square that is maybe 1.5ft on each side, maybe. I bump my elbows on the sides when washing my hair, and there is an "Alarm" string that just hangs by the wall, and I am always afraid of accidentally giving it a yank when I move my arms (This may sound unreasonable, but the string has a small, clear rectangle on the end of it that weighs it down and makes it susceptible to snags of the elbow). Nevertheless, it serves its purpose, and I love it for the experience of it!

Yesterday, my roommate, Paige, and I went for a walk around the city. At every street corner was "Oh, look at this!" "It's beautiful!" "Oh my gosh!" "Let's go this way!" "Oh my!" "Watch out, scooter!" The exclamations are endless. I call this the "I love" stage. We have just arrived in this beautiful, foreign land, and everything is a wonder to us.

Thank you to those who warned me that people drive crazy here! Surprisingly, they drive on the same side of the road as in the U.S. (How did I not know this?). However, the vespas are everywhere, and they run the road however they damn well please. It's not surprising, though, because the roads here are so small; they usually have to squeeze between people and tour groups and cars or box trucks to get anywhere. Oh, the cars. The cars here are all so small! They make the Honda Fit and the Toyota Prius look big! There are a lot of those little 2-passenger "Smart" cars, and the rest are just really tiny versions of vehicles! It's amusing to watch them fit comfortably down tiny alleys.

As for sight-seeing, we have done much. Our familiarity with Rome can at least get us to our favorite shop-spots, gellaterias & back to our hotel, of course. Yesterday, we were merely adventuring: getting to know the city, the places to eat, where we could get internet, etc. Today, our program took us on a tour of Ancient Rome! Can I say that it was amazing, or should I just let you assume?

First, we went through the heart of Rome, near our hotel. We are in the middle of the "Storica" district, which is very political. We went to the Senate building and other political buildings, all marked by both the Italian and the European flags. Along the way, we visited the Pantheon: the best-preserved ancient building. It surpassed my expectations. The pictures in my Art History class gave no justice. It's darkened exterior was merely a precursor to the wonder that it held inside. Now a church, we had to enter in silence, though the tourist noise level was a little loud anyways (It's hard not to be when "wow"s cannot be contained). The occula was much larger than I expected, but it let it plenty of light; the magic of seeing light pass through, reflecting on the interior, spotlighting the ancient statues inside seemed unreal. While inside, we made a stop at Raphael's tomb (the painter, not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle; sorry).

We also went to the Trevi Fountain and threw in coins in wishing for love, of course. It seemed pretty busy today, though, so hopefully the fountain heard my request!

After the fountain, we went to the Coloseum. There, we saw the Arch of Constantine and passed the Column of Trajan as well as his ruins and some of the Caesar's ruins. The entire atmosphere felt like a step back in time. Men even stood around dressed as ancient Roman guards. Even though the inside of the building was extremely worn-down, I could imagine well what it must have been like. One of the best parts of the Coloseum was probably while we were just inside the outer wall, waiting for the rest of our group, and old, fallen column pieces are strewn around, so we sat on them. I looked at Paige and said, "You know, just sitting on ruins... at the Coloseum...in Rome...Italy. No big!"

Shopping is crazy because the people will negotiate with you all right! If you don't like their price and try to leave, they will nag at you until you tell them what you think you should pay for the item, and then they will sell it to you for that, but if you were just looking, they get very offended. One seller even followed us down the street, offering lower and lower prices! There comes a point where it gets annoying.

I think that it's funny because it pretty much is how people say. Boys and men will whistle and hoot at a group of us girls walking buy. Often, when walking, "Ciao, ladies/senoras." is heard when eyes accidentally meet. It's all friendly though. Really. I mean, we never respond, except maybe a "ciao" and a wave. I just find it amusing because it's a true sort of stereotype.

Here's the plan for the next few days: tomorrow, we are going to Christian Rome, including the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, as well as several churches. On Wednesday, we move to Florence to our apartment and begin orientation. I can't wait to finally settle in; I suck at living out of a suitcase, especially since everything inside was extremely shaken up from the flight here.

I don't think that I have talked at all about food. Mari will be disappointed with me because she wants a food blog! Yesterday, our program instructors took us out for some traditional cuisine with all four courses. I was absolutely stuffed by the end of it! We had a variety of appetizers that were different, but delicious, and the main course was pasta, but it wasn't just noodles or anything. The pasta was these little balls of dough filled with potato. Tasty! (I know that I said four parts, but the parts that I am excluding are because I didn't eat them due to my vegetarianism!) For dessert, we had tiramisu that was so rich that it melted in my mouth. I really wanted a glass of milk after that though.

Instead of milk, Paige and I went out to toast our first night in Italy. We each had a glass of white wine, which was very good, much sweeter than I expected. Tonight, with dinner, I had a red wine, but it wasn't as good; it tasted very strongly of alcohol, almost like a vodka--it burned going down. I ate it with pizza which was delicious but huge; I could barely finish half of it. When we ordered, I think that we expected "pizza" to be like one slice, not an entire pizza. Afterwards, we went out for gelato. I got peach this time. Yesterday, I had a strawberry one. I am in love with all things fruity, which really makes me crave juice. I will probably drink a million glasses of the "blood red" orange-juice that they serve at breakfast at the hotel!

So, am I missing home? Only a little. I think that I miss the familiarity of knowing the people that I am around all day. I kind of stick to hanging out with my roommate here because I know her the best, and we have a lot in common. Hopefully, I will get to know some of the other girls (I say girls because there are only five guys in the program) better in the coming days. I'm just not too enthusiastic about it because  thus far, I'm having a difficult time relating to many of them. It's just strange because I guess I expected most of the students to be on their first big adventure, penny-pinching, and excited. A lot of the other students have the "been-there, done-that" attitude or act like they've seen/done better. It's pretty discouraging, so I just try to keep my distance. I think that's my problem. I don't like big groups. I like groups of 3, maybe 4 people. Anymore than that? No, grazie.

Ha! That reminds me. Vendors and waiters and what-not will often ask questions, and my automatic response is often, "No, grazie." Then, however, they think that I'm Italian just because I said one word, so they start rambling on and on in Italian! I usually just shake my hand and walk away or say that I speak English. I find this amusing though, but I don't blame them since there are many walks of life that live and speak Italian. I can't pick one out when we're walking down the street!

Well, I'm waiting for pictures to upload onto Facebook, and I think that I've shared enough about Rome. I am very excited to continue in Italy, even if my body is exhausted from the heat and the tons of walking. It's worth it all. Every drop of sweat, every dollar spent, every glass of strong wine!

Blessings.