Benvenuti a Roma

Ciao a tutti!

Sorry that I haven't had time to blog since I have arrived. I am a first time blogger so bear with me.

Well, I arrived in Rome around noon last Monday and have already fallen in love. The plane ride wasn't too bad. I watched several movies and talked to this older italian man sitting next to me about my upcoming adventure. I was pretty calm and tried to sleep a lot so I didn't really freak out like I had anticipated (about flying, not the old italian man). I was a little apprehensive coming here not knowing anyone but everyone is so great. We clicked on the first couple of days. I have three roommates: Leslie, Alyssa and Priyam. Leslie is from the sweet state of Alabama and goes to Auburn, Alyssa is actually a fellow Aggie, and Priyam is from India but goes to school in New York at Pace University.

The first night Audra and Cristina, our program managers, took us out to our very first italian dinner. It was pretty good I must say minus the ham and cheese dish (first picture). Actually, at this point I'm a little tired of ham and cheese and am really missing turkey. After dinner a big group of us decided to go check out the night life in Rome. It's pretty fun, I must say.

Piazza Trilussa. This is the meeting point for most of our API adventures. Also, this is the very first photo I took in Roma :)

Prosciutto crudo & mozzarella di bufala. It was good but not my favorite. The food is definitely very different from americanized italian food. It does NOT taste like "the" Olive Garden (Lunsford haha) and you do not get that much food when you go out to eat. No free breadsticks, no free water, and no refills. I live a hard life over here :)

This is the Campo de Fiori or commonly known as "The Square". This is where we spent the first couple nights. 

Hanging out at Sloppy Sam's. Never-mind the title, it is just a normal American bar with a bunch of study abroad kiddos. 

There are people constantly trying to get you to buy something and sometimes we fall for it. As you can see, my friend Chelsea was suckered into buying some chic glasses :)

Some of us girls at The Drunken Ship. Again, never-mind the title. They sound a lot worse than they are. Plus, it was our first night in Roma!

(Melissa, Leslie, Pretty Blonde Girl, Lindsey and Dana)

My friend Melissa (from above) has the Deathly Hallows symbol tattooed on her wrist. Pretty cool and bold, I have to admit. True Harry Potter fan. 

 The boys of the group bought us all flowers :)

Melissa(UMass) and Me

 Lindsey(Illinois/Bradley) and Dana(New Jersey/UMass)

 Chelsea, Becky, Lindsey, Melissa, and Dana

Tuesday was our first full day in Roma! We went on a walking tour around the area near our hotel (Hotel Tiziano) that was very insightful. I posted several pictures from that. We went to the Pantheon, a couple of churches and the Trevi Fountain. By the way, the Fountana de Amoree from the movie When in Rome isn't real. It is based off the idea of the Trevi Fountain. You are supposed to throw a coin in the fountain standing backwards and make a wish. I felt a little dumb thinking that the Fountana de Amoree was real but I guess that is why I am here. I uploaded pictures from the tour but I don't exactly remember all the names of the things I took pictures of :). Everything was just so pretty it was hard to admire while listen. Obviously, this is not new news to y'all. After our tour we had some free time so a few of us went out to eat and just started bonding. There are adorable outdoor restaurants everywhere but they charge you 2.50 euro for water and 4.00 euro for a coke. Rookie mistakes. Tap water does not exist here and if you ask for it they look at you like you are an idiot (but I should probably be used that that look by now). 

 Typical outdoor market. Haven't been there yet but it is on the to do list. 

 I do remember that there were four statues that represented the four continents (the four known continents at the time). Don't be fooled by my blonde hair - I know there is, like, at least one more than that :)

 The Pantheon

 Tomba di Re Umberto 1

 The Trevi Fountain

 Chelsey, Leslie, and Me at the Trevi Fountain.

 Gelato is my new favorite. 

The girls (Dana, Me, Leslie, Lindsey and Chelsey)

The Boys (Jordan, Matt and Daniel)

 This is Chelsey. She's pretty cool. Our goal but from Washington (all the people from the South) is to get her to say y'all and take it back to Washington with her.

The Alabama crew (Jordan, Matt and Leslie)

Chelsey, Lindsey, Brittany, Daniel, Dana and Haniel

We spent the first two nights at the hotel to help us get settled in and to get to know each other better before we were all separated. We moved into our apartments on Wednesday morning which is located in the neighborhood called Prati. Leslie, Alyssa, Priyam and I live on Via Pilo Albertelli. It is a pretty decent size apartment. It is much better than I had envisioned it to be but it is in a weird location and sometimes cab drivers don't know where it is (so of course while they are looking on the map they are still charging you - even though that should be their job to know?). Once we moved in I quickly realized that for once in my life I did not pack enough. I packed for probably about three weeks, or as much as I usually take to Virginia, and I'm here for ten more weeks. This was not the greatest realization but it gives me an excuse to shop :). I did find an H&M so I will definitely be going there soon. After we settled into our apartment, Audra and Cristina took us on a walking tour of Prati. A group of us wondered off when the tour was over and we ended up at the Vatican. It was pretty cool just being able to walk around and run into something like that. There is just so much history and beauty everywhere you turn. Daniel, who is actually another Aggie, really wanted to see the Swiss guards so we ended up chatting it up with them and taking photos. It was a pretty cool experience. I can't wait to actually take a tour of the Vatican. 

 Leslie, Chelsey, Jenna and Alex

 Oh hey! 

 Daniel really wanted to see the Swiss Guards. One of them actually talked to us for a bit but the other did not care for us much.

 I loved the actual tortellini but not a fan of the little bits of ham.

 Daniel fell in love with his tiramisu.

 My first cappuccino. 

On Thursday, we had mandatory orientation at John Cabot University or JCU which is always super thrilling. We keep forgetting that we are actually taking classes here. I'm taking beginning Italian so hopefully that won't be too hard plus it would be great to know more than ciao, buongiorno, grazie and preggo. Hopefully, it's not too much torture. After the orientation we had to go to the API office and do some declaration of stay thing that took forever because all of us forgot to fill out some type of paperwork. Then a big group of us decided to go out and it was a pretty fun night. 

 Almost the whole crew. 

On Friday, we were supposed to go on a treasure hunt around the city but of course my friends and I slacked off a little. The winners received a free trip to Naples. That would be pretty cool but in order to win we had to type up a report which we decided wasn't worth it. Instead of the hunt, a couple of us decided to plan a weekend trip to Venice and Milan for Inter soccer game (or futbol match). I decided to take charge of figuring out the train ticket times which is definitely out of character for me. I felt pretty accomplished after doing so but of course once we arrived we ran into some troubles... (I'll tell you later what happened because I am afraid of the responses I will receive from family).