First few days in Roma!

Okay, epic Rome catch-up! Rome has been GREAT so far. Barring having to wait at the airport for like three hours after I got in on Saturday (they pushed me back to the later pick-up group and didn't tell me about it, and my Italian cell phone didn't work), it's been all sorts of fun and surreal. I was like this in Brighton and London, too, except now I'm just like, "Oh my god, I'm in Rome. O hai, Pantheon! I'm in ROME, OH MY GOD," haha.

So the first night, Saturday, the professors took all of us out to dinner, and then on the way back to the apartments, we picked up a bunch of bottles of wine and busted out playing Taboo in the other girls' apartment (they have a couch and it's more furnished) anddd the girls kicked the guys' asses, kthx. Eric read "diary" as "dairy," so he was like, "Oh, like how Asians are lactose intolerant!" and then realized one of the phrases he wasn't allowed to say was "Anne Frank" so he was like, "Wait, thaaat's not right, is it?" It kind of went all downhill from there for the boys' team, haha. Vicki and I came back to our apartment at like 12:30, and then stayed up catching up until like 3. I really need to fix my sleep schedule, now that I'm starting classes everyday at 8 or 9 o.O

Yesterday was a walking tour of Rome, and we got from our apartments all the way over to the Tiber Island, stopping at a million places along the way like the friggin' Pantheon, the Piazza Navona and the Victor Emmanuel monument (which totes looks like a layer cake to me). It was exhausting, and we spent like two hours in the Church of S. Nicola in Carcere, but that was actually really cool. We went into the underground crypts AND I got to stand on the street level from 3rd Century BC! That's like 2300 years ago, I walked on ground older than Jesus! I thought that was pretty sweet, haha. Then on the way back, we got THE best gelato of my life, srsly. I'm having all these amazing things in Europe that are just going to be ruined for me when I go back to the States, like great beers on tap, Italian pastas, pizzas, and gelato, even being able to get alcohol whenever I want. Bah. We just stayed in our apartments and cooked dinner, and all ate and hung out upstairs in the boys' apartment. We don't have internet in our apartments, which is a pain, so we've been going to this little internet cafe, but I discovered that if you're near the boys' balcony, you can scavenge pretty decent wifi from the neighbors. Like seven of us wound up crowded around the window (there's not actually a door to the balcony, you have to climb out onto it) or on the balcony and had an internet party, haha.

Today was our first official class day, and it kind of sucked that it rained all day. Cold and rainy in Roma, wut? But we had our orientation at the AIRC (American Institute for Roman Culture), which was pretty standard, and then class consisted of walking around the Roman Forum and the Palatine. I think most of our classes are going to be like this, maybe one a week is in an AIRC classroom, but most of the time we're going to be on site.

Tomorrow is Festa della Repubblica so we have a holiday even though we've only had one day of class so far, haha. We're probably going to go watch the parade from the AIRC because they're serving the students breakfast and it has a gorgeous view of like Trajan's Column and the Victor Emmanuel monument. Then I think a few of us are going to the Colosseum and then probs most of us are taking a train and spending the day in Tivoli.

So are 15 of us total in the program. Nine boys are in one huge apartment (a 4/4, with three guys sharing one of the rooms) directly above us on the third floor, and Vicki and I have our own apartment on the second floor. It's actually a ton of space for two people. I basically have a loft, and I'm the only one in the whole group with a full-sized bed, wee! Downstairs is a hallway with like this strange open lounge area, then the bathroom, and in the main room is Vicki's bed, a small round table, a couple chairs, and the little sink/stove is over by the window. We've actually discovered that if we lean out our window and yell, we can talk to the boys upstairs if they're in their kitchen, haha. Then the other four girls are in the building next door.

Anyway, right now, Vicki is taking a nap and I'm just watching HIMYM (and eating strawberries with Nutella! NOM NOM NOM DELISH) before we're beering/gaming, and I guess I'm going to head up there soon, so ciao, and love from Roma!

[back-posted from 6/11/2009]