Dear mom, I am back from Florence!

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I have had the opportunity to update this. Even though these past few weeks have been full of adventure and new experiences I am afraid that at the moment my energy is dwindling and I will only be able to update on this weekend.
This weekend we went to Florence! We spent two nights and three days walking and walking and walking all over the city and having a wonderful time. It was particularly interesting visiting the city after spending so much time in Rome because despite the number of tourists I encounter on a daily basis in Rome, I have never seen so many Americans in a non-American city before. Everyone spoke English. It felt like everyone was studying abroad.
We first arrived Friday morning and walked to our Hotel. We just so happened to stay at the same place that Monica and I stayed when we visited three years ago. After taking some time to relax we jumped right in to what the city has to offer. Here is a list of the sites we saw this weekend:
Santa Maria del Carmine and Brancacci Chapel
The Duomo
The Baptistry
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo
Bargello Museum
Basilica San Lorenzo
Uffizi Gallery
Galleria dell’Accademia
Each day was interspersed with stops for drinking delicious coffee and walking in and out of charming shops. We had two "Fam Din's" while we were there, and both nights we had my favorite...steak!
Although I am thrilled to be studying in Rome, I wish I could have spent more time in Florence. As a small and walkable city with a ton to offer the weekend provided a nice vacation from the ever-bustling Rome. I think my only regret from this weekend is that I didn't get any gelato. What was I thinking?? Well, thats all for now. I will add photos when I get the chance.

Dear mom, there is so much to catch up on!

So I will try to start from the beginning.
We spent last weekend in Castellammare! Castellammare is in the region of Italy called La Campagnia. La Campagnia is the region just south of Lazio, which is where Rome is. So, early friday morning we hopped on a bus that took us to the relatively small town of Castellammare. It was a beautiful small town on the bay of Naples with a great view of Vesuvius. We were staying at an institute which exists to excavte the ruins of ancient Stabiae so a few hours after we arrived we went on a tour of their excavation site.
The villas at Stabiae supposedly were places that the Roman elite would visit during the summer and they were absolutely amazing! We were able to see bedrooms, bathrooms, dining halls, roman baths, and beautiful gardens.
After the tour Danya, Avery, Dan, and I took a walk into the town of Castellammare. On the way we stopped into a bakery that smelled absolutely delicious. After gawking at all the pastries for a few minutes the woman who worked their gave us each a huge meringue for free! After that, he son came out from the back and gave us each one of his favorite cookie for free! We then each picked out what we wanted to buy and on our way out they asked us to return sometime and gave us more cookies for free! They seemed so pleased that we had gone into their small bakery, it was quite fun. Then we continued to meander around the town until it was time to head back to the intstitute for dinner. After dinner a few of us along with the young American woman who worked at the institute went to a wine bar where we sampled three wines native to the area. It was a fun day, but very long and very tiring.
The next day we woke up early and headed to Pompeii. We had a great tour guide who showed us a lot of the city and then we had time to explore on our own. On of my favorite parts was seeing the area where the school for the gladiators was. After that we went to the villa of mysteries and then headed back to Castellammare. Once we arrived in Castellammare almost all of us took a tram to the top of one of the mountains in the area. The tram ride was 8 minutes long and very scary, but totally woth it once we got to the top. The view was amazing. We took a walk around the area and found a heard of goats. We heard them coming from a ways away because of their bells. It was so neat! That night I was so exausted that I just stayed home and slept. We had to wake up early to go to the Naples museum and then we took the bus home. All in all it was a fun and successful weekend away from Rome but it was also very nice to get back to our dorm.
The rest of this week has been pretty regular, nothing too exciting has been happening because we have had a lot of work. I am getting very excited to go to Vienna and Bratislava this weekend. We made plans to see the Vienna Philharmonic and other than that we are just going to explore. Let me know if you have suggestions!

Dear mom, what a relaxing week this has been.

I realized I hadn't updated this in a few days and I think it is because this week has just been so relaxed that I didn't think there was much to say. It is thursday afternoon and I am done with classes for the week. Tomorrow morning we are waking up bright and early to spent the weekend in Pomeii, Stabiae, and Naples. I am very excited for this trip because I have never been to Pompeii and I haven't left Rome at all since arriving so it will be nice to be in a different part of Italy for a change.
Like I said this week has been great. All of my classes are going well and I feel like this week has given me the opportunity to take care of non school things and just hang out with friends. Danya and I had two particularly fun adventures this week. The first one, randomly meeting the mother in law of the Brazilian Ambassador to Italy and having her invite us over to tea! The second one, going to get our vaccines for Morocco and meeting some tourists from Hamburg.
We have not yet made our tea date, but hopefully that will happen when we get back from Pompeii. As for the tourists from Hamburg, we met the couple while waiting at the bus stop after our doctors visit. They asked how to get to Piazza Navona so we just took them right there. It was really fun to talk to them because they had never been to Rome and they had come on whim, so we were able to give them a lot of advice as to what they should see and do.
Another thing Danya and I finally had time to do this week was to play some music. We have been working away at the duets in the farm and wilderness string band book, and hopefully before it gets cold we will play some outside just to get our first experiences with busking. We figure if everyone else in Rome can do it, we can too.
So the fun continues, although there are not too many distinct stories to tell, I am sure there will be post-Pompeii trip.

Dear mom, dad, and Susanna, what a weekend!

This was one of my first weekends in Rome without a huge amount of homework to do, and I think I really took advantage of it. I will try to give you the play by play, but I am tired so if my details start to dwindle please forgive me! Alright....here we go
Friday:
On Friday we had a group tour of the Roman Forum. Our tour ended up being about three hours long but we have a brilliant tour guide which made it a lot of fun. The guide was an architect so he spent a lot of time helping us visually reconstruct what the ruins would have looked like when they were complete. Considering the complicated history of Roman rule, he did a great job of breaking the history down into periods and laying out the major changes in rulers which therefore changed the architecture. The strangest thing about this tour was that our guide looked a lot like dad! He even dressed like dad. But all that really did was make me more excited to show you all around what he showed me.
From the Forum we walked up to the Palatine Hill. The Palatine Hill is an area that was settled beginning in the founding of Rome. It is also an area with ancient palace ruins, so it was very fun to walk around and see the contrasts in living spaces between the people and the elite. After this part of the tour we were starving, but because the area is SO touristy the cafes and restaurants were so expensive that we convinced ourselves to check out the Colosseum and then head home for lunch. One good thing to know is that the ticket for the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill also gets you into the Colosseum, so its a good idea to just make a whole day out of it!
After all of that we headed home and I took a long nap. It was a wonderful but very tiring morning/afternoon. That evening a group of us decided we needed a break from Italian food so we went on an adventure to find an Indian restaurant that had gotten a good review. After a few wrong turns we managed to find the place and it was wonderful! The food was so delicious and it was great to explore a new part of the city along the way. The restaurant was right in the neighborhood of the Vatican so on our walk home we stopped by just to see what the Vatican was like at night. It was beautiful to see the whole thing lit up and we found these really neat viewing points of the Piazza. We stopped to get gelato at our favorite place on the way home and then just went right to bed.
Saturday:
Saturday morning Danya and I woke up very determined to go for a run. We woke up around 9 and it seemed like no one else was up so we quietly left and walked to the Borghese Gardens. The Gardens are about a 15 minute walk north of where we live, so even though it is a bit of a walk it was totally worth it. The park itself is beautiful! You walk up a huge set up stairs to get in and immediately see an amazing view of Rome, then you continue into the park and see hundreds of people just hanging out. Whether riding bikes, sitting around, or walking their dogs, this is definitely the Roman equivalent to Central Park, and I missed Central Park! Our run was very plesant. There is an area that looks a lot like an ancient track, although I have no idea how ancient it actually is, and we ran for a while and then headed home.
After we came home and did work for a while a large group of us went to this store called MAS. Mas is an everything discount store...but when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. It was one of the most insane stores I have ever seen. It was 5 floors of just crap, the kind of place where if you need something for really cheap its perfect, but otherwise you kind of just want to scream "get me out of here!!" I am glad that I went though, because I have heard it reffered to as a right of passage into living in Rome. Good to know about, but I would happily not go back.
That evening Danya and I made dinner, and just did some work and went to bed, a good end to a long day.
Sunday:
Today was a long and kind of intense day, but I am feeling good now which is nice. This morning we woke up and went to a good coffee place (although not our favorite because our favorite is closed during the weekends.) After coffee we worked for a while and then decided to take a walk and explore the Jewish quarter. The Jewish quarter is quite small and it wasn't the best idea to explore it on a Sunday because a lot of the stores were closed, but it was fun. We happened upon some ruins and realized we live a lot closer to some things than we thought. I have realized that just wandering around helps me understand the layout of the city better than when I try to figure it out with a map. So, we walked around that area for an hour or so and then walked in and out of a few churches. Walking in and out of churches here is so fun because they are always so surprising. Some are more decorated than others but it is fun just to check them and out. We headed home after exploring and did some work until we had to go to Fam Din.
Fam. Din. tonight was amazing. We went to a tiny actual hole in the wall place in Trastevere that I highly recommend. Here is a link to a NY times article about the place:
http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/europe/italy/rome/74649/da-i-2-ciccioni/restaurant-detail.html
The food was amazing, and the setting itself was just so fun, it was truely an experience eating there. Afterwards we stopped to get gelato on our way home and now I am finishing up work and getting ready for bed. It was a jam packed weekend filled with lots of new experiences, all of which I am glad I can so easily tell you about via this blog. However, I think now it is time for me to slow things down a bit and go to bed.

Dear mom, today I went to the Necropolis!

So far this week has been exhausting! We all had a huge paper that was due this afternoon...so finally things are beginning to settle down. Right after we handed in our paper we went on a trip to the Necropolis at St. Peters. The Necropolis is the area right under the basilica where St. Peter was buried. The tour was really amazing. The area isn't advertised because they don't want the site to be destroyed by too many visitors so they limit the number of people allowed to enter the site a day to about 200. On top of that, we were sadly not allowed to take any photos of the site, so I will try to describe it as best as I can.
We entered the Vatican City and went through a side door to the church. There was a small staircase that seemed like it would just go down into any basement, but as it turns out St. Peters doesn't just have a basement, it has a catacomb. We were suddenly walking down what had once been a street lined with mausoleums, but the street was leveled and filled in to build the original church. We saw many ornate mosaics that were very old and cool to look at, and then we were taken up into the area with all of the smaller chapels. Every wednesday the Pope has a viewing so the chapel area was quite crowded. We were able to see the monuments to the Popes and get a sense for the beauty of the place.
All in all it was a great tour, but I am really excited to go back to the Vatican to see the museums and just to explore the church itself. Hopefully I will get pictures for those entries!

Dear mom, today my good friend Charlie turned 21.

Today was a great day. We all went on a tour this morning of the Palazzo Massimo, another branch of the National Museums of Rome. I've thrown in a few pictures of my favorites from this museum. I did not particularly like the layout of this museum compared to the other ones we have visited, but the art was beautiful. There were a ton of mosaics and frescos which must have been stunning when they were first completed.
After the museum a bunch of us picked up pizzas and headed home, and by the time we got home we were so exausted from the heat that almost all of us took naps.
After our luxurious nap Danya and I spent the afternoon/early evening playing music and then we got ready for our friend Charlie's birthday party. I suppose turning 21 in Italy is not quite as exciting as it is in the U.S. but we decided to throw Charlie a party anyway. 16 of us went out to dinner at this wonderful little family restaurant in Trastevere, and that is what the photo is of. The food was delicious and the owner was very appreciative of our business. It was a great end to a lovely day. We came home and played music for a little while longer. Danya and I have been trying to perfect one of the songs from the F&W string band book. Its a lot of fun and everyone seemed to appreciate hearing it. Well, I think this weekend is going to be very busy work wise so I think I am going to head to bed.

Dear mom, oggi siamo andati ai Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini

Translation: today we went to the Capitoline Museum's "Centrale Montemartini."
Last weekend we went to the Capitoline Museum, but the collection we saw today is housed at a separate site. This museum is in what was once the first public electric plant in Rome. As you can see from the photos they have taken the old industrial building and transformed it into a beautiful exhibition space. The collection of pieces housed in the museum were all excavated in the same area at the turn of the nineteenth century when the main train station in Rome was built. They are all beautiful representations of Roman art from the Republic up until the Late Empire, and the museum itself creates such an interesting contrast to the pieces.
For some reason it seems like you have to know about this museum in order to visit it, its not just something people talk about. On the outskirts of the city I didn't expect to find such an amazing collection of art housed in an old industrial building, but it was beautifully organized. The exhibition makes you question your definition of art when you begin to notice how detailed an ornate the 40 ft high machines are. I couldn't help from wondering: who was the genius behind that machine?
As the first public electric plant in Rome the building holds a bit of precious Roman history. When the plant opened in the 1890s Rome was lit up for the first time, a night that I imagine would be totally unforgettable to those who experienced it. Although now I don't imagine power plants to be the most elegant places this power plant turned museum is just that. The machines and sculptures display great Roman achievement from different time periods. This thought brought me right back to the idea of the eternal city.
After seeing the museum I went home and started reading a book for class called "The Fires of Vesuvius." We are visiting Pompeii in about two weeks which will be the first time I have left Rome since I've arrived. I am very excited, especially because so far the book is fabulous. So many good adventures to come...

Dear mom, yesterday I saw my first catacombs.

Here is an image of the outside of the church of St. Sebastian. The church is on the outskirts of Rome, along the appian way which is a beautiful old road which is now surrounded by some very expensive villas. There is a course being offered here all about St. Peters and the Vatican which I am not taking, but luckily all of their field trips are open to other students. This was the first one, the catacombs of San Sabastiano. According to the professor, this church/catacomb is particularly important because after the deaths of the apostles Peter and Paul their bodies were taking to this site temporarily for worship.
That story set aside, the catacombs were really cool! Although quite dark, small, and even a little scary at first, there were many beautifully painted rooms and ornate sarcophagi. We even got to see the ruins of a beautiful house which had been at the site around the 4th century. The walls of the house were covered in frescos and some of them even had stuccos. We ended the tour by seeing entrances to a few family mausoleums which looked quite similar to the family burial sites that you see in Romeo and Juliet.
All in all it was quite the excursion. I plan on taking advantage of all the field trips of this class as often as I can, espeically because my knowledge of St. Peters and the Vatican is virtually non-exisistant, and it just gives me even more of an opportunity to really get to know Rome.

Dear mom, I had a taste of New York tonight.

Tonight we went to an art opening at the museum of contemporary art in Rome. The show was called "New York Minute" and featured 60 contemporary artists from New York. It was a an adventure that ended up being well worth it. The museum is on the southeast side of the city so it took us a while to get there, and upon arrival we realized that the event was more like a zoo. There were people flooding the piazza and cars desperately trying to get through. After waiting on line for about an hour we managed to push our way in.
The photos, one of the advertisement for the show and one of a painting i liked, only give a tiny glimpse into what I saw tonight. There was art of all mediums in various shapes and sizes, and considering the work of 60 artists was on display there seemed to be art everywhere. The museum space is a converted slaughter house, which sounds quite gruesome, and kind of is. There are still large hooks and pulley systems set up in the various galleries and the animal shelters are still intact. Although that gave the place a creepy vibe, they transformed it beautifully.
After walking through the galleries we went to hear the music and had a chance to dance. It was a long and fun night but we were all exhausted by the end of it. Well, it is 12:40 am so I should head to bed...but in my part of the world it is already Sept. 20th. Happy birthday mom! Love you!

Dear mom, today we went to the beach!

Today was a great day! We went on a tour of the Capitoline Museum this morning and these are a few pictures from that. The Capitoline Museum is on the Capitoline Hill which is one of the seven hills of Rome. It is right next to the Palatine Hill where Rome was founded, and the image of the ruins is the view of the Palatine Hill from the Capitoline Hill. The museum itself was fabulous, definitely a must-do when in Rome. Although our tour guide was not the best, the museum had one amazing room after another. We all loved it.
From there we went to the beach! I think today was our last opportunity because the weather is slowing cooling down, so I am glad we took the chance. 10 of us hopped on the train which takes you about 30 minutes outside of the city. The beach was absolutely beautiful. Because it was a Friday we almost had the place to ourselves. We all hoped that we would be able to get a lot of reading done while we were there, but of course we couldn't resist the water and just a general break from the busy city. We headed back to Rome a little bit earlier than we would've liked because the weather started to look stormy, and then we all realized just how much work we have this weekend! Surprisingly enough almost everyone is staying in tonight to work while Romans are outside our window partying the night away.
Today was great because we all just decided to take it easy for a day. It was a much needed opportunity to relax, and where better to relax than on a beach in Italy?

Dear mom, In the original Pinocchio...

The character that we know as Jiminy Cricket only lasts for about three pages! How sad!

Well, the blogging has been slow lately because we have had a poor internet connection and the work has started to pile on, but here I am again. Other than my routine classes, the thing that has been taking up the most of my time is planning trips! Danya and I are officially going on two trips together. The first to Bratislava with our friends Margaret and Hilary. Margaret's God family lives there so we will stay with them and just hop over to Vienna for a day. The second trip is to Morocco! Danya and I booked our tickets from the 23rd to the 31st of October during our break and we are very excited. Two of our other friends may decide to join us, but so far the plan goes as follows: we fly into Casablanca and immediately take a short train ride to Rabat. Our friend Shakira is currently studying abroad there so we will hang out with her for the weekend and hopefully learn a thing or two from her about how to make the most of our trip. Then we will head up to this small town in Northern Morocco called Chefchaouen for two nights. The town has a great reputation for being a beautiful tourist friendly spot in the mountains where they speak a lot of Spanish as well as Arabic. Danya speaks spanish and we both really wanted to see more of the country so we figured this would be a great stop. From there we will head to Fez for about three nights, then back to Casablanca for one night and then head home. We have hotels and hostles picked out and tomorrow we will make arrangements with all of them, which is so exciting!
On top of those trips the we have so many smaller adventures to go on in Rome and in Italy in general. Between now and next weekend we have plans to go to the following sites: The Capitoline Museum, the Catacombs of San Sabastiano, the Jewish Museum, the Necropolis at St. Peters, the National Museum of Rome, and Centrale Montemartini. I am busy but having a blast, and very glad that it is almost the weekend.

Dear mom, did you know...

"About 17,000 tons of parmesan cheese lie in the vaults of Credito Emiliano, a regional bank that accepts the cheese as collateral for loans." This is just one fun fact I found out today while reading recent NY Times articles about Italy.
So, today is officially our second Monday in Rome, pretty exciting! Classes today went well although we were all still a little tired from our weekend. But, what I really wanted to update you on was yesterday. Danya and I read up on various local markets so Sunday morning we woke up at 8 and headed to Porta Portese, a market known for antiques. It was about a 30 minute walk away so when we arrived we were already pretty tired, and the section that we came across first (it is a HUGE outdoor market) was pretty terrible. It didn't have any antiques, instead it was full of poorly made kitchen supplies and fake leather products. After walking through that section for a while we were exausted and kind of disappointed. We stopped for coffee and magically found the antique section. It was so wonderful! There were rows and rows of art, instruments, pottery, jewerly, and various other fun things. We didn't end up staying long because the weather started to take a turn for the worst, so we hopped on the tram and headed home. Despite all of trouble we went through to find the good part of the market, it was totally worth it, and we bought four tiny cacti for our room!
Well, it was a great adventure for a Sunday morning and got us excited to explore other markets around the city. We spent the rest of the day doing work and had our first group dinner last night. We call our Sunday night dinner "fam din" for family dinner. It was a lot of fun and quite filling.

Dear mom, today we explored Trastevere.

Trastevere is the neighborhood in Rome across the Tiber river. Danya, Avery, Ellie, and I wandered through the streets without any particular plan. We happened upon various outdoor fruit and vegetable markets, international markets, and really delicious pizza places. Just when were were thinking about sitting down to lunch we wound up at a park with fabulous views of Rome. I believe we were on the Janiculum Hill which is known for its amazing views of the city.
After taking a ton of photos and trying to cool off in the shade we wandered back down the hill into Trastevere and sat down at a restaurant. The experience in the restaurant was great because it was the first time we were eating outside of our touristy neighborhood. It seemed like the kind of place where the waiters knew all the patrons because they kept turning the music up loudly and people would get really excited and sing along. At first we all felt very out of our element, but it was obvious that everyone in the place was having a great time, so we did too. We also had an interesting cultural experience in the restaurant. When we were ordering our food we each ordered a different pasta dish. For some reason it seemed like it annoyed the waiter, and when I asked him why he said it was because his chef would be unhappy. We were all kind of shocked. The waiter was very friendly about the whole thing and happily brought us what we asked for, but then we started noticing that big groups of people were all ordering the same dish. It was very un-American. We ended up having a fine time and the waiter even gave us a discounted price, so we might go back once we are pros at eating like the Italians do.
Anyway, it was a lovely day which ended with our first thunder storm in Rome. It was really nice to have a break from the heat and also nice to just have some rain.

Dear mom, the weekend finally started!

We don't usually have class on Friday unless we have a planned trip or museum visit, so today was free. Our professor did strongly recommend that we visit the Ara Pacis so that is what we decided to do. The small museum/building that holds the Ara Pacis is the only building I have seen in Rome that looks like it could be in New York. Apparently the building caused a lot of controversy among Romans in 1996 when it first opened. The Ara Pacis itself was beautiful. We were able to walk around the inside and closely examine all of its walls. We also found out that the museum is holding a 50 year anniversary celebration of the Miles Davis album "Kind of Blue" next week, so we might try to go see that!
This afternoon Danya and I walked around planning our various trips outside of Rome and reading guide books. It was fun, especially because we felt like we just had the world at our feet! When we walked home we stopped at a coffee shop right by the Pantheon which had a dessert called "Granita di caffe con panna." It was a delicious coffee flavored icy with fresh whipped cream. The only bad side to it is that it is right by the building where we have class, so we might find ourselves ordering them more often than not.
Well, orginally I had many high hopes for this weekend, like going to the beach or to a small town outside of Rome, but now I just want to explore the neighborhood and get some reading done. I can't believe I have only been here for a week!

Dear mom, Today we went to our first museum.

Today we went to the Villa Giulia which is the National Museum for Etruscan Art. The Villa Giulia was the summer home of Pope Julius the 3rd, so the setting itself was beautiful. There were huge courtyards with gardens and paintings on all the walls. I guess life as a Pope can't be too bad.
The art we saw was amazing. The museum has a huge collection of Greek pottery which I could have looked at for hours. Of course it made me want to study classics, but I guess that will have to be for another trip.
My favorite part of this trip was seeing the Apollo of Veii. I studied this piece in my Survey of Art History course so it was really neat to see it in real life. The statue is a life sized one of Apollo that would've been on the top of an Etruscan temple. The Gallery which had the Apollo also had pieces of the temple which is belonged to so we were able to get a complete image in our heads. We also got to see the Euphronius Vase which was only recently returned to Italy from the Met. I don't think I ever saw the vase in the Met, but it was so beautiful. It was in a room with many other vases that have been repatriated, so it was a great opportunity to see a giant collection of them. After seeing a few key peices the museum had we were given an opportunity to wander through the various galleries. It was definitly a museum worth visitng even if just to see the collection of items from Etruscan daily life.
After the morning adventure, and it was sort of an adventure finding our way to the museum, I had most of the day to myself. Tomorrow I am going to design my syllabus for the Italian independent study, so I have to choose three novels to read. I am excited and nervous and definitly looking forward to my first full weekend in Rome.

Dear mom, they call Rome the eternal city...

So far we have been given two basic tours of Rome but I think I am only starting to understand why they call it the eternal city. Not only am I living in a building that was built in the year 800, but the foundation for this building was built on the ruins of an ancient Roman circus. Walking around the city is just so cool. Everywhere you turn there is an artifact that represents another part of history. Living in New York I don't walk around everyday finding connections to the people who lived there before me, because their traces have been erased. In Rome I find connections to the Etruscan people, the ancient Romans, the people who lived under fascism, and the modern Romans just by walking through the city.
I had two of my classes for the first time today and so far they seem like they will be wonderful. The Political Science class only has four people in it which is a little surprising, but also fun. The professor seems nice and quite passionate about what she does. We spent the first day talking about the course and reviewing the government that existed in Italy before the country was unified. It was fascinating and made me want to take an Italian history course. Our professor wanted us to have a background in the history of politics in Italy so that we could understand why things are the way they are today, especially because the system here is so different from that of the United States. She has also planned a visit to the Italian Senate and a major Italian political party, which is very exciting. The other course that I had today was the art history course about Rome. This class seems like it will be fabulous. Every Monday we have a lecture class and every Wednesday we go to museums. The list of required museums and sites combined with the suggested list must include something like 50 museums and sites. On top of that this course takes us to Pompeii and Florence for weekend trips which I am thrilled about.
Now that we have our classes we are thinking about starting to plan various trips that we want to take. Danya and I have come up with a ton of ideas but nothing is set in stone yet. It is exciting that everything is just starting but I am also looking forward to being a little further into the trip and feeling more comfortable with my surroundings.

Dear mom, Orientation....

.....was today! We started off with a typical Italian breakfast, a small, sweet pastry and juice. Somehow I still have not had a cup of coffee, and I am not entirely sure why but I was definitely tired for the start of orientation. We went over the basic details, important dates and phone numbers, and ways to avoid getting kicked out, and then we were given a safety talk about Rome. Although it was informative I felt like they were trying to scare us, and I am pretty sure I am right. The program director demonstrated different ways pick-pockets manage to trick you, and the women were given a separate talk on ways to be careful and avoid men who think they have power over you.
We had a lunch break, talked more, and then registered for classes. On top of the required Kenyon Classes, ("Eternal Glories: Monuments, Museums, and Churches of Rome" and "Rome and Its Culture: Rome in the American Imagination") I am taking a 400 level independent study of Italian which I will design with a professor and a Italian political science course called "The Government and Politics of Contemporary Italy." I am excited for all of them although I don't know much about the courses yet. Tomorrow Danya and I will go on adventure to find the "Anglo-American bookstore" where we buy our course books and then I will probably be able to explain more about my courses.
This afternoon we were given a tour of our neighborhood. It just so happens that our dorms are in a building that is an old Monastery and an ex-convent. The building itself was built in 800 A.D. The front of the building is a church and it is connected to our building on the left. The church is called "Chiesa di Sant'Agnese" and it is the church in front of which St. Agnes was beheaded. Apparently her skull is still inside on display, although I don't think I will go see it. Our neighborhood includes quite a few old architectual glories and ruins. Our tour of the neighborhood took us to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, and Piazza Venezia. We are also close to the Coloseum and all the surrounding ruins however we didn't visit them on this tour as we will have many opportunities.
Then, Jae, Lucy, Dan, and I decided that we would cook ourselves dinner tonight and so around 9 we headed to il supermercato and picked up pasta, tomatoes, cheese, bread, and some zucchinis. We managed to make a pretty delicious meal. Afterwards Danya and I went out to have a glass of wine around Piazza Navona and figure out what we have to get done tomorrow. It was a great end to the day although when we were walking home we realized that not only was it 2 in the morning, but the Romans were out and about as though it was 8 in the evening. There are so many small differences in our two cultures like that which make such a HUGE difference in lifestyle. Oh well, I guess I will learn everything eventually. Anyway, it is time to get ready for bed and ready for errands tomorrow.

p.s. I wanted to include photos in this post but the internet is going slowly and I can't get them up. Hopefully I will figure that part out soon!

Dear mom, I arrived.....finally.

After a 5 hour delay at JFK our plane took off and smoothly took us to Italy. We arrived and went through customs with a surprising amount of ease, but then had to wait another 3 hours for our bus to take us into Rome. The driver spoke very little English and seemed shocked and slightly annoyed with the amount of luggage the nine of us had, but it all fit! He dropped us off a five minute walk from our door and so we proceeded to our new home. The building itself is beautiful. There is a garden in the center, Piazza Navona on one side, and a touristy street on the other. Danya snagged what is supposedly the best room of them all. The room is oddly shaped with two beautiful windows although it overlooks the touristy street so it is a bit noisy. The view is what makes the room so special. We can see St. Peters right from the window and it is lit up at night similarly to the Empire State Building (cool)!
So, we moved in and then almost immediately were taken to our first dinner...and oh what a dinner it was. They started us off with a red wine and a platter of various cured meats and mozzarella. Then they followed with a pasta, eggplant, and marinara sauce that was perfectly cooked. Just when we thought we were done they brought out fried lamb chops, potatoes, and salad, and finally ended with tiramisu. Although it was so delicious we were so exhausted by the end that we almost fell asleep at our table. Danya and I were confident enough that we could find our way home so we led the way and now we are trying to stay awake while we prepare for our orientation tomorrow.
I still can't believe I am actually here, but I think maybe a good nights sleep will help.