Day 6: Piacere! (Or nice to meet you)

So before I start day 6, I would like to preface with a few things. First and foremost, I hope that if you are reading my blog you are able to understand what I am attempting to say and read through the many misspellings and mistakes that are in the blog. As I have looked back over it, I begin to see more and more mistakes, but overall I am proud that it has been as correct as it has been.

The second thing is that from now on I am going to make the title of my blog an Italian phrase or word to not only help you learn some Italian, but to help me to try to remember some key phrases. The phrase we have today is piacere (the pronunciation is pea-ah-chair-a), and it means nice to meet you. So after you meet someone and introduce yourslef (by saying sono Ben) you say piacere! I am actually really enjoying learning Italian so far.

So on to day 6!

Day 6 (January 17th):

Today was my first day of class here in Rome. I had to be up by eight o'clock so that I could be at class by nine o'clock. Luckily the CEA campus is only a few minutes away, but because we have a very limited amount of hot water I want to make sure that I get some (as mentioned before we only have about 20 minutes worth). Needless to say staying up late repeatedly followed by waking up very early makes for a very tired Ben. Little did I know before I got here, I am going to have Italian class every morning at nine am. So Italian class was fun/boring. We are just beginning to learn the basics, which is kind of nice, but we are going very slow. After Italian, I have an hour break and then I have my international marketing class. Between the break, we all went out and tried to find a place to get breakfast. Breakfast here is very different than breakfast in America. Today it consisted of a nutella croissant and am ham and cheese sandwich. The best thing about anything here is that the bread is usually made fresh daily. Today I was really wanting to have a fried egg on a sandwich with some american cheese, but sadly eggs are not something they normally have for breakfast here and almost all the cheese is mozzarella. We went back to the CEA campus and had our international marketing class. I am not sure how I feel about this class yet. The class is a basic introduction which I am assuming is just going to be a reiteration of some of the things that I have had at UT.

After class was over we all went back to our apartment. Chase and I were the only ones who didnt have class, so we decided to take a trip over to St. Peter's square to see St. Peter's basilica. St. Peter's square was massive and the basilica was stunning.



Even typing this now I feel there is no way to describe to you how amazing it was. It is a very strange feeling to be in a place that you have seen so many pictures of. The statues and murals on the walls in and outside the basilica or truly an amazing work of art. In the brief time that we had to tour around, we went in to the basilica  and briefly saw the catacombs where the Popes are buried. I got to see where Pope John Paul II is buried which I thought was cool. We were going to try to go up to the dome and see, from what I have heard is the best view of Rome, but sadly it was closed. I think the best part of the trip was when we went in to one of the masses that was going on in one of the side chambers. It was a very different experience to see a mass in latin, but it was also very cool to see all the different people of all races and from all areas of the world attending mass. Chase and I are planning to return next Monday to climb to the top of the Dome and to possibly attend a mass.



The square is surrounded by statues. There are so many of them and they are everywhere and you just feel so small being in a square in a cathedral that has been around for so long and that so many people have been through.

After we left St. Peters, we slowly meandered back to the metro. We stopped at the many shops that surround the Vatican, and we also got some gelato. The gelato I had today was also very very good. I had orange (made with blood orange) and kinder bar chocolate gelato (which is an old favorite and was delicious). We stopped in many different stops and I have already seen some souvenirs that I am going to get. as we made our way back to our apartment we ran in to some of our friends from CEA, who we invited back to our apartment. For dinner tonight, for those of us who hadn't eaten, we decided to cook something. This meant that I had to go to the store to pick up some much needed supplies. The trip to the Italian store was a very different experience than anything in America. Stores in Italy are generally much smaller and carry a wide variety of products but not very many kinds of the certain products that they do carry. Next time that I go, I will try to take some pictures of some of the very different things that are carried in the stores in Italy. In the end I picked up some garlic, cream, butter, and other random snack foods. Luckily the self check out had an English option, so I did not have to worry about dealing with checking out in Italian.

Once we returned to our apartment, I lit our stove and began to cook a nice pasta meal. It took a little longer than expected, but I was able to whip together some alfredo (ish) pasta. It wasn't as good as I would have liked it to be, but for the ingredients that we had, the cream sauce (which I am calling alfredo) was very tasty and so was the pasta.

After dinner we went out for gelato (number two of the day for me). We went to a small shop across the street from our apartment. The neighborhood that we live in is very vibrant. There are small shops everywhere and I enjoy finding new places to eat and new types of food to try. It is hard to believe that it has only been a week, and although it has been a tough adjustment, I have met some really fun and great people and am so far enjoying my time in the eternal city.

So until next time! (which will hopefully be tomorrow)

Ariva dearci!

(Also I am officially one day behind on my blog, but I am going to do my best to get myself up to date. I know I won't be able to write everyday, but if I am up to date, at least when I miss a day it won't put me so far behind)