The past week has flown by and I have been very busy, which has prevented me from keeping up with my blog. I was planning on writing some over the weekend, but I had some friends come in town and went all day Friday and Saturday nonstop so I didn't have the time to update my blog.
I have so much to share for the past couple of days, but I will split my blogging up as to not overload you with all the things that I have been doing!
So here we go!
Wednesday, January 26th 2011
So I bet you can guess the way this day starts. It starts with my Italian class! After Italian, my friend Sommer and I took a trip to the post office and then I went back to my apartment to take a break before heading to my class on Contemporary Italian Culture. After a quick stop at Stuzzico for a cappuccino, I headed over to my class. I can't decide which of my classes is my favorite, because this one is so interesting and I am am learning so much about Italian history and Italian culture. Today, we took a trip around the neighborhood that we live in to get a feel for the environment and just have some general discussion about Italian life and how it differs from American life. After class, I went back to my apartment and then my roommates and I went out to a restaurant in our neighborhood called Kebab King (attached to a restaurant called Pizza Queen). This was one of my first introductions to Middle Eastern food, and I have to say that it was delicious. The blend of spices, meat, and lettuce makes for a great combination. Im sorry to say that Wednesday does not consist of any exciting adventures except for after dinner, we went back to my apartment where I finished up some homework and then, we decided to go out for some fun out in Rome exploring and what not (usually everything we do ends up being exploring, because no matter where we go, we always end up getting lost and doing what I like to call "exploring").
Thursday, January 27th 2011
When I woke up on Thursday, I knew it was going to be a very long (but fun) day. Of course, the start to my day was my Italian class. For todays class, we went to an Italian cafe to learn about ordering food and drinks at a cafe. I of course had my new favorite drink, a cappuccino (I'll just go ahead say that I have a coffee pretty much every day now, and the good thing is that it is very very inexpensive). After Italian, I had to hop on the metro and head down to the city center so that I could meet, Sam Leopold. Same Leopold works for Campus Crusade and is helping to start up the Campus Crusade ministry in Rome. He and his wife are from Knoxville and as it turns out he lives in the neighborhood that I live in here in Rome. So, we met in the city center, but then took the bus back out to Bologna (my neighborhood) and he took me to a quaint little Italian restaurant, called Il Tunnell. I had my first taste of, carbonara, which is a pasta dish that Rome is famous for. It was fantastic at this restaurant! It was very nice to talk to see someone from Knoxville, and to also meet someone who know things about Rome and about my neighborhood. One of the things that I learned from him, was the fact that you are not supposed to cut your pasta (which I actually did while we were eating). Apparently, it is socially taboo.
After lunch, I walked back to my apartment and then grabbed my backpack and headed to class. My last class of the week is my class on the European Union. I have already learned so much about this class. I am learning how the EU came in to existence and how many of the nations came to be a part of it. This class will be one of the best things for me and I think that it will really give me a marketable skill when I begin to enter the professional world, whether that be with my job or going to graduate school.
After class, I went back to Kebab King for dinner. Kebab King is very cheap and the food is very very good, so it is a great place to run out and grab dinner. After dinner, I walked over to the girls apartment, so a couple of us could go out to get gelato. One of the good things about living in Rome is that I have begun to find some of the best gelato and some of the best restaurants in Rome. We headed out to the city center, where we proceeded to walk around a bit after we got gelato. I dont know what I am going to do without gelato. I think when I get back to the United States that I will easily become and ice cream snob. Gelato is hand down one of the best things about Rome.
After gelato we walked to the train station. My friends Katie and Casi were coming in from Switzerland for a weekend in Rome. Once we reached the train station, we attempted to navigate the train station to find them, which proved much harder than you would imagine. We were going to meet at the McDonalds in the train station, but who would guess that there would be three McDonalds in the train station, so needless to say it was very difficult to find Katie and Casi. Eventually though we met up and I helped them get to where they were going to stay for the night (with our other friend from school, Jasmine).
Friday, January 28th 2011
As I woke up Friday, I knew I was in for another long, but extremely fun day! When I woke up, I had to go to a class excursion at the San Sebastian catacombs. The catacombs at the San Sebastian church span over nine miles and hold of 100,000 bodies. It was very interesting to see one of the oldest catacombs in Rome. Another interesting thing about the catacombs is the fact that they also once housed the bones of St. Peter and St. Paul. Along with being a tomb, the early Christians in Rome, would meet here, as it was a place where the Romans would not hunt them because they viewed graveyards as a place of reverence. Overall, this has been one of the coolest visits that I have had.
After making my way back to town, I met up with Katie and Jasmine in St. Peter's Square. From there, we went to the Trastevere area to go out to lunch. We went to a small pizzeria. They had specialty pizzas. I had a Gorgonzola and smoked salmon. Needless to say lunch was of course, delicious. After lunch we walked down to the city center where we saw Capitoline Hill along with the Victor Emmanuel Monument, which is one of the most stunning buildings in Rome. From there, we walked down to the city center to see the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon. We of course got gelato! After gelato, we, and by we I mean they, did a little shopping (although I did end up getting some shoes and a button down for 25 euro). We went to Zara which is a low cost, but high quality clothing store. It is mostly located in Europe, and we actually talked about it in one of my classes last semester. They have a very lean supply chain, which is how they are able to offer such low cost clothes. After we went to Zara, we headed back to my apartment to get ready to head to dinner.
I know it shocks you to think that I would frequent the same places, but my thought is when it aint broke, dont fix it, so we went to Il Tunnel for dinner with some of my friends from CEA. It was very funny because when we got there, I ran in to Sam and his wife having dinner with some of there friends. The funniest part about this was the fact that I recognized someone in Rome. When we asked for a table for eight, the waiter proceeded to ask Sam and his table to move tables to accommodate us. This is something that would obviously never happen in America, but here in Rome apparently it happens fairly often when they are trying to fit groups in to a restaurant. The good thing about eating with friends is that if you order something you don't like someone is likely to trade with you ( I ordered a seafood risotto, and luckily Katie ordered Carbonara and then we decided to trade). After dinner we headed back to my apartment and just hung out until we decided to call it a night because we had to get up early the next morning to go to the Vatican. (My roommates all went to Malta for the weekend, but I stayed because I knew that I was going to have friends in town. This was good for Katie and Casi because they got a free place to stay).
I have so much more to tell! But you will have to wait until my next post!
Hope all is well back in the United States! Be looking for postcards that I will be sending soon!
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