(Written September 3, 2009)
Buongiorno tutti!
Sono qui. I am here. Today is my 3rd morning in Rome. I think that so far I have adjusted rather well to the time change and don't seem to have much jet lag left but I feel like sometimes my body is saying, 'You're not supposed to be doing this now... but whatever.' I'm very pleased that it didn't take long to adjust to the time because I hear that if you mess it up on the first night by taking too long of a nap or going to bed too early then you're messed up for 4 or 5 more days, and no one wants that.
I'm staying in Monteverde which is a neighborhood southwest of the city center. It's an incredible place. I walked in not expecting much because they told us not to expect much in terms of what housing you got. But I was the first one up (we each had to take the elevator separately with our bags so we didn't break it) and I was the first one in and when I opened the door I gasped. The place is just huge. We have 3 good sized bedrooms, one with an attached bath in the room that I'm staying in, a living room with a dining room table, and a fairly good sized kitchen. All the rooms have marble floors and all the decorations are from Ikea. We have wireless internet, a computer, a phone, a washing machine, and a terrace. There is no dryer but we have a clothes line and a drying rack. We have a ton of storage space. Our refrigerator is also quite large. Everything they told us to expect about Italian living is not what we got with this place because it's just great. Monteverde is very residential so it's not at all like the city center, or even Trastevere, which is a pretty popular hangout for Italians every night. More about that later.
We live 5 minutes from the bus which picks us up in the Piazza Scotti and from there it's about a 10 or 15 minute bus ride to the school. We are also only two stops away from the Tram which can take us directly into the city if we take the Argentina all the way down to the end of the line. From there we are about a 5-10 minute walk from the Piazza Venezia. We explored that area last night, but I promise I'll talk about it as it comes.
I have 5 other roommates. 4 of us got here on Tuesday and then 2 arrived at the apartment yesterday. Everyone is very nice. I think we'll get along really well. The person I'm living with is this girl named Robin who I met at orientation at Towson and also flew over with. We didn't know our housing arrangements until we got there but when we found out that we would be living together we both thought that we'd be good roommates and so far that's true. She's really laid back and really funny and really nice and I enjoy spending time with her.
The first day we arrived we spent the time unpacking until we were starving and ended up going to the grocery store to buy some food. It's right across the street from us. It's not terribly big but it's fully stocked with everything you need, such as pasta, parm, nutella, and wine. I didn't buy nutella yet because they're in enormous jars and I was afraid I'd go through it so fast, but soon, soon I will buy some. We came back and made pasta for lunch, then I took a nap because I couldn't keep my eyes open much longer. I woke up a couple hours later which was good because I was afraid I was going to sleep the whole day, then we all went to school for a walking tour around our school. This was our first experience on the bus and we got lost, of course, but I managed to ask directions from two mounted policemen and vaguely understand them. We left an hour early and finally got there on time after a lot of walking and a lot of patience. We took the walking tour which was okay, learned how to use the tram and the buses, then came back to our apartment but stopped at a trattoria that is right beneath us called Retro. The owner spoke English which is good because in my group I'm the only one who's ever taken more than a semester of basic Italian and most people haven't ever taken Italian, and even my Italian at this point is really rusty because I didn't study it all summer. So we ate at this lovely little restaurant and the owner was very helpful. After dinner I came back and it was about 10:30 and I passed out on the couch by accident, then managed to stumble to my bed and sleep until 9:30 the next morning.
Yesterday we had things to do at school such as our Permit to Stay which registers us with the Police Department, and get cell phones. The phones were optional but I felt that in case of an emergency it would be better to have one than to not. You can all call me if you'd like, either through skype or through your own phones as long as you have international service. If you do have it, or just so that you can laugh at the insanity that is an international number, here it is. When calling from the US, dial 011 39 335 7890777. Isn't that crazy?
After getting our phones yesterday we ate lunch at a place across the street and I had to use my Italian again. I'm getting really good at saying grazie, but not much else. But grazie (thank you) is very polite, so that's better than nothing. After lunch we went back to our apartment and hung out which was when our other two roommates arrived. Three of my roommates went back to school at 4 to finish up their permit to stay and cell phone stuff but Shelby and I stayed behind to go later because there was a walking tour of the city center at 6:30 that we wanted to go on. Our last roommate, Lizz, strained her ankle really badly in July so she has a boot on and is trying to walk as little as possible so she stayed behind in the apartment. The walking tour of Rome was absolutely beautiful. I was starting to be afraid that all of Rome looked like where we lived which really is not the most attractive place in Rome, but it's not! Rome is BEAUTIFUL. The first place they took us was where there was a huge fountain that overlooked the entire city. It was breathtaking. The sun was just setting so there was a beautiful glow on the whole city. We could see Piazza Venezia but the Colosseum and the Vatican were both blocked by trees. We walked down into Trastevere which is the place I mentioned before and came out into the Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere. La chiesa di Santa Maria is also located in this square and is one of the oldest and most famous churches in all of Rome. The Pope sometimes gives mass here.
We walked through Trastevere to get to the tram and stopped outside a little Gelateria that makes the only organic gelato in all of Rome. I went in quickly and got un piccolo di pesca, a little one of peach, and it was like biting into a frozen peach. None of that gross super sugary stuff. This was the real deal. I could eat it forever. We continued on to the tram and took it to the end of the line, walked to Piazza Venezia, walked to the Forum, and ended at the Colosseum. It was night by then and it was beautiful. We hung out around the Colosseum for a while and then a big group of us headed back to Trastevere for dinner. We stopped for Pizza (my first Pizza! yum!) at this take out place right by Piazza di Santa Maria. I got the prosciutto and mozzarella and it was the saltiest, most delicious thing I had ever eaten. Then I had to get more gelato at Blue Ice, a gelato chain in Rome. I got un piccolo di Caffe, but this piccolo was HUGE. It was like getting a small scoop of ice cream at Yum Yums for those who have been there. We began walking back but Shelby, this guy Tyler that we met, and I wanted to stay out and find a bar, so Sarah, Kelly, and Robin went home while Shelby, Tyler and I found a bar in Trastevere. I tried a bit of Limoncello that I sipped because it's soooo gooood. The bar we were in had a screen up and was showing VH1 music videos, so that was cool, but also a bit strange to find in a bar in Italy. We hung out for a little while there just talking, then went back to the Piazza and they got gelato from the same place I did and theirs was absolutely fantastic. Shelby's chocolate tasted as if someone melted 70% cacao and then froze it to the consistency of Ice Cream. We sat in the Piazza for a while, then came back home. I think we got home a little before midnight but I was so wide awake from that coffee gelato that I was bouncing off the walls until about 2.
And now it is the morning of day 3, or almost afternoon. Our plan for the day is to go grocery shopping and hopefully I can duck into a shoe store and get some new shoes. I wish there was a button I could push that would just automatically make me Italian. I don't like sticking out all that much but that seems to be the only thing that I do right about now. The blond hair and blue eyes apparently don't help me either, but as time goes on I get more and more used to it. Everyone is incredibly nice around here, especially when you go into restaurants. They're so helpful and really try to to work with you, especially when we're both working with limited second languages. I've been feel a bit discombobulated in a way, so out of my element and so out of my comfort zone. I'm not one for standing out in a crowd and I'm not one for making mistakes, especially mistakes in such a beautiful language as Italian. I want to do justice to this language and I know the only way to do that is practice and to try. I am practicing, and I am trying, but I'm also telling you that it's really hard. I'll be glad to start classes so that I can get a refresher.
I'm sorry this was such a long update, but I found that there was much more to say than I originally thought! I'm going to be putting some pictures up on facebook eventually that will include my apartment and places I have visited in Rome, but if you don't have a facebook, don't worry, I will email you a link to a photo uploading site where you can get the pictures from there.
I hope everyone is doing well! If anyone you know would like to be updated but I didn't include them, please feel free to forward this email. Or if there's anyone who doesn't want to get these massive emails every week or so, I won't be offended. A couple of email addresses I just didn't have on me when I wrote this, so email me the email address of someone who'd like to be included and I will include them in the next batch.
Ciao tutti! A domani!
Liz
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