And so it begins...

So I've been extremely busy for the past week, and haven't had the chance to update my blog, so here goes! Last week I had 2 hours of Intensive Italian every day, so we learned a lot of conversational Italian, and I can now hold a short conversation at a cafe, or a grocery store, and I'm still learning more, of course! This week we started classes, and I love them all! Typically the way our classes are set up is we have lecture for an hour, and then a two hour field study later on in the week. My Roman Architecture and Urban Design class went on a field study to Castel Sant'Angelo yesterday, where I saw the most BEAUTIFUL view of Rome (despite the rain), and today my Ancient Rome: History and Myth class went on a field study to the Forum Boarium, which was extremely interesting, as we learned all about things I casually ride by on my way home from school without thinking twice--now I know how cool they are! I'm also taking Social Issues in Southern Italy, as well as Issues in the Contemporary Roman Catholic Church.


This past weekend Patrick came to visit from Dublin. Unfortunately, his flight was cancelled on Thursday night so he spent the night in the Frankfurt airport, and I was nervous Friday morning when it started snowing in Rome--for the first time since 1986! It's been raining here a lot, and all the natives talk about how it's never like this...so hopefully it will get better! Regardless, it was a beautiful day on Saturday, and Patrick and I went all over, visiting St. Peter's Basilica (where the ceiling is my favorite part):




Vatican City:

Trevi Fountain (Patrick has a better picture on his blog...):

Spanish Steps:

and Colosseum...at nighttime AND during the day!

All in all, it was a great weekend, and I'm looking forward to having more visitors to Rome (in case anyone wants to join...) The more I learn in my classes, the more I know and can't wait to tell! I'm also learning more about the buses---still how unreliable they are! Today our bus was the most crowded I've ever seen it, there were about 40 elementary school children on it, it took about 30 minutes to get to our stop, and THEN we got a flat tire, so we walked the rest of the way to our field study. Thankfully we knew where we were going, and as long as the weather holds up, I plan on walking home tonight for the first time. It's about 55 degrees outside, so really quite nice! I've also planned a trip to Nice and the French Riviera next weekend with my roommates and some other girls who live near me, so I'm looking forward to that! I'll do a better job of updating now that I'm in the groove of things!

Apartment Tour

I decided to leave a video with a little tour of the apartment, since I'm the only one home right now. My classes are going well so far, I have Intensive Italian from 3-5 every day, and different Advising meetings or meetings to figure out my Permit to Stay in the mornings. Today I was done by about 10:00, so I decided to come home and check out the Farmer's Market to pick up some produce (we already have "our stand", where the guy peels clementines for us while we wait, and places extras of whatever we get in our bags once we've paid, just to keep us coming back), and have lunch at home!

Pictures, Finally!

The corner of the building where my classes are:

Castel San Angelo, literally right across the street from IES:

St. Peter's Basilica, with Nativity Scene and Christmas tree:

Vatican City, about a 10 minute walk from where I have classes:

The Colosseum, about a 15-20 minute walk from my apartment...we pass by it every day on my way to school:

The Roman Forum, about 5-10 minutes from my apartment:

The view from the balcony of my bedroom:

The bedroom I share with Margherita, my Italian Student Companion:

Orientation

I've been in Rome for four days now, and have had an excellent time! Minus the fact that my Internet STILL isn't working (it takes a while to fix broken things here, but IES is doing all they can to fix it, and if not, to make other accommodations for us), I'm having an excellent time! The past few days have just been normal Orientation meetings, about safety, health, our program, and everything. Our school is literally right across the street from Castel San Angelo, so the first day, we had a two hour break between meetings, and a few of us walked over to the Vatican and explored a little bit. The next day we had a break so I walked to the bookstore (right near the Spanish Steps--although I was not aware of this at the time) and bought my Italian books.

Yesterday we had a tour of the different neighborhoods of Rome--we went near the Colosseum, and explored a few churches in the area. We first stopped at "San Pietro in Vincoli", which means St. Peter in Chains, and inside is the "Mausoleo di Giulio", a sculpture of Moses made by Michelangelo, as well as the chains that Peter wore when he was in prison. Our next stop was the Basilica di Santa Maria in Domnica, which is about a 7th century church with a Greek mosaic inside, dating to about 800 AD. The columns from this church, as well as many of the other churches of the time, were stolen from the ancient ruins, and just moved to the church. The next church we went to was Santo Stefano di Rotundo, which is one of the only completely in-the-round churches in the world. On the walls of the church were paintings of early martyrs and how they died--after Charles Dickens visited, he said he had nightmares of the images for weeks...I've been slightly luckier thus far! The last church we visited was San Giovanni e Paulo, which was built over where they were burned, as well as an underground village. When we walked in, we found a cat sitting in the church, as well as many beautiful chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The priest was also kind enough to take us to see part of the village, which is normally something you have to pay to do. We ended up doing quite a bit of walking (as is customary), especially since the buses were on strike yesterday! They will still run during rush hours, but less frequently/not at all otherwise. We've been told that it's easy to master the bus system here in Rome, but you'll always be guessing!

The past few nights, we've gotten together with some girls who live in our neighborhood. Wednesday we went for a walk, Thursday we had a cooking lesson from our ISCs, Margherita and Valentina, (pasta with zucchini and shrimp, as well as forna rustica), and last night we just walked around our neighborhood. Tonight we plan to see what Carnevale festivities are going on in Roma (there is an opening parade, and many activities over the course of the next few weeks), and perhaps go to a discoteca! I'm having lots of fun, and am LOVING being in the city! Ciao for now!

Rome at Last!

Well, I finally made it to Rome! After arriving at the airport almost 3 hours early, waiting outside of security for about an hour saying goodbye to family (and buying last-minute pop-up maps of Rome), and making it through security in about 2 minutes, 8 of us Wheaton kids were on our way to Rome! As we sat in the terminal at Logan Airport, we kept our eyes peeled for other IES students who might be on our flight, but we only found one, and we didn’t find her until we arrived!

When I checked in and was asked if I had a preference of a window seat or an aisle seat, I answered window. Our flight was relatively empty, so even though a woman was sitting in the seat next to me, she moved to sit by herself, so I actually got to stretch out for the flight. We took off at about 5:45pm (and that’s about when the small child sitting diagonally from me on the plane started crying…and didn’t stop until we landed) and had dinner served at about 7 (a chicken and vegetable mix; lasagna; a roll; crackers and a Mini Bonabel; a salad with a cold cut, a few shredded carrots, and four olives; and four grapes, three cubes of pineapple, and two orange slices). There were televisions on board, and they showed two films over the course of the flight—Where the Wild Things Are, and an Italian film I don’t remember the name of. I decided to watch Where the Wild Things Are, then try to sleep during the other film. Key word there being TRY. At about midnight (although, I had already changed my watch by then, so it was like 6am to me) they served breakfast, and then we landed in Rome at 7. I really lucked out with my seat on the plane, because I had two windows next to me, and at one point, if I looked out one window, it was pitch black, yet looking out the other I could see all the different colors from the sunrise.

Upon arriving at the airport, we went to claim our baggage (we may or may not have stood at the wrong baggage claim area for a good 15 minutes before realizing it—to which we said “Well, we don’t look like the stupid Americans here or anything…”), then were met by IES who gave us info packets, made copies of what they needed, and paired us up sending us off to our apartments. My ISC (Italian Student Companion), Margherita, met me at my apartment, and led me up to the 4^th floor (although unlike my room at Wheaton, there’s an elevator up to the 4^th floor!) where I had the choice of rooming with her, or setting up in the other double. Her room had a balcony, my own set of drawers, and my own closet, so that ended up being the winner. I also figure rooming with her will be good for my Italian. She’s going to school for Communication, and wants to practice her English, so I figure we’ll trade off! Amanda arrived not very long after (she thought her plane got in at 7:40pm when it was really 7:40am), and we unpacked, then made our first lunch together—pasta with pesto and a salad. And by “we”, I mean Margherita made it and Amanda and I cleaned the dishes—but it’s definitely a meal I could make in the future!

Margherita has lived in Rome for about 6 years (she’s originally from about 2 hours from here), so she knows her way around pretty well! I’ll post pictures of the apartment as soon as I can—it’s really cute, and I absolutely love the location, and the apartment complex. And mom and dad, I found some people on my side of the river! Of the 141 of us in the program, 121 live on one side of the river, and I’m in the lucky 20 who live on the other side! We actually went on a short walk tonight and saw the Roman Forum and the Coliseum..they just happened to be on our normal walking route!

Sorry for the long post, but I figured I’d let you all know I’m in safe and am having a great time thus far! I haven’t slept yet, so am thinking I’ll probably crash early tonight…Ciao for now!

The next post will have a few pictures!