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!