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!