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Rome
So last saturday we had our school orientation which was sufficiently boring. A police officer came to talk to us though about safety and what not. The funny thing he asked is what Italy's national sport was. Everyone said soccer. He was like no, that's Italy's second national sport. Their first national sport is women! Hahaha. And its so true.
Then later that day we went on a guided tour of Rome. We saw Piazza Venezia, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and a bunch of other cool little churches and piazzas in Rome. Piazza Venezia was HUGE with this huge building honoring the unknown soldier and Victor Emmanuel 2 monument. It was seriously breathtaking thats how big it was. Absolutely insane. We also saw the Pantheon, but didn't go inside of it. All these places were really cool. Later on in the week we also went to the spanish steps, which are just a bunch of steps and a fountain, at night and went to the top and had a nice view of Rome lit up. This area is also where all the shops are, with all the brand name stores and trendy restaraunts and what not.
Then Sunday and Monday we had days to relax and get ready for school. We also went to dinner one night with our most of the people at our school, which was about 20, and that was really fun too. Altogether we have a really fun group minus 2-3 people. Then wednesday night our program hosted a dinner for everyone. They love taking us out to nice places and feeding us these really nice 3 course meals. YUMMMM. We did this at Re Cafe in the downtown area.
So our apartment is right across from Villa Torlonia, which is a pretty good sized park. That's one thing about Rome. They have a lot of parks and a lot of green space. Its really nice. Throughout all the parks they also have running water fountains with really good water! Its so nice. There are these dog figures on all the water fountains...maybe it means they are for dogs? Haha but no I see people drinking out of them all the time. And the water is cold too, which you typically won't even find at restaraunts. No ice as well. The Romans don't believe in putting your body through extreme opposite temperatures, hence no ice and no air conditioning. But so back to this park. Villa Torlonia. This park also has a museum with and has a bunch of buildings. Apparently the central main building was one of Mussolini's houses at one point. I love this park thought because there's always lots of people in it, running, seeing the monuments, and kids playing soccer, people tanning and lots of couples making out. Haha lovely. I still hate running though.
The other day I also went to the vegetable market. It was really cool! There is one right up the street from me. Its pretty much like a farmers market everday. They bring in fresh veggies everyday and they have pretty much every vegetable that exists! I even found avocados....yayyyyy. They also have bread meat and cheese people there too. That was a fun Italian experience. Trying to buy veggies, half of which I didn't know the name in Italian. I also had to help my roommates buy meat. Haha me trying to order meat. That was a joke.
Our first day of school was tuesday. I am taking a class called Living Italy. So far its really interesting! Its actually funny because my teacher is a professor for the UC's study abroad program during the year. My class is pretty much an Italian culture class. My teacher just babbles on the whole time and goes off on really long tangents but its awesome becaue he just answers any questions that we have! We can find out answers to all these random questions that you wouldn't really find out unless you lived here for a few years. So in that sense I love it, but it is 3 hours long! Which is very long. And he never turns the lights on, so our class room is always dim....sooo by like hour 2 people's eyes are starting to close. We only have 5 people in the class though...he doesn't seem to care though. Its so weird though having to do homework again! Boo reading. But again, it is interesting.
Tomorrow we have an included trip to Assisi, and then me and some of my roommates are going to Lake Trasimeno and staying in the town of Torricella. That we planned on our own. We are staying in hostel there thats right on the lake. The rest of my roommates are going to Florence, but I'll be there later.
Anyways I hope all is going well in the states! Pax!
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LoLo chan
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so funny!
Remy ordering meat...in a foreign country....I love it! The park across the street sounds like some good people watching, you're lucky you're not surrounded by stinky old buildings. Taking lots of pictures I hope???!!! Love the updates, ciao bella!