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Published: February 3rd 2008
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So I'm not too familiar with this whole blogging online thing and I apologize ahead of time for all my spelling errors. We definitely had a section about blogging in History of American Journalism I believe (or some journalism class) about how a lot of people get their news from blogs and how people respond to them giving more information that is sometimes false...well I just hope no one takes my blog that seriously, I don't think I should be trusted as to any acurate information on things, at least now when I have only been in Rome a week and a couple days. So far being abroad has been hard to get adjusted, but it will all settle out in time. This first week has definitely been about getting used to being far away from home with people I don't know, getting used to that it is difficult to communicate what I want, figuring out the transportation system, and most of all TRYING TO FIND PEANUT BUTTER. You know, its funny what you miss when you can't get it. I have had few experiences like this in my lifetime where I am in a completely new place and I realize
the staples of my existence. IE when I went to college, what I missed most was being able to park close to where I live and Corner Bakery ham and swiss paninis (if you haven't had them, I suggest you modify this immediately). But right now, I miss peanut butter. Don't get me wrong, I miss all my friends and family, Dallas and Columbia, but I really want peanut butter. It is very hard to find here, and even when you do find it, its like 7 euros (for those of you who don't know thats like $10.50) for a tiny jar. Now, the Italians know how to do pizza, pasta, gelato, and pasteries, but how do they live without peanut butter!!! So maybe I am being a little dramatic, but for those of you who know me well...what would I be good for if it wasn't my dramatics? They also don't really save food like we do in America and its almost considered rude to take things to go. You sit down and finish your food there and enjoy every bite of it. Now I really don't have a problem with this because well...I do enjoy food but I
can never finish it and I want to take it to go! Maybe I will come to terms with this as time goes on, but until then I will probably continue to leave food on my plate and continue to look for ziplock bags for saving my food at home.
I am living in an apartment with 5 other girls. Its a pretty nice apartment, internet is good, and we are in a good part of town. My room is relatively small but I expected as much when I came to Rome. I did not expect however that the heater would make our apartment so hot. We were told that the heat would only work for 4 hours each night and that we should expect to wear sweats to bed, so thats what I prepared for. Well no, it is on for more than 4 hours and gets so hot I can't stand it sometimes. After the first couple nights I ended up moving my bed away from the heater (yeah who would have thought that would be a problem 😊 ) and open the window and use the cool temperature at night to adjust. Even though that may not seem to be that big of a deal, the inability to adjust your inside temperature is something that Americans take for granted. Now one thing that I would say Italians have going on is the fact that they have these shields that you pull down over your balcony doors and windows at night that block out all light and add an extra light. I'm pretty sure that this shield is what I have been missing all my life. The window in my room doesn't have it, but the door does so thats pretty much amazing. I went to Ikea and the mall (the woman told us this mall has 200 stores in it, Dallas...you've got nothin on Rome here) on Friday. I wanted to get curtains for the room but they were all so expensive and well I am hoping that I can rely on the good faith that my father will bring me some when he comes for my birthday. While I had to deal with disappointment at Ikea, I did meet 4 girls on the bus ride and they invited me to Pisa on Saturday. Well to get a cheaper fare on the train ride, we took at 6 am train which lasted 4 hours. Yeah in case anybody is confused, getting up at 4:30 am for a train is not fun and also, train conductors do not like it when you put you feet up on the seat across from you and will wake you up to tell you so, but all in all it was definitely worth it when we got there. The pictures of the tower of Pisa do not even begin to capture the lean and I bet you didn't know that not only is the tower at a lean, but the duomo (largest cathedral in Tuscany) and the baptistry are at a lean as well due to the soil, its just not as much, but you can definitely see it. I am really glad that I saw Pisa, but its probably not somewhere I need to go again. After Pisa, we took a short ride over to Viareggio to see Carnivale, but it didn't start till today so there was not much to see except for a lot of signs and set ups for it. For those of you who don't know what Carnivale is, its basically like Marti Gras except there are more floats and masks and stuff and it is more about Political stuff rather than the motive of most Marti Gras celebrations...you know what I mean. It was all cold and rainy so there wasn't much to really see. Oh well it was a fun trip anyways. Well I'm off to do homework for the classes which are the reason I am here 😊
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