Rome adventures

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Hello from Rome!
We finally have some internet...that we paid for mostly because we have to turn homework in by Saturday for our online classes. I know...fun. We've been very busy these last few days. On Wednesday we spent most of the day catching up on sleep. We were exhausted from the flights of course. I woke up around 5:30am because I couldn't sleep. Come 8am (midnight CA time) I was out like a light though. Sarae, my travel compainion had no trouble sleeping through the entire night. We didn't wake up until 3pm that day. I'm pretty sure the only reason we woke up was because the front desk called asking when they could come clean our room...oops. That day we walked over the the Trevi Fountain. It was gorgeous. It only took us about 15 minutes to get there and back. On our way down we stopped in to a gelato shop aka a gelataria so that I could get a taste of my first Gelato. Let me tell you it makes me never want to eat amercian ice cream again! It's definately better than what we call ice cream 😊 After spending some time and the fountain and tossing a coin in to make a wish (that's the big thing there) we went shopping for a bit. We found some realy cute shops full of stylish clothes. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a little pizzaria and got some true italian pizza. Also way better than anything you could find in amercia. There were whole slices of cheese just slightly melted on top. It was delicious! The hardest parts about being here are the time change and not speaking the language. Most people around here speak enough enlgish to help you get by but I wish I could communicate with them a little bit better.

Thursday we had to go get our marathon packets. We ate breakfast here at our hotel because it's complimentary and we're poor college students. It was really good. They had tons of different types of food out. Everything from european style cereals to fruit and yogurt, eggs, ham, breads, etc. We definately pigged out. After eating we caught the bus to get over to what they call marathon city. This is where we had check in. We were early and had to wait so we went across the street and bought some postcards to send out to the family and such. The line to actually register went really quickly. It took us all of ten minutes to get through. We got some really cool goodies including two shirts and a very nice backpack. We hopped back on the train and went to a bus station where we got on a double decker tourbus. We took a tour of Rome and aw all of the old ruins including the famous colleseum. Because of time constraints and the fact that the line to see the colleseum was literally hundreds and hundreds of people long we continued to the Vatican and got off there. Both of us were very interested in seeing the Sistine Chapel. On the way in we bartered with some gypsies and I got some goodies. The Sistine Chapel is everything you would expect and more. It was huge! There is artwork everywhere. Paints all over the walls on your way in to the main Chapel. When we got to the famous ceiling it took my breath away. It was gorgeous. All of the biblical depictions really just make you stop and think about how tiny we are. It was just amazing. The thing that strikes me most about Rome is how the new and ancient mix. Literally leaning in to an old ruin will be a new shopping center. It's beautiful.

After the Sistine Chapel we took the bus back toward our hotel and got off to have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was good as they always are. I bought a shirt of course. Today was a little endulging for the both of us but when in Rome right?

We came back to our hotel around 4pm and decided to take a nap. That nap turned in to actual sleep and we didn't wake up until 10:30pm. It's now 5:15 Rome time and here I am still awake. I'm about to crawl in bed to catch a couple of hours of sleep before breakfast.

Tomorrow is the day before our race so we have been told not to do much. Already Sarae and I have done too much walking according to our coaches. We walk practically everywhere because it's cheaper, faster, and easier for us. We will be spending the day cooped in our room doing homework, relaxing, and goofing around. Then we have our Team In Training dinner to carb-load before the big race.

I'll be back soon to let you all know how the race goes! Thanks for checking in!


Love you all!

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