Finally...

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I made it! I got to Rome after 3 flights, a five hour layover at JFK in New York and getting lost in the Paris airport. Crazy French people. It was about 24 hours of traveling all together and it all but killed me. I got to the airport in Rome and threw up. I felt dizzy, and hot, and nauseous, and miserable. And then of course my baggage was lost. Luckly only one bag though so I have some things. The bus took me and the girl on my flight (who also goes to WSU) to our hotel in Rome. I felt so dizzy and weak I was barely able to take a shower before I crashed. I had a single room overlooking the busiest street in the world. There were tiny cars and mopeds honking at each other all night long. That was probably the worst night I’ve ever had. I was sick and alone halfway across the world. It threw me into the depths of homesickness immediately. I’ve never felt so awful. I was starving but too sick to go out…nobody to ask to pick me up food...plus what food would I even ask for!? I was in serious need of some saltine crackers, cream of wheat and Gatorade, a parent, and a comfortable bed! None of which I had.
The next morning got better however. I felt a little better after being sick all night and once I got out of my room I was able to talk to other people in the program so I wasn’t so alone. We left almost immediately for Seina so my only experience with Rome so far is hearing it from a hotel room. It really intimidated me with all the noise and modernity of it and unfortunately it’s left a sort of bad taste in my mouth. I know I’m going back to see the sights but I’m actually not all that excited. I am soooo glad we are in Seina now. This town is beautiful. It is a small, entirely walled little medieval town. Every building is old unlike Rome where the ancient and modern run into each other. This town is everything everyone dreams of when they imagine Italy. I’ve taken pictures but they don’t even do it justice. Neither will my descriptions of it. Nobody here speaks English so it feels like this place is completely untouched by the rest of the world. It’s so wonderful. It’s amazing to look out my window at dawn because it’s foggy and the church bells will ring and I’ll see little old men walk by with their cute little hats. It’s very serene and almost dreamlike.

I started my Italian language classes yesterday at the university. My teacher is this rosy little Italian woman who will only speak Italian to us. It’s pretty intense but I think I will end up learning a lot. She taught us the most important things: how to order coffee, important shopping phrases like “Saldi” for Sale, and how to pick up guys at the bar! Haha. She is so funny. Its interesting being taught by an Italian because she concentrates on different things than one would in the States. She cares a lot about pronunciation and our homework tonight is to practice rolling our R’s. Lol. Cracks me up.
Besides language classes, I’ve signed up for a bunch of activities. Wine tasting, Museum tours, Cooking class, and day trips to neighboring towns. It seems though that I’ll still have a lot of time for relaxing, getting to know some of the girls in my program, and shopping! I’m going to try really hard to be strong and budget my money well, but I found a discount market that is only open on Wednesdays and it has designer everything for super cheap. We all heard that and nearly started drooling. Tomorrow morning me and a couple girls are getting up early to hit the market before class starts at 9. The only thing I will get up early for…

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Comments

[Todd (aka Dad)]

Things are looking up!
Way to go!! Leave plenty of upwars potential. Don't want to peak to early. Has your other bag shown up?? I've been calling Air France. Nice music when you are on hold, and friendly French people to say unknown things to you after you've waited the customery 30 minutes on hold. "Ze bag iz at ze otel monsieur" ... whatever that means. "Eat iz in ze RRRRRRum". Much R rolling but where the heck is the bag?