Jan. 14-16, 2007

Well..today was interesting...to catch up since I arrived in Roma on Sunday, we moved into the hotel, I took a nap for a couple of hours so i could stay up the rest of the day and not be too jet lagged. It worked out pretty well, we ended up having a meeting with API then a light dinner they put on for us and then we went out to "Sloppy Sam's" in Compo de' Fiori (which they callTop picture: Lindsey (really cool girl from RI), Me, Laura (one of my 2 roommates)

Bottom picture: Left, Meredith from Louisiana, Lindsey in the red, Me, Laura, and other girls in my programthe "meat market" because it's basically an entirely American piazza where the bars are full of American guys looking to pick up American girls and Italian guys looking to do the same because basically they know we're here either on vacation or at the most 4-5 months. We went there knowing all that and actually it was fine because we went with a group of guys from our program and apparently Italian men respect other men so if there is a male presence, they tend to not be so sleezy I guess haha...anyways, I had a Chimay Bleu (which I really liked!) and my friends had some wine and other beers and all in all it was a pretty short night because we were so tired and had to get up at 8 the next morning to do other things. The guys watched the football game and we hung out in the back talking and being tired. We headed back to the hotel around 11:00 (aka 23:00 - I'm actually getting pretty used to it...) The next day we had a tour of the heart of Roma, it was a walking and bus tour and our tour guide's name was Fabio. He was really cool, we went to the Pantheon, saw a lot of fountains (most notably the Trevi Fountain), the Colosseum (SO COOL), learned that fornication comes from latin that means "under the arch" and apparently means sex under the arches of the Colosseum...hah! Fabio was pretty cool... The Pantheon
The Trevi Fountain
The Colosseum
Me and Heather at the Colosseum

We also went through one of the original gates in the walls surrounding the center of Roma. The center of Roma used to be ALL of Roma, so it had walls around the city to block it off from barbarians. We saw a very cool church, which had gorgeous ceilings and also a fake dome. They painted it to look like a dome because a real one would have been too expensive to construct. the painted "dome" - really bad pic...but it was really realistic!
^model of all the different religions

There were also little silver hearts in cases which were for miracles I believe, like every time there was a miracle they'd bring a heart to put up near the statue. I got the gist of it...There was also this really cool model that was made to represent all of the different religions and churches in the world. I thought that was really interesting. After our tour, we had lunch and went to JCU to get orientation stuff done. We learned about a lot of different trips that are available to us for pretty cheap, and got our student ID cards, etc. There is a little cafe right next to school that has free WiFi and good food, so I think I might go there to study, etc. if JCU is too crowded. After the JCU orientation, Laura, Heather, Lindsey (from API, not from home) and I went to a really cute little restaurant called San Maria or something like that. I got linguine al pesto, which was really good and our waiter was really helpful. We asked him for a good "Italian" bar and he told us to go to Acqua Negra which is a wine bar close by. We tried to find it later on, but couldn't and ended up going back to Compo de' Fiori for drinks at an "American" Bar - a REALLY American bar actually...they were playing rap and everyone spoke English, the menu was in English, etc. We're trying to get away from that and now that we're in Trastevere, I think it's going to be much easier to find more Italian culture and language. Lindsey wants to go to Venice for Carnival, and I'm totally excited for that - it would be me, Heather, Laura, Lindsey, Lindsey's roommates and hopefully my Lindsay too! So looking forward to that..We moved in today after getting our permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay/live here) and our apartment is huge! Again, I'll put pics up asap!!! We have a doorman who is really adorable and nice. His name is Alessandro. He's not here all the time, which makes it easy for Lindsay to sneak in and stay the night and sneak out in the morning over the wall in our little courtyard behind our apartment! Lindsay came over at night and we ended up going to dinner with Jamie, Janie, Michelle, and Mallory at the pizza place behind our apartment. It was really good and I got penne alla vodka as did Michelle and Jamie, and Janie, Mallory and Linds all got Margherita pizzas. Delicioso! After eating Linds and I walked around Trastevere, went to the internet cafe down the street and Linds called her parents and I called Mom on my cellulare. After the internet cafe we tried to get her on a bus - the H bus actually - to get back to Termini where she could get to the hostel she had already paid for. We waited for a long time at the stop, and it was raining annnnnd the bus finally came and it also went without stopping at the bus stop. So we ran after it for a while, and it stopped at a red light and Linds knocked on the door and the driver looked at her and said "no" and drove away. It was great. On the way back to my apartment we saw a cab so Linds went to see how much and it was only 10 euros so she just took that to Termini. I got back to the room, unpacked, and went to bed...