Giant Killer Squids

Everyone!!

Amy does NOT look thrilled to

be next to that creepy Italian man.

Me, Britt, Alexa and Caroline

me and the birthday girl!!!!!

Hello friends! It has been quite a while. This has been a very busy week. I started classes this week and besides western civ, I love all my classes. My favorites are probably going to be photography, film, and baroque sculpture. In photography we have this awesome teacher named Lorenzo Pesci (google him!) He is a professional photographer and showed us a ton of his stuff in fashion magazines and books and stuff. He is young and hip haha so he will be a great teacher. Our Baroque Sculpture teacher is a young girl who is sooooo passionate about art history. She gets really emotional and really takes her time to find the perfect words to describe a work of art. She is my only American teacher. In film we watched Birth of a Nation which was so racist but really an interesting film to see. It was a silent film by D.W. Griffith released in 1915. I think it was one of the first American motion pictures released.

We had dinner as a family ever night and I absolutely love the girls I am living with. We always end up sitting at the dinner table for hours having the most bizarre conversations. The most common topic of conversation revolved around giant killer squids, snake head fish, and sharks. I am now deathly afraid of the water.... more so than I allready was. I have more to fear than just sharks apparently.

Wednesday night the girls and I went to an apartment just down the street where these nice boys cooked us dinner. They are interesting fellows. Two of them are from new jersey and are extreme guidos. One is a wicked creep who is in looove with Alexa, one is in loooove with Britt, and one never comes out of his room. He just sits by himself and talks to his girlfriend on skype 24/7. I think it's cute. Then yesterday (thursday) was Caroline's birthday. The girls and I cooked a delicious dinner of pasta with alfredo sauce, chicken, and broccoli. Then we went out and met the boys at their apartment and all went out to an awesome bar somewhere. This place was so much better than art cafe in that there were tons of Americans (a bunch from AUR!) and there was room to move. Caroline had millions of Italian men after her the whole night and she had a very very happy start to her birthday.

Today we are going to go do some sight seeing and then go out again! I will update again soon :-)

p.s. more photos soon!

Parco Leonardo

So it has been a fairly uneventful couple of days. Yesterday I slept extremely late, as you know, and I never even left the apartment except to grocery shop so there isn't anything worth reporting.

Today the girls and I woke up bright and early and met outside the garden gates at our school with a whole ton of people for a school guided trip to the mall. They showed us how to get there using the bus, the tram, and the train. It was cheap and easy and the mall was HUGE! There were about 220 stores at the Parco Leonardo. It was an exhausting day but very successfull.

I bought a new coat at Zara that I looooooove. It is black with a very high collar and it buttons up the side. It is very Italian and very in style here. Britt picked it out for me and she said if she didn't allready have a million black coats she would have bought it for herself. She has great taste so I was overjoyed.

I also bought a new pair of shoes! They are black suede wedges with bows on the front. They are very chic and classy and will be perfect for going out. I won't get stuck in the cobblestones and my weight will be distributed evenly so hopefully my feet won't hurt as bad.

When I was leaving the shoe store there was an Italian girl walking out behind me and I heard a man speaking in Italian so I assumed he was speaking to her, but then someone grabbed my arm. I turned around and this HUGE black guy who looked really angry had stopped both me and this girl, who looked just as bewildered as I did. He was talking in Italian really fast and showed us his police badge. My face turned bright red and I looked over at Caroline who was clearly just as confused as I was. The man was pulling me back into the store speaking Italian really fast and I kept telling him "no parle italiano" which as far as we know means "i don't speak Italian" but we could be wrong because he ignored me and kept speaking. I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong and after a second he let the Italian girl leave. He brought me over to this other police officer and he started going through my shopping bag. He took out my receipt and stared at it for a very long time, which worried me because I only bought one thing. Then, after a little bit he just smiled and said "Gratzi!" (i'm not sure how to spell that.) He was very pleasant all of a sudden and just let me walk away. I was baffled and confused but relieved that it was no big deal. Italy is so strange.

So now I am back home after a long and tiring day. That is all to report for now. Classes start tomorrow, we will see how it goes!

P.S. since I didn't take any new pictures today or yesterday I will post some old ones that I didn't put up yet.

"Guys. I am not lying to you right now."

Above is the American University of Rome

Above on the lft in the back is Morgan and all the way on the right is Valorie

Greetings friends. I would like you all to know that I am officially in love with Rome. I still miss a lot of things about home and I wouldn't want to live here forever, but the next few months I think are going to be wonderful. Yesterday morning we woke up bright and early to go to our orientation. The man who lead the orientation was like a dad giving us the basic safety tips that we have all heard a million times. He also scared us to death telling us horror stories of things that have happened to students at the University when they weren't being careful.
After the meeting, some of the girls and I went to change our schedules, then ventured off past the university to see what we could find. We walked down a beautiful, narrow, winding cobblestone road with tall walls and gates on either side. The street was lined mainly with different embassies (is that the correct way to pluralize embassy?)
When we got to the end of the street we came upon this huge, beautiful fountain and a spectacular view of the entire city. We were all in tears because we were so happy to finally see parts of Rome we had only dreamed of seeing before. We took millions of pictures, and were really scared of two armed guards who were walking back and forth because we had been yelled at some earlier for taking pictures near the embassy they were protecting. However, these guards were really friendly and took pictures with us! The only english word they knew was "chewing gum" and asked us for some in payment for the pictures. It was hillarious.
Later on that night we had the walking tour of Rome, which was run by the school and showed us how to get to and from the center of Rome. We saw hundreds of ruins, the cat sanctuary, the tomb of the unkown soldier, and the colloseum!
One of the tour guides, David, who works for the school, is also a club promoter. He was the guy who met Caroline and I at the airport when we first arrived to show us where our apartments were. We wanted to go out last night so we asked him where we should go. He told us to go to Gilda, a club where he works, and he said he would put us on the VIP list and get us right in. He gave us his his number and a paper with the club name and address on it and told us to call him when we got there.
After the tour we went home and made a delicious dinner with pasta (of course) mozzerella, basil and tomato, bread, fruit salad, and wine. We sat at the dinner table for about three hours just chatting and having a wonderful time, when we realized it was 10:30 and we should probably get ready to go out.
We ended up not leaving until sometime after midnight. The clubs in Rome don't open until midnight so this was fine. We went to the stop for the number 19 bus which would take us straight to the Colloseum, which is right near Gilda. We waited at the bus stop for 20 minutes when we realized the bus might not be coming.
We were all debating on what we should do- keep waiting or walk a great distance and take the tram- when Caroline turns to us and with a panicked face said "Guys. I am not lying to you right now. There is a man standing over there exposing himself." We were all silent for a minute while we absorbed what she just told us. Carefully a few of the girls scooted over to where Caroline was looking and saw that yes indeed, a man was standing a distance away facing us with his manly parts hanging out. We all turned immediately and started jogging towards the tram. Luckily, the man didn't follow us, and we can look back now and laugh at the situation. I think it may be the wierdest thing that has ever happened to me.
On our way to the tram the bus came by and stopped for us. After our frustrating night so far it seemed like things were finally going our way since we finally got the bus. However, our attitudes changed from joy to frustration again once we got off the bus and realized Gilda would be harder to find than we thought. We asked all the older couples we saw if they could show us where Gilda was, and they would give us directions but none of us payed attention. I think we all assumed someone else would pay attention. We also met up with David's friend Morgan, another club promoter who told us how to get to Gilda, and found our way there eventually.
The joy we felt upon arriving at the club quickly faltered when we found out the club was full and they weren't letting anyone in. Morgan arrived soon after we did and explained that they would probably let people in shortly because they weren't serving anymore alcohol so people would start to leave. We didn't feel like waiting and asked him if he could show us where Art Cafe was, which we had read about online earlier and where he told us he would be going later in the night. He told us he would take us there and his and David's friend Valorie came with us also.
We walked farther and farther away from the Colloseum down winding roads and we started to get nervous. We knew, from reading online earlier, that the club was underground, but this was a ridiculously long way away where there were no cabs (but there were police everywhere) and we all had on heals. Our feet were killing us since we had to walk a verrrrry long distance on cobblestones. Eventually, after traveling through a long underground tunnel where the metro was, we heard music bumping in the distance.
We turned the corner and see before our eyes the most amazing underground club we could have ever imagined. When we entered, Morgan got us VIP bracelets. We were, as far as we could tell, the only Americans in this club, since it is so hard to get into and is only open four times a month. We couldnt' believe that it was only our first night out and we were allready in one of the best clubs in Rome with VIP bracelets. The club was sooo much fun with all different rooms with different music themes. When we first got there we all went up to buy a drink only to find that drinks were 15 Euro. Yes. 15. Fortunately, after that we each got a free drink thanks to Morgan, but don't worry everyone we stood at the bar and watched the bartenders mix them and put them directly into our hands. And we were all very smart and only had two drinks.
We were all very very cautious the whole night, making sure we were all together at all times. If someone had to go to the bathroom we would split up into two groups of three so that three people could stay and watch our things and three would go to the bathroom. We never left our drinks and kept them covered when we held them. If any creepy guys came up and started to harass us, Morgan would immediately move us to another section of the VIP area, or ask the person to leave, and they would. He was like our own personal security guard. Since he is a club promoter it was his job to watch over us for the night. He makes a certain amount of money for every person he gets to come to the clubs he promotes.
We danced the night away and though we were always on alert and always cautious, we had a wonderful time. We were so happy that a night that had started out so awful turned into the most amazing time ever. Morgan and Valerie walked us all the way back to the bus station after we left the club to make sure we got there safely.
We barely made it back since we were all wearing heals and refused to take them off and walk barefoot on the extremely dirty Italian streets. We finally got back to our apartment at 5:30 am, which is normal for nightlife in Italy. At 1:30 this afternoon Amy came in and woke us up. We were all amazed we had slept the entire day away. Though the club was loads of fun, it won't be a common occurance because we don't think we can handle the late night into early morning thing. We are all proud of ourselves for being so cautious yet still having a great time. We are so glad we all get along so well and really look out for each other. Like I said before, I think this will be a great semester.

Rome is known for having the cleanest water in Europe.

It is the end of day two in the city of Rome, and today was a much better day than the first. We woke up bright and early and somehow managed to hop on a bus and find our way to the University. The school is in such a lovely area of Rome and it is such a nice building. There is a great little courtyard inside the walls of the school with tons of tables and chairs where it is always warm enough to sit for lunch.
Inside the university we got our student I.D.s and ate tons of free snacks. We also guzzled down almost their entire supply of water and juice because we were all extremely dehydrated. Next we went and met with some people to begin the process of getting our permit to stay in Italy. By the way, when I say we I mean myself and the five girls I live with (Caroline, Amy, Alexa, Alyssa, and Britt.)
Some of the girls' luggage got lost at the airport and shipped to the school today so we picked that up and ventured off to find a way home. We wandered around the streets forever trying to find the 44 bus in the opposite direction from the one we came on. We met the first person I've encountered in Rome who speaks English, and he told us where to go to find the bus. However on the way there we got confused and didn't understand where he told us to go. Alexa approached a man at an outdoor market and all of a sudden the whole community was surrounding us trying to help us find the way to our home. They were all so nice and eventually, thanks to them, we found the bus we were looking for.
After dropping the luggage off at home, we left the apartment to find some lunch and go grocery shopping. We ate at a little pizza place where I had ham pizza (yes mom I ate ham even though I hate it) and it was scrumptious! Then we went to two different grocery stores.
The first store we went to was called Todi's and that is where you can get food for half the price of the food at the regular grocery stores. However the food there didn't look that great so we just bought toilet paper, cartons of juice, detergent and bottled water there and bought all our fresh fruits, cheese, meats, and bread at the brand new grocery store directly across the street from our apartment (it just opened today!)
Also, at the grocery store, we found a massive jug of wine for just four euro. (As shown above) What a deal.
After returning home and taking a brief nap, Caroline Amy and I went back to the university and met up with a large group of people for a tour of the neighborhoods where we all live. It turns out the reason that we think Rome is so ugly is because we are not exactly living in Rome, or the Ancient part of Rome. We are more on the outskirts, so all we have to do is take a bus or a tram and we will find the beautiful parts of Rome. What a relief!
Amy, Caroline and I got broken off into a smaller group with just us and three other boys and our tour guide, an awesome girl who loved Rome so much after coming to this school that she stayed here. She took us all around on the busses and trams to show us how to get places and it was so helpful.
The three guys with us were adorable (but no where near as great as pat!). They were the nerdiest boys I have ever met with glasses and combed hair and they were skinny skinny skinny and very shy. However, one of them got up some courage at the end and asked the three of us if we would like to join them for dinner. We were very sad that we had to turn them down because we were cooking our own dinner tonight, but hopefully we will get to see them again soon.
Tonight we cooked ourselves some pasta and with it we had some fresh bread, some mozzerella basil and tomato and a delicious salad.
The scariest part of today was trying to cook with the Rome water. At first a white film kept forming at the top of the water in the pot. We thought at first the pot was dirty so we washed it, but it happened again. Then we tried switching pots and it didnt' appear that there was any film but when we were cleaning the dishes after dinner there were big globs of white stuff everywhere in the sink and in the empty bowls. We emailed the school to ask what it is and if it can be fixed because... gross.
That is all for today! Bedtime now, goodnight!

Arrivederci Boston, Buon Giorno Roma

So, it is the first night of my semester abroad in Rome. I am absolutely exhausted. It has been a very busy day! I flew out of Boston yesterday at 4:30, and it was the longest flight ever. I didn't sleep a wink and I somehow developed a really bad cold during the flight. I landed in Germany at 5:15 a.m. and got off the plane to find a completely empty airport. I checked in at a counter with two very angry german men behind it, and continued on to the security check. There, I was randomly selected to be screened for explosives. I passed!
I finally made it across the five mile expanse of the airport to find that my gate was completely empty. There wasn't a worker in sight and I had no idea what to do. So, I stood in the middle of the empty airport until I saw little Caroline heading my way, which was a huge relief. It was great to have a friend to be lost and confused with on the last leg of the trip.
When we took off it was still dark out (even though it was 7:30 am in Frankfurt). Down below were millions of beautiful twinkling lights where the towns and villages were. There were also millions of little cars driving to work on the long windy roads, and the patchwork earth sprawled out as far as I could see.
We got up above the clouds and I tried to sleep through the two turbulant hours. I managed to doze off and we were in Rome before I knew it.
The arrival in Rome was strange and confusing. We got off the flight and had absolutely no idea where we were. We ended up wandering around until we found where we could pick up our bags. Our bags arrived within seconds and we went through a little doorway and saw a sketchy little man holding up an AUR sign. We approached him and he just pointed to his left. We walked to the left until we came upon two more people holding AUR signs. We approached them and the girl said to the boy "You got this." The boy rolled his eyes and slowly got up. We followed him as he lead us god only knows where. Caroline was very nervous and kept shooting me glances that said "He is going to take us somewhere and murder us." I could see where she got that impression.
The miserable boy brought us up to an AUR desk where they took our names, handed us folders, and told us to sit down until they called our names. We sat for about a half hour and met a girl named Lauren who had been sitting by herself forever waiting for someone to come get her. We still had no idea where we were going next, where we were living, when we were leaving, or what was going on at all. Finally a woman and a tall skinny blonde girl came and got us and stuck us in a van.
It wasn't until we were in this van that I realized no one ever checked our passports or anything when we arrived in Italy. It was the easiest entrance to a country ever.
Driving through Rome I started to get really worried. From what I have seen so far this is the dirtiest, ugliest city ever. Every inch of it is covered in graffiti and it is just filled with run down little shops. We briefly drove through the area where our Univeristy is which seems very historic and the few parts I saw were lovely. I am hoping that we just have to find the right spots and we are just living in the ugly section of Rome. Because the area where our appartment is is ghastly.
Caroline and I arrived at our apartment first. They literally just dropped us off here and left us without a word. The room that Caroline and I share is great and the whole apartment is very clean and nice, despite its little quirks, which I love.
We were both exhausted and laid down for a three hour nap. When we woke up, the rest of our roommates had arrived. There are six girls in this apartment, three bedrooms with two in each room. There are two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room with the smallest television I have ever seen.
We all went our own seperate ways for the day, some girls sleeping, others unpacking, and Caroline and I went out to do some errands. We went to a pharmacy to get me some cold medicine, but the woman didn't speak English. We had to show her using hand motions that my nose was stuffy and my throat hurt. She handed me a box of medicine called actigrip. I have no idea what it is. Let's hope it is just for colds. I havn't tried it yet.
We also found a store that sold hair dryers, but the woman and man who worked there didn't speak any English either. Finally we found converters in a hardware store where- guess what- no one spoke any English. Luckily everyone we met was very nice and tried really hard to help us find what we needed.
After our errands we unpacked, and then Caroline and I and the rest of the girls wandered the city looking for a nice Italian restaurant to eat in. We finally chose a cozy little place pretty far down the street from us where- surprise!- no one spoke English. We all managed to order some sort of food and we were in heaven with the wonderful tastes and smells. We were all pleased to find that we have tons in common. We also all were dissappointed in our Rome experience so far. It is not the quaint little city with cobblestone streets and ancient buildings we pictured, but we all agreed we can't make any judgements yet since it is just our first night.
Tomorrow we will start fresh and attempt to discover the hidden beauty in Rome.