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.