Sorry this is 3 weeks late, but since we've been here there hasn't been much time so better late then never right??? So here is my crash course in the past 3 weeks I've been here...
So we left January 6th from Newark and arrived 8 hours later in ROMA:) After that rocky and long 8 hours, I have never been more ready to bundle up in blankets and take a nap but of course that didn't happen. Straight from the airport, Dr. Dawson (our program director aka DDV) picked us up and we carried our suitcases to St. John's (one of our schools here). Being one of the smallest girls here, it probably wasn't in my best interest to bring the biggest suitcases, one of which was over the 50 lb limit. So finally after dropping off our suitcases we checked into this small hotel/ ex-monastery place. We then toured the neighborhood all together. With a small break in between aka nap we then left to go see some of the sites (DDV was trying to make sure we didn't sleep too much because of the jet lag) So for three hours we learned the metro and the buses, making stops at the coliseum, the spanish steps, the trevi fountain, etc. Everything was so beautiful!
Fast Forward- a few days and it was time to move in with our host families. SO NERVE RACKING. Michele (my roommate since freshmen year) and I are living together with this super nice family. The mom's name is Nunzia, her son's name is Niccolo (Nicky) and they have a dog, Margherita. She also has 2 other sons (Diego and Alejandro) but they don't live in the house anymore, but we've met them at dinners before, also very nice. They are all so sweet and really try to help us out whenever we need! They speak a little english, which is definitely helpful but sometimes the language barrier is really tough. The apartment is really nice, michele and I each have our own bedrooms and share a bathroom. Only down side- the apartment is far from the school so the commute is an hour everyday
Fast Forward a little more- Classes started UGH. Italian class is three hours everyday for 2 months (its like a huge crash course), which is kind of annoying but necessary. My Italian class is seriously like the UN!!! It consists of 5 loyola students, a man from brazil, a indian nun, a japanese girl and 2 other women from different parts of the united states. It is very interesting and very entertaining at the same time. We switch classes half way through and I'm definitely gonna miss it. My other three classes meet once a week for three hours. I'm taking a class about papacy, liturgical art and architecture and roman literature. Their pretty interesting and it's nice because for most of them we get lectures for half the time, and the other half is spent visiting churches (so we're exploring the city at the same time).
Fast Forward- Our second weekend here was all about exploration! Whipping out our huge map, Michele and I explored the neighborhood we live in. It's a nice street with a lot of stores and bars (not the american type bars, bars here = cafes). After exploring and of course getting lost, we went to the vatican city with the majority of the students who came here. The vatican was amazing! We went inside St. Peter's and DDV gave us a tour. It's definitely an area i want to visit 100 times when I'm here!
Fast Forward- Our second weekend here was all about exploration! Whipping out our huge map, Michele and I explored the neighborhood we live in. It's a nice street with a lot of stores and bars (not the american type bars, bars here = cafes). After exploring and of course getting lost, we went to the vatican city with the majority of the students who came here. The vatican was amazing! We went inside St. Peter's and DDV gave us a tour. It's definitely an area i want to visit 100 times when I'm here!
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