July 3, 2009

I.LOVE. ROME.

and that is all I really have to say.

Today we woke up around 8:30ish to meet everyone at 9:15 downstairs. We all walked to campus together for orientation. They talked to us about how Rome can be dangerous if you are not smart ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAJNFoHuLno ), all the ways to avoid having things stolen by gypsies, how to be safe in Rome, and all of the rules at John Cabot University. John Cabot also has organized a bunch of trips that we had the option of signing up for. There is a trip to the beach on Sunday that basically everyone is going on. I am really excited for that.

There is a little courtyard that they fed us on: we had pizza-yummy! Brittany and I met a bunch of girls on the courtyard. One is from Tampa so that makes 3 girls from Florida. One of them was from New York but she goes to UF and knows a lot of my friends there. There were a couple girls from California and I think one from Boston. Anyway, we sat down and went through all the trip options and decided where we want to go.

There is a trip to Interlocken in Switzerland. It is basically the sports capital of the world. There is sky diving, skiing, scuba diving, wake boarding, bunji jumping and whole bunch of other cool things. We all decided to go and immediately signed up online when we got back. I am so excited for that trip! Sam and I are also going to go to Venice and Florence one weekend, and the last weekend a bunch of us are going to try to go to Amsterdam (that is going to be one fun weekend!).

After lunch we had some time to just hang out. Rebecca, Olivia, Brittany and I walked to Campo de Fiori (a Piaza). I came back with one of the girls after about an hour and met up with a bunch of the kids from Michigan State. We stopped at a little cafe and got drinks (a glass of wine for only 2.5 euro...unbelievable!). We had our housing orientation after that; they just told us a bunch of rules that we need to follow and to respect our roommates.

After that we all walked back to our apartments. I took a little nap while Brittany showered and then I showered when she was done. By the way we have not had hot water since day 1 so they gave us a key to an empty apartment to shower in. Anyway, we got dressed and then decided to make dinner.

I cooked chicken with pesto and pasta. We opened up a bottle of red wine and drank wine while making dinner and during dinner. It was yummy!! After dinner a bunch of the other girls came over and we all drank some wine together and then went upstairs to another apartment. There are three boys from california that we met today who invited us over to hang out before we all go out together. We got to their apartment and all got to know each other. I have some pretty awesome friends here. Around 11:00 we finally headed out for Campo de Fiori, aka Campo. Campo is a piaza where everyone goes to the bars at night in our part of Rome. It was a BLAST!

I met a bunch of people from America at all the bars. We played beer pong with boys from Boston. I had such a good time!! We all just drank and hang out. It was a big party, a lot like Coconut Grove. There was this big, empty, cobblestone square surrounded by bars. Everyone ran around the square from bar to bar. I also spoke in Spanish to 2 different people. I was really excited that I got to use my Spanish. At the end of the night Olivia and I split a Strawberry and Banana gelato. I have a goal to have at least one gelato everyday I am here. HAHA. The gelato here is amaaazziinngg.

Anyway, we all walked back together and hung out for a little bit when we got back. I finally got into bed around 3:00AM. Tomorrow Olivia and I are planning on walking to the Trevi Fountain. We were also talking about doing the Roman bar crawl. Tomorrow should be a good day.

Good Night!