Ciao!

So I've finally gotten the time to actually sit down and write an entry in my study abroad blog! I guess I'll start from the beginning. My flight from Philadelphia to Rome was long and uncomfortable, and I felt nauseous for more than half of the trip there which did not make things any better. There were individual televisions on the headrests that you got to choose the program, so I watched "Juno", an episode of "Sex & the City", and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". During Harry Potter I was attempting to get some sleep; I'm not sure if I succeeded-- if I did I got maybe 30 minutes of rest. We finally got to FCO airport a little before 9 AM (Italy time), and I realized I was all alone in a foreign country without speaking the language. That was especially great when I could not even follow the crowd to baggage claim, because I was last in the bathroom line and everyone was far ahead of me. I got a little anxious when I realized that I had to take a monorail from the part of the airport that our gate was at to the area that had the baggage claim.

While waiting for my bags, I met one of my apartment-mates, Steph from Philadelphia, who was on my flight. She did not know anyone either so it was good to have each other to figure out where to go and what our next move was. It was raining in Rome, and since all of the streets are cobblestone and therefore lack good traction, there was a ton of traffic because of accidents. We ended up waiting about 1.5-2 hours for a bus to pick us up from the airport and bring us into the city. We got driven to the SAI (Study Abroad Italy) office near John Cabot University (where I will be taking classes) to check in and get our keys. Then we had to wait AGAIN for another shuttle to then take us to our apartment (which thankfully has an elevator to take our luggage to the sixth floor). Three of our other apartment-mates, three girls from Long Island, were coming down the stairs as we were moving in so we briefly met them and then headed up to check out our apartment.

When we got up to our floor we had the hardest time getting the key to open the doors; everyone that we've seen try have also had problems so there must be something different about European locks. We finally got in after about 10 minutes and dragged all of our stuff in. The apartment is awesome. There are four bedrooms with two beds each, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. We have no common room but I think it's because one of the bedrooms is supposed to be a living room but they converted it into a bedroom to house more people. We also have three separate balconies which is amazing. I'll post pictures of my apartment when I take some good ones.

At this point I was dying to take a nap due to my lack of sleep but I also hadn't eaten much (airplane food- yuck) so Steph and I walked around the block a few times looking for a quick bite of something to eat. We ended up getting slices of pizza which, honestly, tasted exactly the same as something you could find in New Jersey. I took a good 2-3 hour nap and woke up to shower to get ready for a roommate dinner. The shower, however, was freezing and absolutely miserable (2/3 out of my three showers have been like this -- the third started hot but very quickly got cold). My roommates are Steph (from Philadelphia and goes to Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Cara (Chicago/St. Norbert), Sydney (St. Louis/Missouri State), Korissa (California/St. Mary's), Lauren who I share a room with (Long Island/Cornell), Suzy (Long Island, Wisconsin), and Cara (Long Island, Wisconsin). The eight of us went to a restaurant called Sale e Pepe (aka Salt and Pepper) -- I got a spaghetti dish with cheese and pepper which was good but filling so I kept some leftovers and ate them the next day for lunch (but without a microwave, it was a challenge figuring out how to work the kitchen appliances to heat it up).

Although we were all really tired we wanted to check out the nightlife in Rome so we met some people that the Long Island girls knew. Somehow our group grew to include more girls and some boys and then split into two. The group that I was with went to an Irish Pub for a little then met up with the rest at Campo dei Fiori, a piazza that across the Tiber River. We ended up leaving rather early because we had to get up early for SAI orientation.

The next morning we walked to JCU at 9 AM for an orientation on pertinent information for our time in Rome, as well as Europe in general. The jet lag was still getting to me, however, and I still didn't feel quite right so it wasn't fun sitting in the room for two hours when all I could think about was taking a nap. We all ended up sleeping for about 3 hours when we had originally planned on sleeping from 12 to 1:30, or should I say 12 to 13:30; it's going to take some time for me to get used to the time format, as well as the Celsius temperature and the euro. We had to go back to JCU to get our picture taken for our ID cards so we took the trolley and took care of that. On the way back, we decided to stop for gelatto (my first ever!) and walked home along the Tiber. I had no idea what most of the flavors were since I don't speak a word of Italian but I saw "Coco" and a white gelatto so I figured it was coconut. It was and it was so good! I seriously think gelatto can solve my health problems, because I felt fine after eating it-- Ha!

We hung out at home until 22:00ish and Steph, Sydney, and I went to a different restaurant for a bite before we went out. I was planning on getting a salad this time but the gnocchi on the menu looked just too good to pass up (Tara -- I know you are jealous reading this). That, of course, was delicious. The three of us went to Campo dei Fiori to meet up with Cara and Korissa and some of the guys we had hung out with the night before. We were talking to their roommate that hadn't been out the previous night and it turns out he goes to Clemson too! It was great to find out that there were more Clemson kids with SAI besides me and Grace (who is a sophomore Chi O). He also introduced me to another guy from Clemson who he had just meet as well. This night was a lot more fun because I was starting to become accustomed to the time difference and was more comfortable with the people I had met. We went home at 2AMish and had to get to sleep for another early morning.

This morning my roommates (minus the LI girls) and I woke up at 7:45 for an excusion to Ostia Antica Archeological Site. Ostia Antica, according to the SAI orientation schedule, "during ancient Roman time, was a bustling working port town of 60,000 people and offers a look into the daily life of average ancient Romans. The site includes remains of docks, warehouses, apartments, flats, mansions, shopping arcades, and public baths". Our tour guide compared it to Pompeii. It was pretty interesting.

We got back on the bus and drove 45 minutes to Borgo di Tragliata Organic Farm for lunch. It was so nicely set up -- like a reception for a wedding. We were at tables of ten with bread, wine, and bottled water. I was looking at the menu on the table and I was wondering what I wanted to eat... however, that was unnecessary since they served us all of it. It was so good and really filling. After that we went on a tour of the ground which are beautiful and then headed back to our home city of Rome. That brings me to now! Tonight we are going to grab something small to eat for dinner (the lunch took care of any hunger that we might have had today) and then meet up with people at the bars. I will update this again when I have more to say!


Arrivederci!
Kelly

PS. Wikipedia, Google, and pop-up ads on my computer are all in Italian! It's so weird to see and impossible to read so I guess it's good that I'm taking an Italian language class this semester!

PPS. Everyone in SAI seems to go to either Wisconsin or St. Mary's. I have met a mix of people, however, including ones from Delbarton and Livingston!