So there are few words to describe the situation that I now am in. Some few that come to mind are awesome, crazy, and merp. Where to start this tail of only two days....
I guess the flight is not a bad start. Well first about that, IT IS NOT NATURAL FOR THERE TO BE A 4 HOUR NIGHT!!!!! When you see the sun set and rise again in about 4 hours your mind just cant comprehend it. And this is not like Alaska where this is normal and the sun just kinda sets; no this is where the sun goes all the way out and then the stars come out, then woops! sun again. Not cool for my internal clock. Besides that the 8 1/2 hour flight was not too bad. They had movies on demand for us and food (which was about as bad as caf food). In other words me and Brandon survived.
Next we got into the EU. That took about 2 seconds. We waited in a long line thinking that we are going to have to show our passports, tickets, a DNA sample and possibly sell our soul. Instead I go to hand the guy my passport and he just waves me through without even giving me a second glance. After we got out luggage the same thing happened for customs. there was a line for "yes i have something to claim" and "no i dont" there was no one checking the "no" line so anyone could just walk out. YAY boarder security !
Next come our taxi ride, of course me and brandon being the newfound tourists that were are, got fanagled into getting a taxi with the airport people for overprice and a sketch taxi. So we were almost convinced that we were going to get trafficked for a second, but alas our taxi driver was pretty cool (picture sterotypical Italian man: olive skin, crazy driver, and stopped to stare at every good looking women in sight). So he dropped us off in the square where we were supposed to be....However that didnt help us find the building. X( We then proceded to walk within a block radis trying to find anything that will help us. We asked Italians for help, some pointed us down the block, others sending us back the way we came. We even found the pantheon in our exploring! We finally found our building after asking a french person we found, go figure.
After all that we got a alittle speel from the Accent place and then took taxis to our apartments. We arrived and then got another speel about all the rules (basicly dont be an ass). We walked into our apartment and our jaws dropped, ITS HUGE!!!!! there are five of us in here and there is plenty of room. We were expecting like dorm style apartments but this is crazy! We have a kitchen, full bath, two different bedrooms, and a lounge, and each room has its own balcony!
So after we moved in and a few of our other spartans friends had arrived we all figured we needed food. We were all so shell shocked we walked around the store looking at all the different things saying "oh, we need this" look at it, dont decide what to get and move on to something else. We got enough for pasta and that was it. After we made a list.
At this point me and Brandon are dead on our feet off our 3ish hours of sleep. We try fighting the sleep to allow ourselves to better fit the time change. This lasted until untill a bunch of things went wrong. All the converter plugs we have are for WESTERN EUROPE not SOUTHER EUROPE. So we only have one charger that one of our roommates has. We still did not get phones at this point so cant call anyone back home. My computer is being dumb and wont pick up the internet in our apartment so i can only use brandon's computer (like i am now). And we hadnt found a good atm yet. At this point we just gave up and slept for 2 hours.
So it is now 5pm in Rome, and we wake up and our friends had made the pasta we had gotten. We ate that with a very good cheap wine that we had aslo picked up. WIN FOR EATING! After that we split up as a group. Our friends went to go buy the things on our shopping list while me and Brandon decided to try and walk and find the Accent building where our classes were to be, and then meet back up just after 8 to go for dinner to celebrate our first day in Roma.
Luckily the Accent building is not too hard to find (after you know where it is...) being on a plaza which happens to be right down the road from the Vatican. So Brandon and I took the main street by our apartment all the way down to the Tiber and followed that up all the way to the Vatican. It was a long walk but so nice and beautiful! It took us about an hour but our route kept us from getting lost. Once we got to the split point between Accent and the Vatican however, being the good Catholic that I am, I couldnt handle it and me and brandon (knowing the way to Accent for sure and how long it would take) walked down to St. Peter's square. There are not words for that place. It is just so majestic and the structure is just beautiful! But it was a good side trip as we found a good ATM and got us some Euros. We found our way back just in time for dinner.
We went to dinner at a nice place not too far from our apartments (this is about all the sophomores on the trip). It was very nice and fairly good priced as far as I could tell. I got a calzone with pruchette (sp?) and cheese, which just about killed my mouth it was so good, while a bunch of us shared a bottle of wine. After dinner and after we Madison majors were able to figured out the math of how much everyone owed for the meal we headed out to celebrate being in the city. we walked up and down our main street for awhile until we found the perfect place, which was a gelato place that also sold alcohol. College students dream! We all had a good time, not doing anything too stupid, while enjoying ourselves at the same time. Shorlty after we got back I passed out from the pure death that had been the day (no I had drank that much :P).
Now i sit in our kitchen listening to the outside market that is going on just outside our apartments today. After I get some food I'm going to check it out. Should be fun! :)
So as of right now my trip has been utterly crazy and very hard, but I am loving every minute of it!!!!! :D
Love you all of my friends, family, and girlfriend ;) back home!
Joe
P.S. Yes i know my titles dont make sense but i like them :P And yes pics will be coming soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment