Just Another Week

The fact that I can be sitting in Rome and say just another week is incredible, but I guess that's the way it is!   Before I get started, here are some pictures of the Pope that I screenshot from that video that definitely did not upload on here:

 Like I said, we were incredibly close.

So anyways, onto this week...  I had classes, and midterms start on Wednesday so the stress started setting in last week.  But none of that is abnormal.  Wednesday night was calcio and my team played the purple team.  We did take a team picture this time (still without our t-shirts), but I don't know who it was that took the picture and regardless I can't find it on facebook...  it shall happen eventually!  So Thursday was the last day of classes, and getting gelato was not the first thing I did with my weekend!  First I went to go tutor because the woman I work with needed to reschedule to Thursday just this once, and then Anne, Judy, Jen and I went downtown and hung out and by the end of the night we did have gelato, so the streak is unbroken. 

 We saw this, Anne was in awe

 Me, Jen, Judy, Anne

 Anne and Me

 Judy and Me

 Jen and Me

Anne and me again (at the gelato place)

There's more pictures somewhere, as there are more pictures from Ostia Antica last week, but Judy doesn't upload often.  I'll put them in a blog post eventually.   So that was Thursday night.  Friday was a pretty laid back day... we just hung out and did homework and such, and then Friday night was movie night.  Anne, Christine, Carly, Aaron, and I watched American Psycho and then just hung out in our room for a while.  It was a lot of fun.  Saturday we did homework and then after dinner Anne, Christine, Carly, Aaron and I (again) went downtown to get gelato (yes again) and go to Secret Bakery (which is delicious I might add).  We ran into Kyle while we were waiting for the bus and he decided to join us as well, yay new friends!!! 

 Carly and Me

 Kyle, Aaron, and Me (And Christine trying to creep)

 Anne really likes gelato

Entrance to Secret Bakery, just because it's super cool

So that was pretty much it for Saturday.  Today I had a bunch of reading and such to get done but I was sick and tired of the library here so I just jumped on a bus and went down to Piazza Cavour to study.  It was honestly so refreshing to just sit downtown and get some reading done outside in the beautiful weather and people watch and such.  I had no idea how much I needed some time off campus alone like that, but it was easily one of the best decisions of the week.  And come on, if you have to study, who wouldn't want to do it here: 

 Chilling out by the monument

 This is Piazza Cavour

The view from where I was sitting

So I certainly didn't do anything unusual this week, but I enjoyed every minute of it.  And this weekend I'm going to Barcelona!!!  Ahh I am so excited, first trip out of the country and I'll get to use a language I actually kind of understand!  It'll be a blast, and I'm sure I'll have a more interesting post next week!

Ciao   =)

Classes in Full Swing

Ahhh sorry it's taken so long....  last week was boring (literally just went to classes and hung out around campus) and this week has been crazy.  Sooo here goes.   So last week I had classes all week, and I feel like I always have some reading to get done but that's alright, at least it's interesting.  Thursday night classes were finally over and so we decided to go out for gelato (because come on, what can gelato NOT fix...).  Then we just walked around Piazza Cavour and Piazza Navonna for a little bit.  Walking around the city at night is gorgeous.  It's almost like a completely different world than the city during the day. 

 Tierney and me (She didn't come with us, somehow I just run into her everywhere)

 Anne, Lauren, Christine, Me

 Me, Christine, Lauren, Anne

 Me and Anne

 Anne and Me

So basically Thursday we went downtown for gelato and then took a bunch of selfies..... but that's okay!!!  It was a lot of fun.   Friday we went down to the Pantheon.  I don't have a lot of pictures of people from that day, we weren't there for too long (it's really cool to see, but it isn't like there's a ton to do).  It was Anne, Christine, Lauren, Hannah, Carly, Aaron, and me (I think that's it... I might be missing someone though).

This one is courtesy of Christine:  No idea why she took it but it was at the Pantheon!

It really is just a gorgeous building.  But that was pretty much it for the weekend...  Friday night we had a movie night (kind of).  We were supposed to be watching 2001 Space Odyssey, but mostly Christine, Lauren, Anne, and I did our nails while we complained at Aaron about how bad of a choice in movie he had.  Saturday was a pretty relaxed day.  Anne, Aaron and I took the bus down to Piazza Cavour and just chilled out there and got some reading done for class.  It was nice to get off campus for a bit, but we all felt overwhelmed with homework still so it was a really good way to do it.  That was pretty much it...  it was a really laid back week.  As for this week, not so much.  Monday classes started up again and we all finished catching up on our homework.  Tuesday was my first day tutoring!!!   The woman that I'll be working with seems really nice, and we just sat there for an hour and talked about a little bit of everything.  I'm not quite sure how I'm going to "tutor" her because really her English is very good, but I'll figure it out.  I'm meeting with her again on Thursday this week.  Wednesday we woke up and left campus at 6am for the papal audience! 

Anne was a little tired

We were told you had to leave early for good seats, which was definitely true.  We were right on one of the barriers which means he rode right by us, but there were tens of thousands of people there.

  I took a video instead of pictures, I'll go through and screenshot some good pictures soon but for now: (I have no idea if this video will work, if it doesn't I'll go add some pictures tonight or tomorrow, probably tomorrow).

Wednesday night was the first day of calcio (soccer)!!!  I'm on the Navy Blue team and we tied 4-4.  No pictures yet because we don't have our matching T-shirts yet, but I'm sure that I'll get some eventually.  That league is going to be very randomly competitive and I am so okay with that.  We played Christine's team, the black team, first.  Can't wait to see who we play next =)   Thursday and Friday were back to class (we had class on Friday to make up for the lack of class on Wednesday).  Friday night Christine, Lauren, Rachel, Aaron and I went for gelato (seriously it really is just the best way to end the week).  Then we walked to St. Peter's Square because...  well honestly we just didn't want to go home yet.  It's gorgeous at night as well.

Then on Saturday I went to Ostia Antica.  It is one of the most well preserved ancient Roman villages in Italy.

 Christine took some pictures too... but she hasn't uploaded them yet.  I'll steal the good ones when she does =)  We also went to the catacombs which were so cool, but pictures weren't allowed so I don't have any from down there.    Saturday night there were a bunch of museums open until midnight, and they were either free or only one euro.  We went to the Capitaline (sp?) Museum with is down by the forum and walked around for a few hours.  It was so cool, and for 1 euro, totally worth it.

 View from one of the upper floors

Now is the point where I steal a bunch of Anne's photos from that night because I'm actually in them:

 Aaron (walking on), me, Sam, Maddie, Rachel

 Rachel (I have no idea what she's doing...), Aaron (the one who is usually mentioned as having been with us), Aaron, Me

 Anne and Me (We don't know why this happened... I look super photo-shopped.... but it's a great picture)

 At least Maddie and I were ready for the picture?  (Back: Aaron, Me  Middle: Rachel, Maddie  Facing us: Sam, Aaron)

 Disco Party!   Aaron, Me, Maddie, Aaron

Anne, Sam, Me

When we got back Aaron and I watched Mrs. Doubtfire (well, we watched about 20 minutes before we decided that it was just way too late and we'd pick it up later).  Sunday was homework day again... and yesterday was homework plus my one class I have on Mondays but Aaron and I watched another 40 minutes of the movie last night (I feel like it's going to take a week before we actually get through this movie) and that was that!  Today and tomorrow just classes again, and tomorrow will be calcio again (it's weird how excited we all get for calcio)!  Not sure exactly what's going on this weekend, I might go to a ballet on Saturday.  Should be a fun weekend.  I'll try to keep up with this better, I honestly just didn't have anything to write last week.  But this weekend I'll be in Rome and the week after that is my first trip out of the country and I'll be hitting Barcelona!!! I'm sure I'll have plenty to say after that!!  Can't wait!

Arrivederchi! 

Umbria!!!

Wow it was a long week...  So last Sunday we went to the beach, which was cool except I fell asleep on my back and the front of my legs got absolutely fried which hurt.  Then on Monday classes started up.... There isn't really much to say about that, it's school.  I love my professors and my classes but it's nothing too interesting.  Wednesday night some friends and I went out for a bottle of wine and Thursday night a different group of people and had a movie night in our room, we watched Roman Holiday and I actually really enjoyed it!!!  The only other interesting thing during the week was another bee got into my and Anne's room....

This is how we deal with bees...  the blanket is still there, we're kind of afraid to pick it up and we haven't found anyone to come move it for us yet!

Anyways, Friday morning we left for Umbria, a region in Italy. This was our orientation group, so the ENTIRE JFRC (John Felice Rome Center) was there.  It took three buses, I'm pretty sure there are about 150 of us so sometimes it was a little bit overwhelming but it was fun overall.  I don't know that I can actually narrate everything we did...  this is mostly just gonna be a log of things with lotsa pictures...  haha here we go

Friday we left at 7am (totally not my favorite part of the trip) and drove to Umbria.  We first went to Bevagna (Most of these are just little towns on random hills) and visited some of the medieval shops there.

 We saw a candle shop...

 An old coin shop....

 Paper shop...

and silk factory.

Once we finished up the tours we took off to lunch, and then to a winery for a wine tasting. 

 Gorgeous view from the winery (Sorry, there are going to be a lot of random pretty views in this post...)

Grapes with the view in the background

Kind of ridiculous amounts of wine

 Wine tasting portion: Anne, Me, Aaron

Me and Carly

Photo Cred to Anne: Anne, me, Rachel, Aaron, Lauren

Then we went back to the hotel and had a really nice dinner.  (Except meals here are like four-five courses and it's ridiculously too much food) 

Saturday we started off with a walking tour of Spoleto, the town that we were staying in.  

 Christine and me

 Lauren and me (This church was gorgeous)

Both pictures from inside the church

 Rachel and I

 Me, Anne, and kind of Aaron

 Awesome view from Spoleto

 On the bridge (that was kind of scary)

So after our walking tours we had lunch, and then went to Foligno.  We went to mass (very quickly since we were late and there was a Confirmation at 6) and then had time to just explore.  I don't really have many pictures from that.... we were kind of tired of pictures.  But at dinner Anne did take my phone and take a few... 

There were many more....  these are just a few of my favorites. 

And Anne did post one that she took on Facebook

 Lauren, me, Carly, Christine, Aaron, Anne

Today we did a walking tour of Spello and then had lunch at an olive oil mill. When we got to Spello the tour guides weren't ready yet and we continued our karaoke obsession (for some reason our bus kept singing all the time) with a random dance party!!!  

Then we walked for like a mile to see an old Roman aqueduct (aka we walked like a mile to see a wall, there really wasn't much to see.  We kind of regretted going to that one) 

 Spello: Just showing how they're all on hills

 Mural in one of the churches

 This was the aqueduct we walked at least a mile uphill for.... so that was something...

At least we got a pretty view out of it.

Well that's pretty much it for me at the moment.  I have ridiculous amounts of reading to do for my classes this week and then I'm staying in Rome this weekend.  Hopefully going to finally see some of the important stuff here, I could probably spend an entire semester just here and always have something new to see.  I'll probably post again next weekend.

Ciao  =) 

Almost forgot: I applied to tutor English to someone in the neighborhood here and I got the job!!!  I have to email her tonight and set things up.... Should be interesting since I do NOT know a lot of Italian but it should be fine...  haha I'm super excited!!!  I'll be sure to keep updated on that as well =)   Mk for real now, Ciao