Carbs Carbs Carbs

After waiting in Ohare for five hours because there was a flight delay and then a nine hour plane ride, I am finally in Rome!!! The flight was delayed for about an hour and a half because of a volcano eruption in Italy, so the group had plenty of time to get to know each other. Everyone on the trip seems really down to earth and a bunch of great people! I cannot wait to get closer to each and every one of them! The plane ride was very amusing. There were barely any passengers on the flight, so a majority of us had our own row to lay out and sleep. Dinner was served: veal or fish? I have told myself all year that I am going to put my picky eating habits aside and try everything over here, but I was not about to start my new outlook on the culinary world on a foreign airline with this disgusting dinner. Gross. So I ate the bread, crackers, and other carbohydrate dishes in the meal. Luckily, we got the pleasure of being served wine, so of course we had a couple of glasses and passed out the rest of the plane ride. We landed in Rome at about 9:15am, which is about 2:15am Chicago time.

We met up with our program coordinators at the baggage claim who took us who took us to our apartments via a charter bus. We arrived in Trastevere, a little neighborhood full of fast cars and motorcycles, just a few blocks southwest of the Tiber River. The apartments are nothing like I expected, they are big!! There is plenty of space and an excellent view from the 7th floor! Down side, the elevator holds maybe about a max of 2 people and takes about a year to operate with 3 doors to open and close. So, stairs it is! It's exhausting as hell, but hopefully that will shed a few of the loaves of bread, pounds of pasta, gallons of gelato, and an assortment of bottles of wines I am about to consume for the next 4 months. Multiple emotions of sleep deprivation, excitement, nerves, and hunger and running through my head, I cannot believe I am in Rome! Before we went on a trip with our program coordinators, some of us took a trip down the area we live and found a really nice supermarket, which was decently priced, just down the street along with many small bistros and cafes surrounding us. Afterwards, we took a tram to Piazza di Fiori in Rome, which is right by our school, Scuola Leonardo di Vinci. We walked past a ton of pizzerias and places to eat gelato, it was incredible!! We were led by our program coordinators, Carla and Sonia, to a bar called Seventy-Niners, which was a really chill and relaxing bar that gives us special student deals for food and drinks during the day (we will be spending a lot of time at this bar). I spent the rest of the night with some girls hanging out at a bar drinking white wine. I love Rome! I am all showered and ready to go to bed at 10pm , but remember I have been up for almost 2 days now. I need sleep. Overall, it was a very successful day and a wonderful start to my adventures in Roma!

We have orientation the next couple of days before classes start next week, so hopefully I will be looking less like an American girl and more like a European woman!

Ciao a tutti!
-Marisa