Read the full menu at an Italian restaurant!

Today was our first full day in Rome, and its not over yet! We woke up at around 10am, to get ready for the day. Last time I posted it was at about 10pm last night, which means that I got almost 12 hours of sleep last night. It was well needed. Being jet lagged is very tiring on your body. We met our coordinators and the rest of the group at the same bar we went to yesterday, 79ers. We were all given shots of espresso. We tried to resist the sugar, but it was too strong, so added a whole packet of sugar to the shot (clearly not an Italian custom) and enjoyed it! After coffee, we walked around our schools neighborhood to get a feel of where we need to go each day for class. Then they took us to a restaurant called Antica Biblioteca Valle where we had our first Italian meal. You could choose either the fish or chicken menu, so I got chicken. They served us bread and a glass on red wine first, then the pasta came. The pasta was delicious, except the sauce had rabbit in it, but I didn't know that until after the meal. So my second day of Rome, I ate Rabbit, kinda cool. Next time I need to ask for translations on the menu though because I don't want to eat something that would gross me out. Chicken was the second meal of the lunch, but it was too bony there was barely any chicken. Overall, the meal was good, but not what I was expecting, but we had to experience our first real Italian meal sooner or later.

After lunch, we had a treasure hunt to go on. We were split up into teams and each time was told to find as many places as we could out of 13 and meet back at our school at 5pm. My team rocked! We managed to find 10 famous places, such as the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona, and many other amazing places! I cannot wait to go back and explore each place!! We were literally running around all of Rome to find these places. We took our first bus ride too! Unfortunately we went to the Spanish steps last, so it was a long walk back to school so we got there last. We found the most places out of all the groups, but got there late, so we got second place. But good work team!!

After our treasure hunt, the girls went to buy straighteners and hair dryers. We bought all of them in the store! Whoops. As a welcome gift, the apartment complex gave us all pasta and sauce to make, so we made that for dinner and had a little dinner party with some other girls on another floor. Now we are getting ready and waiting for everyone (32 people) to come to our room and party before we go out to a disco!! I cannot wait for this night!!!

Ciao! Mi amo l' Italia!!!
-Marisa