Houston, We Have a Wifi Problem...
Ciao a tutti! My first blog post from Italy! How exciting! I know I'm super late on this one, but I am making a virtual pinkie promise that it won't happen again. Italy has been a whirlwind. We got here from Paris and did a night on the town (meaning the blondes and I got tipsy on wine). The next day I moved into my apartment and started my new life in Italy.
The apartment is nice and on a busy street, Via Cola di Rienzo. It has a great view and I think we're adjusting well. The biggest problem that my six roommates and I had was that the wifi didn't work for the first five days. Hence the late blog post. Trust me, you don't want to see the environment of seven twenty-somethings being cut off from the internet.
Cat found in Rome near the Pantheon
My first six days in Rome have been busy. The blondes left this morning, but the days they were here were filled with the best of the touristy spots. We've done so much, I'll just try to list the highlights.
Trevi Fountain: So gorgeous! Also, what do they do with all of the coins?
Colosouem: Awesome + Amazing.
Vatican City: The blondes claim it was too crowded, but I enjoyed the Sistine Chapel immensely.
Spanish Steps: That's a lot of steps. But totally worth the view.
Trastevere: Valentina and Massimo (friends of a friend) showed us around here! Beautiful area and I managed to find an english bookshop.
Villa Borghese: One of the prettiest parks I've ever gotten lost in. Also I saw multiple dogs!
Okay, and now it's time for the small rants that I'm sure every American student has when they first move to a different country.
Observation/Complaint One: Hulu only streams in the US, US military bases and Japan?!?! Uhm what now? When the wifi was restored, Hulu was one of the first places I went to. It's where my current shows stream. This is such a first world problem, but its definitely an issue I never considered. Guess its back to Netflix for four months (oh poor me). Hulu not working also made me think about several other things I never considered about moving to Rome. It's the little things, you know?
Observation/Complaint Two: I don't speak Italian. This is not a new issue, I knew this coming over. Most of the students who come on this trip don't know Italian, except for a few phrases here and there. I guess I never realized how different it would be to hear someone and not understand. Back home I can follow the background noise, but here it all blends together in an unfamiliar sound. My brother is dyslexic and he once described it as being able to read, but not being able to visualize pictures in your head. There was only words and to get it, he had to read the same sentence over and over again. Being here is kind of like that, I can hear but cannot understand. It makes me wish I studied more in my three semesters of Italian (somewhere, my Italian teacher is cackling).
Observation/Complaint Three: City life is a different life. The sounds, the smells. the food, the people, the multiple maps that still manage to get me lost and the overwhelming fear of pickpockets...all of it is very different from what I'm used to. And nothing scares me more than thinking about public transportation. Although, the roommates and I have successfully taken the metro twice. So hey, we're getting there.
Arrivederci Blondes!
The complaints aside, Roma è molto bella. I can't wait to learn more about the city. And to eat more gelato. Ciao!
