The Land that Invented Spaghetti

The last two weeks of my life have been a little bit crazy. And when I say crazy, I really do mean crazy. I moved to Rome. I started taking classes in Rome. I explored Rome as a tourist. I impulsively chopped off my hair so that I now look like a mixture of Dora the Explorer and a stereotypical suburban soccer mom. I've fallen victim to a robbery. Do I have your attention yet? I'm getting ahead of myself. Lets start from the beginning.

My Roman adventure began about two weeks ago when my friend Amelia and I first arrived in Rome after a week of traveling across Europe together. We had two final days together in Rome before Amelia headed back to the states and I headed back to school. We saw all the major touristy-Italian attractions: the Colosseum, the Vatican Museums, the Spanish steps, and the Trevi fountain. We also enjoyed our fair share of pizza, pasta, gelato and wine. All in all, our two days exploring Rome was a great way to end our time together!

Throwing a coin into the Trevi fountain. I was so overwhelmed I forgot to make a wish!

Eating ricotta and cannoli from Don Nino was a religious experience.

Cheesin' at the Colosseum.

After Amelia and I said our goodbyes, I was off to be reunited with my fellow Greco-Romaners and settle into my new home. It felt like I hadn't seen my group in forever. We were only apart for ten days but after spending every waking hour with the same 30 people for last eight weeks, being without them for that long felt weird. It was awesome to all be together again and share our stories from our ten day break. It felt like we we're never apart.

While being with the group felt comfortable and normal, I had a harder time adjusting to life in Rome. When I arrived in Athens for the first time, I felt so at home. I didn't get that same feeling in Rome. Rome is big and busy and crowded with tourists, and while beautiful, it felt very overwhelming. With time, I've become a little more comfortable in my surroundings and I'm learning to embrace the challenges of life in Rome. I've learned that buses here are never on time and that it's better to walk basically everywhere. I've learned to not even blink an eye when an old man cat-calls me or some hostess yells at me to eat in her restaurant. I've learned that you really need to watch your step when walking on the cobblestone streets so that you don't fall in front of a bunch of Italians. Study abroad is all about self discovery and growth. When you're in Italy, it's easy to forget that life here is still real life and has some challenges. I'm grateful that things aren't perfect all the time; it's helping me to become more adaptable and makes me appreciate the good moments so much more.

That being said, my life really isn't that hard. I'm living in Rome! This city has so much to see and such a rich history. Here are some of my favorite things about living here thus far:

The daily walk to school: my school is a forty minute walk from my apartment, and, as we have established, the buses here are never on time so I don't count on them to get to class. In Athens, school was a three minute walk from my apartment, so I wasn't exactly looking forward to a long walk to school in Rome, however, to my surprise it's one of my favorite parts of my day. My walk follows the Tiber river so the walk is beautiful and the sidewalks aren't crowded like in other parts of Rome. Plus, it takes me past St. Peter's Basillica every day! I've found it really nice to just listen to a podcast every morning and take forty minutes to relax, think and focus on myself, something I don't do very often.

A snapshot from a morning walk on the Tiber.

Embracing my Catholic faith: Being a Catholic in Rome is pure bliss. There are beautiful churches on every corner and at any given time you're in the same vicinity as Pope Francis. Every week in my theology class we get to go on a field trip and I get to learn more about the Catholic Church. So far we have been to Subiaco, where St. Benedict wrote his rule, and St. Paul's Basillica, one of the four papal basilicas. Both were completely different but absolutely beautiful and so interesting. Sundays are challenging because there are so many churches to chose from I never know which mass to go to. I haven't met the pope yet, but I'm working on it.

St. Paul's Basilica and its breathtaking frescos.

Gelato, gelato, gelato: Basically all the food in Italy is delicious, but gelato may be my favorite food here. There is a gelato shop two doors down from my apartment and there's more gelato places than I can count within walking distance. It's a blessing and a curse. I've had gelato the past eight days in a row so you could say I'm living life to the fullest. When in Rome, eh?

Oh, and then that "study" part of study abroad. I am in class and I actually do school work, I just don't talk about it because it's boring. But, for anyone who is curious about my academic life, I'm taking art history, theology, literature and Italian. All of my professors are nice and extremely intelligent. My classes here are definitely different than the science classes I'm used to taking at CSBSJU, but it's a good kind of change. It's amazing to learn about something in the classroom and then go out and see it in real life. School doesn't feel like hard work because it's so fun but I can tell I'm learning a lot!

Other things to note:

- I went to get a trim at a hair salon the other day and my hairstylist didn't speak English, so I kind of just let her do her own thing with my hair. I had two women working on my hair at the same time and there was fancy music playing and I got to sit in a leather massage chair. I felt very important. Anyways, my hair is very short, but I think it looks good?

- I got my backpack stolen this week at a restaurant, meaning I've spent the pst few days trying to acquire a new MacBook and school supplies. From what I can tell, it's a right of passage to robbed if you live in Rome. Clearly, I'm a true Roman now!

I apologize for this photo, but it's the only one I have with my new haircut. I promise I didn't drink that bottle of wine by myself!

Well, that's all for this blog post, folks. My grandma Cleo recently told me she stops reading my blog posts halfway through, so grandma, if you read this far I love you! For everyone else, thanks for reading this whole thing, because even my own grandma can't make it through these!