Home Sweet Rome.

I know it's been a long time since I have last posted. I have just finished cooking my second big meal in my Rome appartamento: rosemary chicken with a side of pesto pasta and broccoli. Fancy stuff, I know. I love love love my apartment and my roommates and I get along really well, especially my direct roommate, Catherine.

Let me start from the beginning, and bear with the length...
Day One in Rome was the most exhilarating feeling. We took at 4 hour bus ride from Florence and it seemed to take forever. I was just so excited. We were dropped off in a Bus parking lot and took a cab to our apartment. I was so giddy riding in the car with Cat at every turn, I was peaking beautiful views of the city that was to be my home for the next three months.

I have three other roommates, and we held our breath as we pulled up to the apartment in Trastevere, preparing ourselves for the worst, as the area directly surrounding leaves something to be desired. But we were met cordially by the sweetest woman of a landlord and we entered the most perfect apartment for all of us. As she showed us around, we got more and more excited as we saw everything. It's tiny, but it's just right. We have a washing machine, a dish washer, a microwave, a stovetop and oven...all very simple things, but like I said, we were expecting a roof over our heads. The last thing we saw took our breath away . The shining piece of paper in the middle of the dining room table that had our WiFi password! We were jumping for joy to be able to be connected free of cost. We immediately took advantage of our ability to settle in. That night, the four of us went out to a cute Italian restaurant and enjoyed our vino bianco over some nice bonding conversation.

The next day, Sunday, we had a brief and informative orientation, followed by a short practical tour, which showed us where the school and surrounding important things were, ending in Piazza Navona. It was a beautiful day and a group of us decided to trek it over to the Colosseum, stopping of course at the Roman forum on the way. We took too many pictures, and I even touched the Colosseum! That night we ventured over to the Vatican area to find Mexican food. Yes, Mexican food. You'd be surprised how old eating pizza and pasta everyday gets. Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff...but we just felt like switching it up. The night was such an adventure. By some stroke of luck, we found our way there, guessing on a bus route and getting help from an English-speaking boy on the way. The restaurant was an adventure too...as there was twelve of us! But it was so much fun. We spent a fortune, but it was so worth it. Delicious sangria and burritos. I had missed ethnic food so much!

After that, everyone was down for going to party it up and watch the superbowl, but here it didn't start until 12:30 AM, and with a 9 AM class, Cat and I decided to find our way home. Only we had no idea where to even begin. The ten other girls told us it was easy enough to figure out. Unfortunately, we decided to jump on the first tram we saw. We looked at the map on the tram, and figured we could just ride it around and eventually end up where we wanted to be. That was a silly idea. Again, we were fortunate enough to be helped by an English-speaking boy, named Laber, and who also spoke fluent Spanish. Smart kid. But not smart enough to get us back to where we wanted to go. We followed his directions and took the underground to a bus station and hopped on a bus that seemed to go in the right direction, until it wasn't anymore. At the point we realized that we were completely off track, it was 11:50 PM and the public transportation system shuts down at midnight here, with the exception of a few night buses. So we had to get off and just cab it home. It was scary. It was frustrating. It took us two hours to get home. But it was kind of good to get lost for the first time and we were happy to finally get home, safe and sound, and exhausted for our first day of classes.

Classes started off as they usually do for me, overwhelming. When you're thinking about all the travelling you want to do, on top of all the Rome you want to see, on top of midterms and papers and finals blah, you just wonder how you will do it all. And by you, I pretty much just mean me. But I'm feeling a lot better about it this week. I like most of my classes, except for Italian Literature, which is a bummer, because I thought I'd really like it. But the professor just talks at us for 2 hours a day and it's so incredibly boring. Hopefully things will look up.

I love my Art History class. We actually have class on site a lot. We went to the 12th century Basilica di San Clemente last week and saw Mosaccio's fresco. It was really cool. This Basilica was actually built on top of a 5th century Basilica which was built on top of a 1st century house, attached to a 1st century temple. So we were able to go downstairs and check out all these ancient buildings. So cool. My International Economics course is pretty cool, but as with all economics courses for me, it takes me a while to wrap my head around everything.

Some of the AIFS stuff I did this week was pretty cool too. On Tuesday, we had an apertivo with the program again, which is a before dinner drink, accompanied by a lot of appetizers. It was in the Ducati Caffe, so there were motorcycles in the back. It was a lot of fun, and I saved on dinner that night by stuffing my face with the food. Best part, it was all free!

Wednesday I attended a cooking class. Watch America, I'm coming home a culinary master. We went to Francesca's house. She is a native Italian and she, her husband and daughter were all so nice! We made pasta all'amatriciana, meat sticks (thinly sliced beef rolled and stuffed with grounded beef and ham), and for dessert we made chocolate and coconut balls and ricotta and coconut balls. It was so delicious. And it was really relaxing.

This past weekend was filled with adventure. Thursday night we tried to find a bar in Testaccio called "On the Rox." We wandered around Rome for 3 hours and finally gave up, frustrated with the cold. Friday, we were more successful. We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner (I know...we are easily bored). It was really good and really cheap. Then we visited another friend's apartment and drank some wine. Then we actually found On the Rox and it was a blast. The ceiling was decorated in rocks and there were so many AIFS people there. It was very American, but I was able to make casual conversation with one or two Italian men. As sketch as these guys can be, I don't hate being able to practice my Italian. They even correct me, which is nice.

On Saturday, Cat and I explored Rome and saw the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon. Everything is so much more amazing in person. We also had the most amazing gelato next to the Trevi. Mango, melon, and peach. Ahhh! So goood! I've decided that I will try every gelato flavor known to man before I leave...so again, prepare yourselves for a bigger and better Allie.

I have some good things to look forward to: another apertivo tomorrow night, with Italian students this time, a Carnival party on Thursday night, a Roma soccer game on Sunday, and then Dave Matthews Band in Rome next Tuesday. Not to mention the last weekend in February, I'm visiting the lovely Celia Fox in her temporary home of Prague!

So many things to look forward to, but I'll always miss home a little bit. Some days more than others. I'd like to thank everyone who has put up with my stress and my struggles to adjust. But it's a new week, and I'm feeling really good about it.

A prossima!