My Neighbor, the Pope

The Vatican!

So far, I honestly can't remember a lot of my time in Rome.  I was so jet-lagged for the first couple of days, and everything is a blur we've been doing things so quickly.  I haven't taken nearly as many pictures as I wanted to (mostly because I'm scared I'll be pegged as a tourist and targeted and my paranoia starts kicking in and I think of a thousand things to worry about..).  

On the Navigation 101 tour, I saw the colosseum and rode the metro during rush hour, and threw a coin into the Trevi Fountain.  And had terrible tourist-trap gelato.  

Colosseum

I guess I should also mention my wonderful roommates!  First I met Danielle, from Las Vegas.  She goes to school in Utah and is really really nice.  Then came Sara (who says I sounds like I'm from Jersey especially when I say her name).  She's from San Francisco and speaks Italian with a lot of confidence.  Katherine came on Friday, and I was so excited to meet her!  Now we just need to get more hangers and finish unpacking all of our stuff!  

Danielle (left) and Sara (right)

At my apartment, I met my very nice neighbor Alessandra (who told us we had a rooftop terrace and lets us use her chairs and table up there).  And is concerned for my friends and family due to the hurricane.  And she speaks no english at all.  I have been getting good use out of my underused italian. And most importantly, she showed me how to open the door to the terrace when I thought it was locked and my underwear was on the drying rack up there!

Mine and Katherine's beds

The lady at the bakery knows me now and asks how I'm doing and when I start classes.  And I had a croissant (cornetto) from the bakery that had a honey glaze and had just come out of the oven (it was amazing and I ate it before I remembered I should have taken a picture of it!).  And the old men that work at the deli place thinks I'm funny when I try to speak Italian with them, and don't get why I don't know how much ham is 100 grams.  And the ham.  OH MY GOD.  And I though cured meats were super yummy.  In America our ham is like a processed rectangle of ham.  He picked up and entire pork shoulder and put it through the deli slicer.  It had so much amazing flavor.  And then I just put it on a focaccia roll and ate it at the table while looking at St. Peter's Basilica outside the kitchen window.  

Our tiny oven-less kitchen

I definitely got lucky with this place.  Despite the 30 minute walk to school, I am happy being here in this apartment.  And I found a laundromat (because our washer is really really tiny and there are no dryers here) and a dry cleaners for a few other things I have.  I also signed up for a bunch of trips today.  I'll be doing a day trip to Perugia for the Euro Chocolate Festival (YUM), a day trip to Siena, a weekend trip to Campania, and a weekend trip to Tuscany.  And hopefully soon there will be sign ups for the Cinque Terre trip, because that is something I definitely want to do. 

And for my lovely Alpha Chi's, I have to leads on some pretty awesome lyres in Rome.... So when I find them, I'll post pictures for you ladies!  I miss you all and hope recruitment is going well.

The basilica is much more beautiful than this picture, my hands just aren't very steady.

And because I live right next to the Vatican (and the Vatican postal system is more reliable than Rome's) I'll be sending out my first round of postcards from the Vatican post office sometime this week!