Washing My Clothes

Today was the last day of classes for the first week. Before I went to class, however, I had my first experience doing laundry. The washer is very small and front loading and it is located in the kitchen where you would normally find a dishwasher. Everything is in Italian and if it weren’t for our landlord showing one of my roommates how to use it I would have had no idea where to even start (as a side note, I went to the grocery store and thought it might be nice to pick up a huge family size bottle of detergent for me and my roommates to share. I was pretty proud of myself until I found out that it was fabric softener and not detergent). Anyway I put a load in and it finished pretty quickly and then laid everything out on the drying rack. Pretty much everything was dry by later this evening except for some jeans and my cotton socks.

Yes, those are my boxers.

The cold rainy weather continued into today and it actually started hailing for a while when I was in the computer lab this afternoon. I went over to Monica’s earlier this evening and cooked dinner with her and her roommates. We bought some farfalli pasta, chicken, fresh mozzarella de bufala, pesto, olive oil, onion, garlic, and oregano. We diced up the chicken, onion, and garlic and sautéed it in the olive oil while we boiled the pasta. Then we cut up the mozzarella ball and mixed the pasta and the olive oil, chicken, garlic, and onion together and slowly stirred in chunks of the fresh mozzarella. The mozzarella kind of melts over all of the pasta and the chicken and it is delicious. Later we packed and figured out what all we wanted to check out while in Florence. It was pretty exciting packing up the pack for the first weekend trip; hopefully it will be the first of many. Our train leaves at 7:14 tomorrow morning and is scheduled to get into Florence a little before 11:00.

The Textbook Journey

Today was pretty low key as well, other than the three hour adventure that Monica and I went on to try and buy textbooks. We were supposed to go to the Anglo American Bookstore by the Spanish Steps and directions there seemed simple enough…then soon enough I remembered that I was in Rome. We walked from the school to a bus stop across the river and looked for the bus that was supposed to take us right next to the bookstore. We didn’t see the bus stop at first because it was on a somewhat narrow stone street. When we finally realized where it was we went back and waited for the next bus. About two minutes later we saw the bus turn the corner and head towards us…and then go right past us without stopping. We started running after it and luckily an older gentleman on the bus saw us and told the bus driver to stop. We hopped on. This was a pretty small bus, and the directions told us to stay on for seven stops and get off at the eighth. Fifteen minutes later at what we thought was the eighth stop we got off and looked at the map and (we should have known) the bus driver skipped a couple of stops. It was about this time that it started raining too. So we tried to make sense of where we were and I (using my flawless sense of direction) started walking the exact opposite direction of where we were supposed to go. We ended up walking through this long tunnel and when we got to the other end of the tunnel Monica grabbed the map from me and took me back the other direction. So we kept on walking and eventually found where we needed to go. All in all, the trip should only have been about one hour and it ended up taking three. Oh, and they only had two of the four books that I needed, so I have to head back sometime next week.

This is the tunnel that I led us down going the wrong way (really I just wanted to get us out of the rain, but Monica didn't buy that).

This is Monica taking us back through the tunnel...the right direction.

Also, earlier today we bought train tickets and booked a hostel in Florence for the weekend. We got round-trip train tickets for 28 euro and the hostel is only 19 euro a night (we are hoping it will be nice). Monica, 5 of her roommates and I are all making the trip.

First Day With No Pictures

Today was pretty uneventful. I had my two other classes and think I am going to enjoy them as well. I have the same professor for both of the classes and she has a very interesting accent, one of her parents is from South America and the other is from Italy, so she has kind of a mix between Spanish and Italian. She has a rule that if your cell phone rings in class, you have to bring chocolate for the entire class the next time we meet. It was also a very sad day because it is the first day I did not take a single picture. I’m sorry.

NUTELLA!

Today was the first day of classes. My first class was at 10:30AM, I left my apartment at about 9:30 just to make sure that I made it on time. My professor for my first is from London and I think he is going to be pretty cool. The class is Ethical Theory in Business and I actually think I am going to enjoy it quite a bit. My second class for the day was my Italian 101 class…and it was a little scary. We walked in and the professor just started asking us all of the questions in Italian. I looked around and most of the class, including myself, just had that open mouth, deer in a headlight look on our faces. The funny part about it is that he just kept talking in Italian and didn’t repeat anything in English. Luckily one guy in the class actually knew a little Italian and started answering the questions and then we all just king of copied him.

After class we started on our way to the tram to take the number 8 home. We got there and were waiting for a little bit before it pulled up. Let me take the time now to tell you a little bit about how the public transportation system works here in Rome:

Basically if you are going to use any form of transportation it is partially based on the honor system. You can buy a ticket at any Tabacchi (which is kind of like a convenience store) and then when you get on the tram, bus, or metro there are little machines that you stick the ticket in to validate it. But nobody ever really checks to see if you are doing this. At random times, the Carabinieri will get on and check everyone’s tickets and those who don’t have them or don’t have theirs validated will get fined 50 euro.

Anyway, I was the only one with a bus ticket in my group, so we all walked on the bus and looked all the way in the back and there was a Carabinieri standing in full Carabinieri attire in on the other end of the bus, so everyone immediately went right back out the door. And then we all walked home.

We have spent many a conversation discussing whether or not it is worth it to spend your money on getting tickets for the bus and came to the conclusion that it is just a risk you are either willing or unwilling to take. Some people get by the whole time just staying attentive and making sure not to get, or stay on the bus, tram, or metro with a Carabinieri on it. And some don’t.

After we got back, I went to the grocery store and got a few things for breakfasts and dinners and bought my first jar of Nutella. I just want to say that Nutella might be one of the greatest inventions in the history of man…I only hope I can contain myself and not skip dinner every night just to leave room for more Nutella. But seriously if you haven’t tried it, it’s available in the states and you should definitely go get yourself a jar (David, I know you understand what I’m talking about).

This is Nutella, one of the greatest substances known to man.

Trevi Fountain

I slept in again today. I think that maybe the change in time zones is finally catching up with me. I didn’t really have a lot to do so I called Monica and we decided to go and get a long lunch together. Instead of wandering around aimlessly we looked in a couple of books that we had and the JCU handbook for some recommendations.

We decided on this nice little place called Augosto that is located close to our school in Trastevere. We walked in and the place was absolutely packed. We eventually get the attention of a waiter and he squeezes us in one of the back corners, the very last space that was available in the whole place. Also, we are still at that point where it is a little awkward to go into a sit-down restaurant because there is a lot of interaction with the waiters and waitresses and we don’t speak the language very well (and by this I mean we don’t speak the language at all). All in all the entire meal took about two and a half hours and the food was pretty darn good. We got three different courses: pasta, meat and vegetables, and dessert (we split them all because eating out is pretty expensive here if you want to sit down and take the time to eat in a restaurant). We tried the tiramisu and it was good, but still not quite as good as Popi Popi’s.

After lunch we went and got a few notebooks and some other supplies because class is starting tomorrow. We were going to head back home before we realized that it was the last day before classes started, so we went exploring again.

We walked by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (which I recently found out is actually the Monument de Vittorio Emanuele, the tomb is just the part of the monument with the marble and gold figure in the center that the guards are always standing on either side of) again and snapped a couple more photos and then went in search of the Trevi Fountain. We finally found it and it was absolutely packed. Actually pretty much everywhere we walked that was crowded with people. The Trevi Fountain was amazing. It is on the side of a building and just sprawls out into the big pool underneath it. I got a few shots but it was too crowded to for us to really take it all in and it was starting to get dark, so we continued on our way (we are definitely heading back when we have more time).

Trevi Fountain = Awesome

Next we came up to the Spanish Steps and they also were extremely crowded. We weren’t very impressed at first sight, but it was pretty dark by this time and we were concentrating on getting through the masses of people. The road that heads straight down from the Spanish steps is Via Condotti and when we turned down it, it was packed, from wall to wall with people. This is the road that has all of the higher end shops like Gucci, Prada, BVGLARI, Ferrari and so on. It was pretty cool. We took this road until we hit the river and then headed back home.

I couldn't really get a good shot of the Spanish Steps, but here is a shot of Via Condotti. Hopefully it gives you some idea of how crowded it was.