The bus, apartments, and more!

Ok, I am going to blog about yesterday before I forget!

We checked out of our hostel at around 9 am. Glad to get out of there...accommodations were nice enough, but the service was terrible! Cat and I went downstairs for breakfast that morning, but waited around for half an hour and never got a menu! And this was after asking twice...That's ridiculous. Eventually we just left, since Sheida and Alison were waiting on us to check out, and we didn't want to give them any more of our money anyway.

Then...was the bus adventure. We had to get from our hostel to the UW Rome Center, which is in the Campo de Fiori--in the middle of Rome! We decided to split into 2 groups--Sheida and Alison rode one bus and Cat and I took the next one. Sheida and Alison basically threw us to the wolves--they had already ridden the bus to the Campo, whereas Cat and I had not, but they decided we should get the experience and learn on our own.

The bus ride was awful. My 50 lb (22.2 kg) suitcase was partially blocking the walkway, and we kept getting disapproving looks from the Italians. We had absolutely no idea which stop to get off at; Sheida had told us the video screen listed the stops, but ours only had the bus number on it! I asked a couple Italian ladies near us if they spoke English ("Parle Inglese?"), but no luck. Finally I just tapped one on the shoulder, looked at her apologetically and said, "Campo de Fiori?" Through hand gestures and broken English, she was able to tell us that we had to get off in three stops. Phew! When the third stop came, we double checked with another Italian woman. She also told us which direction to go to in order to get to the Campo. Downtown Rome is really crowded, filled with both tourist and locals, and a ton of cars and scooters that are all in a hurry! So here Cat and I are, lugging around our huge suitcases in the middle of Rome, with a vague idea of the direction in which we're supposed to go, but no idea how to actually get there or even what the place looks like. We finally found it after asking a couple more people and relying on my keen sense of direction ("That street looks like it could possibly lead to the Campo...let's try it!"). So ridiculous. It's a miracle we made it. Once we finally made it to the Campo, we verified with a helpful nun (she came up and asked what we were looking for) that we were in fact in the Campo de Fiori, and then she helped us find the UW Rome Center. Thank you, nice nun lady! I knew I was Catholic for a reason...

The Campo de Fiori is a market during the day where you can buy all sorts of fruits and vegetables and goodies. It's a bit touristy, but lots of fun and all the food looks delicious! Cat and I still hadn't eaten (stupid hostel...), so we bought a couple pieces of fruit from one of the vendors (that Lisa personally recommended). So good! But overpriced, as we later learned. Then we checked in and moved into our apartments. Our apartment is amazing. Amazing amazing amazing. I will post pictures of it later. It is ridiculous. I can't believe it's a student apartment! The other apartments are nice as well (from what I've seen), but I'm pretty sure ours is the biggest. It's a six minute walk from the Campo, and like two minutes from the Pantheon! There are seven of us total in there, and the apartment has a bedroom with one bed, a bedroom with two beds, and a bedroom with four beds. GUESS WHO GOT THE ONE-PERSON BEDROOM!!!!! Yep, that's me. I also pretty much have my own bathroom. :D

The rest of the afternoon was spent at orientation, getting cell phones, and grocery shopping! I mainly got sandwich makings, cheese, and some fruit. Got bread at a nice bakery. So delicious! And cheap, too. I paid 1.50 euro for a whole loaf of delicious sliced bread.

At 7:30, our entire program (24 of us plus two professors) met for dinner. We went to this nice restaurant called Trattoria Moderna. We were seated at two long tables and immediately were brought bottles of regular water (naturale), sparkling water, and pitchers of wine. My end of the table soon became notorious for its wine-drinking (not me, I swear!)--it's probably a good thing our pitchers were never refilled! Our meal consisted of four courses. First, there was the onslaught of appetizers. There were these spinach-cheese cake things, tomatoes and mozarella cheese, some sort of tuna, fried eggplant and cheese, artichoke hearts, and cooked vegetables. Most of us were full after the first course! Then, we had a pasta course. We had a choice of ravioli with spinach, fettuccini with eggplant and feta, rigatoni with broccoli and sausage (my order), and risotto with mushrooms. I tried a bite of each, except for the ravioli, and they were all so good! Then, as if we needed more food, we had a meat course. We had a choice of getting chicken in red sauce or this Roman dish with veal topped with prosciutto. Both came with delicious potatoes. I wasn't feeling very adventurous, so I got the chicken, but I tried the veal and it was really good! Both were great, but after tasting the veal I think I made the wrong choice...oh well. Finally, we had tiramisu. BEST DESSERT EVERRRRRR. So good. So much food. And all free!!!!! Well, I suppose we already paid through it through the program, but still.

Afterward, we were pretty whooped from eating, and it was already 10 or so, so most of us just went back to our apartments and went to bed. Wanted to make sure we got enough sleep, because we had a big morning planned! I will blog about that later. This one is already ridiculously long! Sorry!