Katie: First few days in Rome

Ciao! Roma is bella!

After not having internet for a few days in our apartment, this post will be a condensed version of the first few days.

  1. The eight-hour, sleepless flight to Amsterdam: I sat smushed between Katie and this horribly cynical woman whose elbows were in my rib cage almost the entire flight while she studied her “Birds of Europe” book like she was being tested on it. Protip—don’t make small talk with me while I’m trying to watch Harry Potter 7. You and I both know that you don’t care what I’m studying in college or where I’m from.
  2. After arriving about 30 minutes late to Amsterdam, we had all of 20 minutes to make it through customs and find our connecting flight to Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome. Luckily, we had a nice Dutch stewardess who was the fastest walker in the universe basically (run) escort us through customs and to our next gate.  Either Amsterdam is really lax on security, or we had special privileges for being late because customs took around five minutes and I got to keep all my clothes on.  Anyway, this blue stewardess was a godsend considering that the Amsterdam airport is huge and…in Dutch, which basically sounds like gibberish with a few hacking sounds thrown in.
  3. Another sleepless flight seated next to a smelly Japanese business man meant that we not only skipped over nighttime with the time change, but also that by then, I was up for over 24 hours and it was now around 9:30 a.m. in Rome time. Awesome.
  4. After taking the scariest van ride ever (more on that later), our group arrived at the school, Accent, in Piazza dell’Orologio to grab our house keys. We then took taxis (even more life-threatening than the van) to our apartment (pictures coming soon!) in the Pratti neighborhood about a block behind the Vatican. We have two apartments: 5 girls in one across the street, 7 in the ours—Meghan Palmer would be so proud of me for living with six other girls (luckily we have three bathrooms and Katie and I share a room). Our neighborhood is equivalent—in distance and ambiance—to living in Dinkytown when the real fun is in downtown Minneapolis. I don’t mind though, since our area is quiet and the Pope is my neighbor, so it’s safe (hear that, mom?).
  5. They say you’re supposed to push through and not sleep, but I had no choice but to do as the Romans do and siesta. Except, Katie and I passed-out and didn’t wake up for about four hours.  Our entire group (13 girls. Did I mention it’s all girls?) went out for dinner a little later only to find out that most Romans don’t eat dinner until 8:30 or later and that most restaurants aren’t even open until 8:00 p.m. Luckily, this nice, old Italian man saw a group of beautiful American woman looking confused and hungry so he ushered us into his restaurant and fed us the most delicious ravioli I’ve ever eaten.

Did I say this was going to be a condensed version?

Well, day two was orientation at the school so we bussed our way there (another scary, vomit-inducing ride) and ate Nutella crepes and café latte for breakfast. We went to our school and learned about our class schedule and some Roman customs—they like their slippers and hate bare feet. Then our directors took us out for a huge lunch where a street musician playing the clarinet kept us entertained. About 10 of us girls went out at night for some bonding time which turned out to be really fun and luckily Katelyn speaks Italian so we got directions from a bunch of different locals.

…and I’ve only seen one McDonald’s since we arrived!

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