A Ray of Sunshine in the Rain

Where the heck did all this rain suddenly come from?!

Last night, I went to the boys' apartment for a little bit. Me, Nick, and Theo walked around to try to find a market or something open, and it started pouring! Me, being the smart girl I am, wore my crappy Old Navy flip flops with absolutely no traction left on them. The ground got so slippery that I couldn't walk and had to get a piggyback ride all the way back. Embarrassing.

Today, I got up and went to class like normal. Then I heard it... The sound of raindrops smashing against the roof. I tried to peek out the window and could tell everything was wet. Very very wet. Wonderful! So I sucked it up and walked 30 minutes through the pouring rain to get to my apartment. The looks I got from people were hilarious. And all I could do was laugh. I laughed hysterically by myself the whole way home, because it was such a cruddy situation and nothing ever seemed so funny in my life.

Papa Francesco

Not a bad way to start off my Sunday. Jo and I got up early to meet Alessandro and his friend from Naples in Vatican City. We grabbed a couple cappuccinos and a pastry on the way and made the 30 minute walk. The streets were jammed. We could tell we were getting closer and closer to St. Peter's just by the number of people. You know all those pictures you see with thousands of people crammed inside the square? That's exactly what it looked like. So many people (every race, religion, and nationality) all together celebrating the Catholic faith. Beautiful.

Every Sunday, Pope Francis does a mass outside and then addresses the public from his window. Today, things were slightly different. At about noon the mass ended, and I noticed the Pope mobile pulling up to the entrance of St. Peter's. You've got to be kidding me. He's actually going to drive around?! So Jo and I weaseled our way closer to the barricades and stood our ground. Sure enough, after greeting all the other priests that were at the mass, he jumped in the car. After a couple minutes, he drove right past us. It was insane. He gives off such an crazy energy where you can just feel how influential he really is. He is the leader of everything I believe in and my direct link to God on this earth. And I was feet away from him. Unbelievable.

We were pretty close to a screen. I wish I could understand what the Pope was saying!

All the green people outside are other priests. You can't see the Pope in this picture.

There he is! Pope Francis. 

Unfortunately, I was unable to go inside St. Peter's after that madness because of all the thousands of people inside the square. But Alessandro lives in the area, so I'm sure we will be back soon enough!

Holy Cannoli!

This afternoon Jo and I went shopping at some of the cute shops between our apartment and school. It's crazy how different the clothes are here! I almost bought a really pretty dress but couldn't get myself to spend 120 euro on a dress I would hardly wear. Good call, Rach! Luckily though, Jo was very successful! Then I finally gave into Jo and Alessandro's requests and had my first cannoli!

The life-changing moment. Actually pretty darn good, but still not better than gelato. Sorry, Jo!

After that, I met up with Georgie, Tara, and Katie to head to another part of town where Georgie's friend, Bea, lives. Bea was a foreign exchange student at Georgie's high school, and she lives in Rome! We went to her apartment and she cooked spaghetti carbonara for us! It was so delicious and a really great way to immerse ourselves in the culture.

Unfortunately, Georgie and I had to duck out early for a Colosseum at night tour! We got so lost on the way there and felt really uncomfortable with the area we found ourselves in, so we decided just to head back to Georgie's apartment. Although I'm upset that I missed out on the experience and lost ten euro in the process, I really realized tonight that safety is everything here.

Because of our very interesting adventure, Georgie decided to head to bed. So Bea, Tara, Katie, and I went back to my apartment to get ready for the evening festivities. We walked around Trastevere and met up with some of Bea's friends, who all happen to be in medical school. (Smarty pants!) Some spoke a lot of English and some spoke no English. We sat at a bar for a couple hours, drank a beer, and just laughed at how funny our language barrier was. It was such a fun and chill night. And they taught us how to curse in Italian, so don't piss me off! :)

Now I'm home, remembering the crazy day I just had. So much happened today that it's really hard to believe it was all in the course of 24 hours. But I guess these days are the ones I will remember the most.

Buona notte!

Opening Wine Isn't This Hard

Wednesday night we had a "9 hole" event where we went around to each of our apartments in Rome! Each apartment was in charge of making a drink, but the main point of it was so we could all see each other's places! It was really cool, but there was A LOT of walking involved. After 3 hours, we managed to hit 6 different locations, with mine being one of the last! Of course our drink was the crowd favorite! Just kidding, it was actually pretty bad. Haha, oops!

Thursday came a little too soon for some people. Quite a few took their first absence of the semester, but not me! I made it to my 9 am class just fine. Then the power went out in our part of the city and was down for a couple hours! So of course they had to cancel my cinema class, because you can't watch movies without power! It was great! Everyone in my class went out for food or went shopping or whatever! It was kind of a nice surprise. Unfortunately, my Italian class afterward was not cancelled.

For dinner Danny, Nick, and I went and tried out another place by our apartment. It's super cheap and takes our meal vouchers! Score! I got a huge plate of spaghetti and water (yes, you pay for water here) for 8 euro! It was quite the steal. Then we walked around for awhile and just ended back at their place with a couple other people and hung out all night!

Today, I woke up at 10:30. It is so wonderful not having classes on Fridays! Then I made myself some breakfast, showered, and met up at school with Daniela, Tara, and Georgie. We walked to Via del Corso, which is a HUGE street of shops! It was a lot of fun, and I bought a really cute shirt for 19 euro! Even though we have the store in America, it's still special because I bought it here! (At least, that's what I keep telling myself.)

STORY TIME! On my way home, I remembered that our apartment did not have a wine bottle opener, so I decided to stop and grab one. When I got home, I thought, "Wow, a nice glass of wine would be perfect right now with my snack." So, I started to open my bottle with this brand spanking new opener. Things were going great, until... SNAP! The freaking metal bottle opener breaks inside the cork, which is half way out already. Just my luck. So, I yell to Jo and we tried to brain storm ways to get it open. Pliers? Don't have any. Scissors? Almost broke them. Finally Jo grabs the can opener. TA DA! Jo is a miracle worker. After all that stress, I am enjoying this glass of wine even more now. And I paired it with some fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and olives. Yum!

Here's the visual of my traumatic experience.

Classes, Again.

I forgot to post this yesterday...

Classes today were great! First, I had Made in Italy. We talked today about stereotypes of both Americans and Italians. It was a fun class, and the professor seems like she has so much knowledge about to burst out of her. Also, my class only has about 15 students, so I feel really comfortable speaking up in class instead of hiding like I normally do. Then I sat in History of Italian Cinema. I had a good idea of what the class was going to be, but already it has exceeded my expectations. Yes, we watch movies, but today we started talking about how WWII affected the growth and distribution of films. Pretty fascinating. Oh, and the class is taught by the same professor as my morning class!

Finally, I had Basic Italian. Now, after taking an intensive 2 week class, I was not looking forward to taking MORE Italian language classes. After my final, I kind of just shut down that part of my brain. But golly gee wizz, my professor is a character! He is this very flamboyant 49-year-old Italian man. He bounces around with so much energy and doesn't make you feel stupid for not knowing how to say something. Those two hours today flew by! I think I will definitely like him.

Then tonight we had a family dinner! Twenty or so of us squeezed into the boys' apartment, the boys cooked, and we all ate together! It was a really cool experience. I love the people in my program so much! <3

And the Real Classes Have Begun!

My first class today was at 9:00. It took about a half hour to walk to school, but thanks to our roommate Jo, Sara and I had perfect directions to school! Today, I had Classical Mythology, Rome Through the Ages, and History of the Italian Mafia. My mythology professor is from England, so she's really fun to listen to. My Rome professor is so fun! He has so much energy and definitely isn't hard to stare at! ;) Then there is Mafia. I have to get out of that class. The professor is SO monotone. It's so distracting that I really don't think I would enjoy the class at all. So tomorrow I'm going to check out the Italian Cinema class as well as going to my Made In Italy and Basic Italian classes!

After class today Daniela, Sara, and I went to the grocery store. Finally! I spent about 65 euro, but I don't even care. Now I have some snack foods and quick things for breakfast. And olives. Can't ever forget the olives. But me being the overachiever, I thought I could easily carry all my items in two plastic sacks. I was sooooo wrong. It turned into me and Sara waddling the block home and just cracking up as my bags started ripping. But hey! I got everything home in the end!

At 6:00, we went back to school for an art tour. You know, they do a really bad job of describing these tours. Instead of looking at different art works, we ended up going around and seeing some of the most famous sites of Roma! I am so happy we decided to go! (Pictures below)

The Pantheon

Trevi fountain

Spanish steps

Side note: there are police EVERYWHERE here. And they travel in packs. I'm guessing it has something to do with the recent scandals with the Italian Prime Minister. Maybe they are worried riots will break out? Not sure, but I feel super safe everywhere I go now! Haha! And it helps that the most beautiful men here are police officers! Seriously, like supermodels. I would take pictures if I could.

Polizia in autobus!

After the tour Alessandro, Jo, Sara, and I decided to walk back to the Vatican area where Alessandro lives. And of course, we had to stop by Vatican City to get some beautiful pictures. (One thing I would love to do is go to the Vatican on a Wednesday and see the pope address the crowds. I just think that would be so cool.) Once we decided to head home, we thought it would be a good time to try out the bus system. We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, we gave up and just called a cab. Better luck next time!

St. Peter's

Now I'm back home, sitting in bed, and can't even think about doing anything but going to bed. I'm so tired that I couldn't even get myself to make dinner. So tonight, dinner consisted of yogurt, raisins, a few olives, and pringles. You go girl.

Arrivederci Firenze e Buon Giorno Roma!

Alright, I survived my Italian final. And it was actually pretty easy. Yay! So after our final, we jumped on a bus (I swear we live on buses) and drove the 4 hours to Rome!

Where we took 4.5 hours of Italian every day.

Never thought it would be so hard to leave Florence. I'll miss it, but I'll be back someday!

Georgie and I trying to entertain ourselves on the bus. Because why sit forward when you can sit backward? (With Reina in the back!) 

When we got to Rome, I wasn't even looking around much. I was more concerned about getting myself and all my belongings to the apartment, because I felt like I had a huge target on my back the whole time.

I'm living in a two bedroom apartment with a bathroom and kitchen area. Honestly, I thought it was a lot nicer than anything I was expecting. It will definitely do. I'm living with Jo from New York, Noah from Utah, and Sara from Virginia. Our landlords are this little old one-armed man named Claudio and his wife, Olga. Cool, right?

Once we got here we had to hand Claudio 300 euro IN CASH. Yeah, imagine me walking around Italy with almost 500 euro in my purse. I had a death grip on that thing!

My room with Jo. As you can see, it didn't take long to settle in. We were just so happy to not be living out of a suitcase anymore.

Our kitchen

Our living room

I love our location for our apartment! It's in an area called Trastevere. (Yup, go ahead and Google it.) It's about a 20 minute walk to school, but it's really close to a lot of stores and restaurants. Our whole group is spread out all around the city, but we live about a block from some of the guys in our group! It definitely makes me more comfortable knowing they are so close to us! (Last night we all went to dinner together. It was cute.)

Then today we had our Rome orientation at our school, which happens to be in the same building as the Prime Minister's office! Afterwards, our directors gave us a little tour of important places around school like grocery stores and places to eat. Then they fed us! I'm loving all these free meals they give us! Want to take a guess as to what we had for lunch? Pizza? Pasta? Panini? Nope! As an appetizer they brought out super nachos and buffalo wings. What?! I know, it blew my mind too. Then we all noticed the bottles of ketchup and mustard on the tables. And they served us.... CHEESEBURGERS AND FRENCH FRIES! Holy crud-a-moli! We were so excited. I think half the group was about ready to hit up McDonald's, so cheeseburgers were just what we needed. We will definitely remember that restaurant for the future.

Baci!

The Hunger Games Meets Siena

Yesterday, in class we had the windows open, and suddenly we heard this lady SCREAMING at someone in the square below us. Our teacher looked out the window, which kind of gave all of us an excuse to jump out of our seats and go look too. The lady had wild hair and was slapping a man in the street calling him “disgusting” and yelling, “I’m not crazy!” Yes ma’am. Yes you are. It was quite entertaining. Our teachers, Elaina and Sara said they saw the same lady out the night before and she was screaming then too. You have to love the crazies!

That day for lunch, I went to Gusto Panini. I couldn’t read the menu, so I just asked the worker, “What’s your favorite?” He looked me right in the eye without pausing and said, “You are.” BAHAHAHA! I love him. He’s so dang cute and that was the best sandwich I’ve had since I’ve been here. I still need to know cutie pie’s name, so I’ll go again tomorrow and keep you posted!

After class, we took a bus to the town of Siena. I had heard of Siena but had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. First, we went to a church that had St. Catherine’s actual face and right thumb. It was incredible that after 700 years, she still looked the way she did the day she died. Catherine stopped eating all together in a self-sacrifice to God, and survived 6 years before finally dying. How incredible!

We couldn't take pictures inside the church, but this was the view outside. The buildings in Siena all looked very similar and had a much older feel than the ones in Florence.

The town of Siena is broken up into 17 districts (totally Hunger Games style) with each being named after an animal (dolphin, caterpillar, giraffe, goose, ram, rhino, etc). Twice a year the town has a horse race in the middle of town with one horse from each district. The winning district gets to line their streets with the flag of their district and have a massive feast in celebration! It was so cool!

In August, the goose district won the horse race! This is one of their streets decorated with their flag.

The town square where the races take  place. The track is located on the dark gray stone, while the people watching stand in the middle on the reddish stone.

All through the town, there were these little corridors that I loved! This is right before the entrance to the rhino district. As you can see, they did not win the last race, since there are no flags!

When we got back, 13 of us went to Tijuana, which is the Mexican restaurant in Florence. Obviously we came to Italy to eat Mexican food, right? Right. We had a great time! It was a lot of fun and fairly inexpensive. The funniest part was that they played the song “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent about four or five times. I thought that was supposed to be a family establishment! It was so weird but funny.

Today, we had class. Again. I swear these 4.5 hour Italian classes have to end eventually! (Tomorrow actually.) It is very obvious that people are losing focus here at the end. Everyone has mentally checked out. After our half way break, my class of 14 lost 8 people. Oops! Let’s just say Marco wasn’t too thrilled when he walked in. But hey, I got a 100% on a quiz I thought I bombed, so that was a wonderful surprise! Tomorrow is our oral exam! Send well wishes our way please!

Then, we went to the Ferrari museum. I had to go for one of my classes, but other people could opt into going as well. I wish I had more of an appreciation for cars, because I wasn’t that impressed. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. Oh well! I got some pictures.

The newest Ferrari that came out in 2012.

Tonight’s dinner is fried chicken and french fries. FINALLY some food I recognize. Can I ask for seconds, thirds, or even fourths? Would that be weird?

PS- THANK YOU to the kids in my program who read this blog. I never imagined that anyone other than my family would see this, but I’ve already gotten so many compliments on it and over 1000 views! Thanks a million!!! You all are the best!

"Lean" On Me

As I sit here thinking about what to write about Pisa, I want to give you all a mental picture. It's a sunny day. I'm sitting on my hotel balcony watching two restaurant owners have a very heated conversation that I can slightly understand, and I'm eating Bacio and caffe gelato. Isn't it wonderful? Gosh, I love this place.

Anywho, yesterday after class, we went as a group to Pisa! You know, that place with the leaning tower? We left the hotel at 2:30 and drove the hour and a half-ish to Pisa. Once we got there, I instantly felt uncomfortable. The AIFS directors kind of warned us that it wasn't the nicest place, and they weren't kidding. Our bus stopped, and we were surrounded by illegal immigrants trying to sell us stuff. It made us all feel pretty uncomfortable. We walked down blocks of people staring at us and selling random items (mostly umbrellas, which I thought was strange). But we scurried along and finally made it to the tower.

We took the very stereotypical leaning tower of Pisa pictures, and within an hour, we all met back up to go back to the bus. An hour was plenty of time to spend there, because there is literally NOTHING else in Pisa worth seeing. Not my favorite place we've been thus far.

But, I'm glad I went because I want to take advantage of all the opportunities handed to me! And the bus ride back wasn't so bad with Claire giving us a little concert to our director, Marco! :)

I hoped it would fall over while we were there. It didn't.

Some kids in the program stopped by McDonald's in Pisa, because, why not?

Then today we had another 4.5 hours of Italian. And yes, I still have NO idea what's going on! Haha! I guess I know what I will be doing tonight!

At 2, Georgie and I went to grab some lunch. Georgie is an absolute sweet heart. She reminds me a lot of my friend Megan from high school. Anyway, we went to this restaurant right next to the hotel that I stare at every day! It's right outside my balcony, so it's fun to people watch customers there. We sat outside, and our waiter was so funny! Oh, and I tried muscles. No thank you, never again.

Arrivederci!

Paperorosso! The place Georgie and I grabbed lunch! (Taken from my hotel balcony)

I ate muscles. Not my fave.

Venezia

Venice. I think every person at some point in their life has wanted to go to Venice. And they should. It’s beautiful. Friday, we all got up and left the hotel at 9 am. We drove the 4-ish hours (No one really knew, because we all slept through it.) to the very sketchy-looking bus stop. After a quick boat ride, we made it to our hotel. Cute little rooms with the same bright red color everywhere! Quite the sight. We went to a couple museums and churches, one of which had St. Mark’s body inside (How cool!).

At the top of St. Mark's church.

After working so hard to try to not look like tourists, Daniela and I get handed these head sets for our tour. Game over.

But of everything, my favorite thing we did was get ourselves lost. Marco (our assistant director of AIFS) told us that if you take one wrong turn in Venice, you’re lost. He was so right. But, by getting lost, we found Grom (the best gelato place EVER), cute shops (I bought a purse), and awesome restaurants that not many tourists would find. We also found a lot of great street performers and could hear the gondola rowers singing in the canals!

Everything looked so peaceful.

Saturday was full of adventure. Daniela and I, with a couple other people, decided we wanted to go to the beach. Awesome idea, right? Wrong. The two of us ended up wandering around for an hour trying to figure out how to buy tickets for the water taxis. Then, we had to take a 40-minute boat ride to get to the beach. But once we got there it was so wonderful. People-watching at beaches in Venice was HILARIOUS. I don’t think I saw a single man wearing anything but speedos. Gross. But it was so much fun and a much needed time to relax!

Pigeons are evil here! They swoop down and land on you! These people were feeding them.

Trying to tan on the beach. It was so beautiful!

Check out my new tab "Random Thoughts By Rachel"! Because, guess what? I have lots of random thoughts and no organized place to put them. Ciao ciao! :)

Could Only be a Dream

Oh my goodness. Tonight was wonderful!

Well, today's Italian class was pretty tough. It's really hard to keep up with the fast pace, but luckily all of us are in the same situation. Our first quiz (or "queetz" how the teachers pronounce it) is tomorrow morning! Wish us all luck!

Tonight we went to a wine tasting in a castle. Yes, a castle. Seriously, who can say they've done that?! Me! But it was beautiful. And I didn't think the wine was bad. (Most people know I am NOT a fan of wine, so that's saying a lot.) I liked their white wine better, even though the area is famous for their Chianti. Oops.

Isn't it gorgeous?!

I think the wine is aged enough. Don't ya think?

2500 bottles of wine in each one. Bottoms up!

Supermodel!

My roommate, Jo! She's from New York and an absolute sweetheart!

When we got back to the hotel, me, Sara, Nick, and Theo went and got some more gelato! Can't ever have enough of the stuff! This time I tried watermelon, cantaloupe, chocolate chip, and more pistachio! (We all shared!)

Annoying Americans

I get it now why Europeans hate American tourists. We are loud, are disrespectful, aren't knowledgable about the world around us, and are complete space-cases. And you know what? Every one of those is true.

Everywhere we go we get stared and glared at, mostly because of our noise level. I blame the six New Yorkers we have on this trip! Haha! But really, if you get 35 people in a group, they will always be loud. But I'm starting to understand just how hard it is to try to blend in here.

Besides that though, I kind of secretly love the negative attention we draw, because then there are people like me and a girl named Georgie who can suddenly break into conversation with the locals and enjoy the impressed looks we get. It makes me feel like I'm helping America's reputation, even just a little bit. So you're welcome America! :)

Probably my most proud moment thus far has been when I ordered gelato completely in Italian. The very stern-looking owner of the shop gave me a big grin and told me my accent wasn't too bad. Look at me go being all impressive!

Last night, there was a super fancy restaurant that had a big dinner for us! We each got two free drink vouchers where we could order anything we wanted, so I took advantage of it and got some wine! Then about 7 of us decided to go afterward. Yes, on a Monday night. Great decision-making, right? But anyway, our casual night out at a bar turned into a crazy night at a club. Let's just say I wasn't exactly thrilled when my alarm went off at 6:30 am, but the shot of espresso really helped me get to class! And honestly, funny nights like that make the best memories.

First glass of wine at dinner. Guess what? I still don't like it! Sorry mom.

Day two of class was today. Four and a half hours of Italian a day. And cramming a semester's worth of Italian in two weeks. You can imagine the fast pace. Our teachers don't do any of the class in English, which is very different than the language classes I have taken before, but I really like it.

Today, I went on an awesome tour of secret passageways around Florence. I didn't really understand why any of it was significant, but it was still cool to see. Pictures below.

Dante's death mask, or what he looked like moments after death. I thought that was pretty cool.

Such strange weather here but I love this picture!

People here are TERRIBLE parkers! This picture just cracked us all up. I mean, the car in back is covered with newspapers! What were they thinking?!

Welcome to Florence!

Internet sucked last night, so I couldn't post this...

This is my third day in Florence, but I've been so busy that I forgot to write. Oops. My bad.

We flew from London to Pisa and bused from Pisa to Florence.

Our hotel in Florence is pretty cute. I got pretty lucky because my room has a balcony that overlooks one of the beautiful streets. I'm rooming with a girl named Jo who is also one of my roommates in Rome. She is SO nice, and we get along great!

When we first arrived in Florence, we had a little free time (or nap time to most of us). That night we went to a couple bars. Our biggest mistake that night was to go out so dang early, and by early I mean 10:00 pm. We quickly realized that we were the only people out, since some clubs don't even open until 11:00. Don't worry, the next night we learned from our mistake.

Saturday, we had most of our orientation stuff. Our school for these two weeks is more like a random building with a couple classrooms, but I like it. We did some ice breakers and then went to lunch... a three course lunch. I've never felt so full in my life. It was quite painful actually. That's when I wondered: How the hell do European women stay so skinny when they eat like this every day?!

I discovered the secret... They walk EVERYWHERE. And not just a few blocks. We walk miles every day. My feet and knees hurt so bad that I can't even recover at night. I wake up still sore, and get to do it all over again. But I am loving every second of it.

How could you not love this?

That night we didn't leave the hotel until after 11:30 pm and went to a huge club in Florence called "Space". And let me tell you, it was out of this world! We took the place over, all of us getting free drinks and shots from the club owner. It was awesome. A guy in my program named Nick and I even sang "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi karaoke style. We will see if that video ever pops up on Facebook!

Then after a very long night of fun activities, we all finally got to sleep in. And we definitely did. My roommate finally woke me up at noon, knowing I wanted to enjoy the day. But I was not alone. Most people were still asleep. So, I grabbed Daniela, Sara, and Katie and we went to a little pizzeria down the street. Then we went exploring and did a little shopping as well! At 5 we had an optional art walking tour, so I decided to go, because, why not? Turns out, it wasn't even about art, but our tour guide was a hoot and a half! Such a cute Italian man.

Our tour guide! He also had bright red glasses. Sorry the picture is blurry... He never stopped moving.

At the end of the tour, Peter (our tour guide) just kind of left us miles away from our hotel! None of us knew where we were, but that's the great thing: You have to let yourself get lost to make the best discoveries! While wandering around we found some great shops and restaurants. I also bought some pistachio gelato, which I highly recommend if you are ever in the area.

Some awesome street art we stubbled upon.