non voglio andare alla scuola!

The Castle St. Angelo

Monday I didn't have classes, as usual.  I slept in and hung around.  Then I went to the super market all by myself, which was super scary.  But I did it and survived.  I didn't really get anything substantial, mostly just food to pick at and eat for breakfast, because thats what I needed most.  I also got orange soda (aranciata) which is so much better here than it is in the states.   We had our weekly meeting, and discussed the school sponsored trips we get to go on.  The first one is in like 2 weeks, and we're going to Pompeii, Naples, Sorrento and if the weather is nice, we'll go to Capri! That will be awesome.  The second one is in October, and we're going to Florence and Siena. So now I don't have to worry about getting myself to those places.  I also had to do some homework Monday evening.  It was reading for my art and architecture class and it took me almost 2 hours to finish. It was so boring.  I don't think I did anything productive on Monday, seeing as how I don't remember the rest of the day.  

St. Peter's Basilica at night!

Yesterday I had to go to classes.  The first one was art and architecture, and we were meeting on-site at the monument to Victor Emmanuel II so we could walk around the ruins of the ancient forums.  It was a lot of walking and it was really hot out, thus, it was miserable.  I did learn some things, but the teacher was hard to hear and difficult to understand, and taking notes under those conditions was almost impossible.  She also went almost a half hour over class time.  That plus the commute to and from the site turned a 3 hour class into a 4.5 hour class.  When I got back to campus, me and my roommate got pizza from a restaurant across the street.  I'm not sure what kind of pizza mine was, but it was really good.  Later on, I had my first theology class.  The professor is okay. He works for the pope, so he's getting us tickets to one of the pope's masses, which is cool.  But he's a priest teaching a course called "religions of the world" and he's not unbiased as I feel he should be.  The first class was all about why we should be catholic basically, and I didn't enjoy it.  I'm hoping he will get better when we are learning about specific other religions, but we'll see.  

Vatican at Night

My friend from high school, Zoe, arrived in Italy last night.  She's going to be here for a few months traveling to organic farms and helping them with their farming. She was in Rome yesterday, so after I got out of class, I met up with her at the Colosseum.  We walked around the city for awhile, hitting up some of the major tourist attractions including the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and eventually ending up at the Vatican.  We grabbed some paninis in the Vatican and sat in front of St. Peter's Basilica to eat them.  The sun set as we were sitting there, and the basilica lit up.  It was really beautiful.  We then walked towards my school, stopped for gelato (this time I had one that was cherries, cream and had some sort of nut.... it was SO good!) and then I showed her how to get back to her hostel.  It was really nice to see someone from back home all the way over here.  She's going to be back in Rome for my birthday at the end of the month.  When she's done farming, she's going to be traveling around a little, and I may travel with her on the weekends.  We'll see! But it's nice to know someone is here if I get homesick.  

Top of St. Peter's dome

Today, once again, I haven't been very productive.  I was up really late last night doing laundry for the first time, so I'm pretty tired.  I spent a while looking into travel options so Kayla can come to London and we can go to the Harry Potter movie premier.  It's much more complicated than it sounds.  But hopefully all will work out in the end.  I've got to do some reading for my theology class today.  I was supposed to go to the Colosseum today to see the inside, but my roommate changed her mind and I didn't want to go alone.  I might just have to wait until the 3rd DTW rotation when my friends arrive! Well, thats all for now! Ciao!