Day 2

Letter from Day 2:

Hi there,

So my first full day in Rome was absolutely AMAZING. I admit that last
evening and throughout the night I woke up with anxieties about what on
earth I had gotten myself into, but with some sleep and a growing sense of
direction and me getting my bearings, I'm beginning to really enjoy it
here.

This morning my 4 roommates and I met up with 3 homestay kids for lunch,
and oh. my. goodess. the sandwich I got was DELICIOUS! It was fresh
mozzarella with the best tasting tomato I've ever encountered, with
delicious foccaccia bread. I also had my first Italian espresso, and it
was definitely an intense but amazingly flavored drink. All only 5 euros -
not too bad.

It was really nice hanging out with a group, and everyone seems really
nice and eager to get to know others. We had a while between lunch and
when we had to meet for orientation, so we wandered around the area of the
school and looked at buildings. We found this tiny church, and despite its
shabby exterior, the inside was beautiful! We briefly entered a second
church with an amazing domed roof, but they were closing so we had to
leave before I could appreciate it fully.

Orientation went well - it answered a lot of the questions about
logistical Rome things like buses and how to navigate around the city, and
I felt a lot better knowing all of the resources available to me through
the program (they have a program "encyclopedia" of sorts with information
to any possible topic you could want, like cooking classes, things to do,
ideas for trips to other cities and countries, etc). They also mentioned a
few upcoming day trips that are available to us if we pay fees (it
includes bus fare, tours, and lunch), and I'm having such a hard time
deciding which one I want to do because they all sound so amazing. One
would take us to an Italian monastery, one would take us to a church and
then we'd get to see this entire underground city, and the last is a
garden full of ancient garden monster sculptures. So hard to choose!

My roommates and I also went shopping this evening at the grocery store.
What an interesting experience! All of the brands are different, things
I've never even seen before seem to be quite the rage here, and the prices
are totally different - a half-size jar of skippy is 4.5 euros while
nutella was only 2! I'm glad we got some groceries, though, because eating
at home seems like a nice change of pace from the busy streets as well as
a good way to save a little money. 

This weekend the two things I really want to do are go to this park I saw
in my guidebook that looks relaxing but also very pretty (I think it's
relatively close to my apartment, too) and I want to visit the open market
to buy fruits and vegetables and practice my Italian (last night when we
went to get pizza, there was a lot of gesturing and pointing because our
servers spoke absolutely no english and we barely any Italian).

Also, one last thing: my walk to and from school every morning includes me
walking past St.Peter's Square. The square, surprisingly, is smaller than
I imagined, but infinitely more awe-inspiring than I ever thought
something could be. I hugged one of its columns today, and I felt pure
bliss at getting to interact with something so old and that's seen so much
history. I don't think that the sight of it will ever fail to fill me with
wonderment and give me goosebumps :)

Love,
Anna