The End of Week One

Heloooooooooooo friends! The most recent update - week one of school: conquered and owned. WOOT! I've told y'all about most of my class experience, but oh my word, yesterday was a day of it's own. Let me just tell you. No, really, let me just tell you. Thursdays are a beating, really and truly. My first class was at 9, it's a once a week class on Thursdays from 9-12 and it's Art of Rome. The professor is really great and he seems like a pretty cool guy! Oh, and his name is Tim Allen! Since it's Art of Rome, and we're in Rome, all but three of our classes are held on-site at various museums and monuments. This means that we have the lovely task of navigating Rome at 8 in the morning to find these obscure places! Yaaaaaay! But back to yesterday, we spent the first two hours in class going over the basics and for the last hour we hopped on a bus down to Piazza Venezia (the center of Rome) where we walked around and our professor showed us a few of our main meeting points. (Sidenote, Piazza Venezia is as I said "the center of Rome" so when they say "all road lead to Rome" they really mean "all roads lead to Piazza Venezia!" Also, it's the Piazza with the big wedding cake monument that's pictured on Thursday's post.) We finally made it back to the bus stop at 12 to head back to campus. However, due to complications (switching bus stops and then the next bus blatantly drove by us) we didn't make it back to campus until 12:45. Eek. Luckily my next class wasn't until 2. So, back at the school, I took care of a few necessities (bought my books, got some lunch) then piddled around on the computer until class.

After my 2 o'clock I had 1 1/2 hours to spare before my 5:15 Italian class, so I spent in the library brushing up on my Italian. Italian ended at 6:40, and I was back home at the apartment by 7:15. Now I'm sure you're all thinking, "But Bonnie, did you have your electricity back?!" Well I'm so glad you asked! Why yes we did! We called a couple people during the day and by the time we got home everything was lit! YAAAAYY!! So in celebration of this success, as well as us surviving our first week of school, we decided to dress up and head out for dinner at a cute little cafe in Campo de Fiori. And it. was. wonderful. The atmosphere was lovely and the food was divinely Italian: so good! I had spaghetti with garlic olive oil and herbs - perfetto! It really was probably the best pasta I've had since I've arrived in this dear country. Our waiter was so nice and it really just made for a good, relaxing evening. After dinner, we grabbed some gelato, and hopped back on the tram to take us home.

Abbie, me, and Rachel at dinner

Lindsey, Karen, and Meredith

We were all exhausted by the time we got home, but it was that satisfying exhaustion, you know? The exhaustion where you're drop-dead tired but you're ok with it because you know you can just fall into bed and sleep in late. And we did exactly that. I woke up this morning around 11 and have had a wonderfully lazy day since. In a little bit we're going to head out to see the Spanish Steps and who knows what else. Hopefully this weekend on the whole will be nice and relaxing.

Let me just finish with this. Yesterday I had an Italian experience I have wanted for years: I had a cannoli. Really and truly I have wanted to have one for years. And it was GOOD. It was a great way to finish off the first week. Can't wait to see what next week holds!

Ciao!