Audrey Hepburn was here

Boring stuff first. I'm now halfway through my second week of classes, and so far they're pretty decent, not too much to write home about yet. (Except that's what I'm doing.... hmm.) The best part is my Roman Architecture and Urban Design class, in which we do a field study just about every week. Our first week we went to the Castel Sant'Angelo, which I see every day as it is right across from our school, but had not yet been in it. It was amazing. One of it's many uses over time, it used to be used by the popes as a fortress when the Vatican was under attack (there's a tunnel between them- so sweet) and they would sometimes have to hole up in there for weeks on end. And let me tell you what, that's not such a bad deal. It was like a whole city in there, and the view from the top was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. You could see almost the whole city, and it's hard to beat the view of its neighbor, a little guy we like to call St. Peter's Basilica. It was difficult to take it all in. Something else I realized last night as my roommates and I were watching Roman Holiday is that a whole big scene of that movie takes place right in front of Castel Sant'Angelo, which means it was filmed basically at my school. Yeah, I felt cool.

Although it's tough to pick a winner, I might lean towards this next one as my favorite big Rome site visit so far: the Colosseum. THE Colosseum. I don't have class on Wednesdays, so last week Wednesday we decided it was the day to take on the Colosseum. Despite the fact that it was Freezing (note the capital F), it was unbelievable. I could not even comprehend the magnitude of where I was. You think about all the people that have been there and everything that has happened there over the many, MANY years that it's been there, and it just blows your mind. I wish I could have seen it as it was when it was first built, because it is one ridiculous structure. And I simply have no more words to describe it or the feeling of standing in the middle of so much history.

I'm continuing to get a feel for living as a Roman. One of the most frustrating things is the public transportation. The busses kinda just come when they feel like it, or just don't if they don't. You might make a plan, wait a half hour for the bus, give up and make a different plan and THEN see TWO of the bus you were waiting for go by. (Personal experience? Yes. Bitter? Yes.) Or, if you're one of the poor souls that desires to ride the bus during rush hour, I just hope you're not claustrophobic and have no problems with invasions of personal space. It's not terribly horrible, but enough to make me want to start walking to school. It's about a 30-40 minute walk, and I'm thinkin' it'll be a nice way to spend some time in the city. We shall see how it goes.

One last antecdote for you is the experience of Carnivale in Rome. I haven't seen anything too crazy, but I have seen plenty of confetti-covered cobblestone streets, one guy that got owned by silly string, and plenty of kids (and even a few adults) in costumes. (The only time I've seen Spiderman with a pacifier.) Last weekend my friends and I wandered from Piazza Venezzia down one of Rome's busiest shopping streets, Via del Corso, which dead ends in the other direction in Piazza del Popolo. It was an experience just to be there and it made me feel like I was part of it, part of the city. Later we wandered to Piazza Navona, which was absolutely beautiful lit up at night. I knew that a picture could never do it justice, so I did my best to imprint the image on my brain because it was just one more experience that is too overwhelming for words. It was also really great to be there with my new friends, who I'm so thankful for. They make all the difference.

I still have to remind myself that I'm in Rome. I see things that I know are in Rome, and everything says Rome; basically, all signs point to I'm in Rome, but it's just still too phenomenal an idea to comprehend. Yes, it's been almost a month, but part of me still just can't believe that I'm here and doing this. Opportunity of a lifetime.

Rome, You're Too Modest

Ok, quick overview of my life since I last wrote: orientation-Assisi-Perugia-learning Italian-turning 21-seeing the sights and adjusting to life in Rome. The second day I was here, we got to go on a little tour of some of the sites in Rome, checking off, among others, the Pantheon and Trevi fountain, which are unbelievably unpretentious for the incredible marvels that they are. The thing about Rome is you come down a little side street or turn a corner and all the sudden you're face to face with these incredibly famous buildings/fountains/sites, etc. No build-up, no flashing lights. They're just sitting there, chillin. It's really quite ridiculous, in the best way. That's a somewhat unique thing about Rome, which our tour guide pointed out. There is no old section of town/ new section of town business. The ancient stuff is mixed right in with everything else. It's pretty freakin' neat.

Our orientation week ended with a weekend getaway to Assisi and Perugia in the Umbria region of Italy, north of Rome and more in the center of the country. Aside from cold and still not having my stuff, it was a great trip. We spent Friday in Assisi, which is the quintessential little Italian town, basically the epitome of Italy. We went on a tour and saw the sights, including St. Francis' Basilica, which was absolutely beautiful. The work they put in on these buildings is just mind-blowing. They just don't make 'em like that anymore. It was also amazing to walk where St. Francis walked all those many, many years ago. I can't even put words to how cool it is to be in the midst of so much history, both in Assisi and in Rome. We spent Saturday in Perugia, which was nice even though the weather was not. The best part of Saturday, though, I have to say, was getting back to the IES Center and seeing my luggage waiting for me! After not seeing it for just about a week, being reunited was sweet indeed.

On Sunday we went to this huge open-air market called Porta Portese in Trestevere, an area of Rome. At this market, you can find anything you could ever want or need and much, MUCH more. I saw everything from old phones to clothes and shoes to light bulbs to starfish and seashells to knick knacks/random junk to pets to jewelry to potholders to furniture to fake hair to electronics and appliances to yes, even wooden shoes. It was very entertaining.

The next week brought Italian intensive language classes, more time to explore the city, and my 21st birthday on Tuesday. I actually got to blow out candles three times on that one day: once in my Italian class, once at dinner with my roommates and the girls upstairs when my ISC (Italian student companion) Michela made dinner and a Nutella cake that said "Holly 21", and finally at the restaurant I went to afterwards for dessert with my friends Stephanie, Mackenzie and Ali. Here they actually turned off all the lights and sang to me too. It was a good birthday. The rest of the week was filled with some class and a lot of time to just roam around Rome, which I'm starting to get a feel for, even as I'm constantly finding and seeing new things. My new friends are some winners, and I feel so blessed to have them to explore this awe-inspiring city with. We actually start classes tomorrow, so establishing that routine will only help as we continue establishing our lives in Rome, whose magnificence is only understated by the fact that it does not proclaim it. For the powerful empire it was and the importance it still carries, it's rather humble. Skyscrapers are non-existent. The old buildings are just recycled to house modern facilities, and I don't think I've seen anything higher than seven stories, especially not in the center of town. Narrow, cobblestone streets greatly outnumber any roads with two or more lanes. Every day on the 870 bus on my way to school I have the most incredible view of the city, one that will never get old, and that's just what you see while on public transportation. The city astounds me, as does the fact that I kinda live here. I'm still trying to grasp the idea that I'm sitting in my apartment. Where I live. In Rome. THE Rome. Ridiculous.

"Il y a dix milles personnes qui font la queue!"

Add this to the top of my grievances against snow. I left for Rome on Sunday, February 1st and until I landed in London, had a great trip. I learned that O'Hare is huge, Burn After Reading is a waste of time, but High School Musical 3 is thoroughly charming. Things started to go wrong when we got near London. The pilot informed us that due to some snow, things were backed up at Heathrow and we would have to do some circles before landing. No big. So we do circles for about half and hour and then land. Four hours later we got off the plane. Apparently when it snows in London, all hell breaks loose. Fortunately, I met up with another IES Rome student, Mackenzie, on the flight and was able to tackle the next part of the journey/nightmare with her. Upon entering Heathrow, we learn that all flights in the foreseeable future are canceled. Every single one until 5:00pm, and it was currently about 10:00am. As Mackenzie and I tried to figure out what to do amidst the chaos that is certain to ensue in a such a crisis, we were directed to Terminal 5 Departures, and when we arrived there my stomach sank. The line for re-booking took up the entire terminal. We got in line and there I spent the next nine and a half hours of my life. Yes my friends, it took us longer in that line than it took us to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Happily, we picked up another girl that was on our flight, Katie, and the three of us tried to amuse ourselves in the never-ending slow shuffle that prompted another line dweller to exclaim on her cell phone, "Il y a dix milles personnes qui font la queue!", or "There are ten thousand people in line!" She may have exaggerated a bit, but not much. (That was one entertaining feature of waiting- listening to all the different languages and different accents around me. Much better entertainment than the constantly replaying ads for Nokia [and Nokia alone] reminiscent of 1984 that accost one and all from big screens all across the terminal. Sickening after multiple hours.) Besides picking up Mackenzie and Katie, another stroke of luck hit when I thought I spotted one of my future roommates, Stephanie, in the line passing our part of the line. I knew I would be meeting up with her in London, so we had figured out how to spot each other. Just as I was about to intrude on her conversation, she said, "Holly must be here too!" I took that as my cue, and magically met the one person in Heathrow I was looking for. Stephanie soon turned our trio into a foursome, and together we stuck out the hours in line, finally reaching the desk just minutes before they finally closed for the night, booked a flight to Rome at 7:30 the next morning, and set out to find food. Side note: I never thought I could love a baggage cart so much. After eating, we ventured outside the airport for a (very) brief touch of London, and then looked for a place to set up camp for the night. We were kindly provided mats and blankets, which we used to build a little corner for our 5ish hours of sleep. Heathrow looked like a refugee camp, all because of a measly couple inches of snow that managed to incapacitate this massive enterprise. And really, London's great snow storm of '09 was nothing to bat an eye at. A light dusting was more like it. But anyways, I awoke the next morning after the best sleep of my life (note sarcasm) and our foursome went through security in time to have breakfast (the first time I've ordered porridge off a menu) and proceeded on to our gate. Here we said goodbye to Katie, whose journey brings her to Istanbul, Turkey, with promises that we will see each other again. I really cannot thank God enough for setting me up with those three. They made the whole experience infinitely more enjoyable. The three Rome-ers boarded our only a little delayed flight (on which we all got to sit by each other) and finally reached our long-awaited destination. We do, however, still await our luggage, but we feel lucky to be here as there are many who still are not. We were greeted at the airport by IES staff and awarded some snazzy bags (sarcasm one more time) with important info about orientation and all that jazz. Our IES group, which had grown to 7, was loaded into taxis and shipped to the IES Abroad Center. Observation 1: they really do drive as crazy as you think they do. To quote Captain Barbosa, the rules are more like guidelines. Observation 2: everything almost seemed fake at first. You see copies of Italian architecture and design, but it's like, no. This is the real thing. Observation 3: Rome is incredible. The IES Center is right across the Tiber River from the Castel Sant Angelo, which I could gawk at a whole whole lot but tried not to for fear of looking... stupid. I haven't spent much time in it yet, but if first impressions count for anything, Rome is truly amazing. We spent a little time at the center; then went to our appartement, which is great; then our Italian roommate Michela took us to buy bus passes and missing necessary items such as shampoo; and then we sat in our kitchen while Michela made us dinner and from time to time broke into quiet song in Italian. Rome is great and intimidating. I'm thrilled and uneasy. Especially after the difficulties in transit, I still can't believe I'm actually here. But as I am about to pass out from exhaustion and I have already rattled on exceedingly long, I will sign off here. Stay tuned for episode 2: when will I get my bag?

Holly