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.