Roman Genesis

In the beginning…
My first day and night of Rome was great—a hassle at times, but great. As my plane landed, I was filled with energy: so pumped to be in Rome! In Italy! In Europe! The energy faded after waiting for luggage for over an hour, followed by a bus ride that would’ve been the equivalent to the nightmare of a person with motion sickness.

Arriving at the John Felice Rome Center—in Monte Mario—which is the place I will be sleeping, studying (good joke!), and eating at, stress began to boil on us students. As expected we were all exhausted; it was time, however, for registration. Lines…lines…lines… (Aside: My hatred of lines and waiting for what appears unimportant was reinforced.)

I also bought a phone. There is a chance that I jumped to buy this one phone that a company was selling in our building (oh, I forgot to say that the Rome Center is one building—there are only 200 or so students a semester). A bunch of students bought the package, and a bunch of students all had issues with their phones as well. Mine is working well now. If you want to call me: 348-514-3120. I think you have to enter a country code before those 10 numbers, but I’m not sure. When I figure out how to call me for sure, I will leave another post just for that. By the way, it’s free for me if you call me. 

At 5:00, we had a quick 45 minute Italian lesson. We all broke up into classes depending on what stage of Italian you were in. I was falling asleep over and over in mine: my tiredness was really getting to me. After the class, I went to Mass. Following Mass, Morgan, Courtney, and Bess went to meet up with Catherine and some of her friends. We met at the Vatican and went out to dinner—pizza e vino! One more thing: as I was walking through the streets of Rome, I was reminded of how much I just love Italy. To celebrate, all by myself, I bought a nice cigar.

Now the day gets interesting: returning home, we did not get on the best bus. Then we missed our stop. Realizing this, we got off at the next stop, and went the wrong way. I saw on the road a sign for this one college, and I started laughing hysterically. The reason? I recalled seeing that college not-very-close on the map to where we live. Great… We all laughed a lot, and after 30 minutes of walking, we finally made it.

I’m writing this on Saturday—my 2nd day. Not to make anyone jealous, the weather is beautiful today! And tomorrow: Assisi for the rest of our orientation. Heaven anyone?