As we traveled, we talked quite a bit about how difficult it is to truly explain this experience to anyone through pictures and Facetime. However, I figured by not doing a blog I wasn't giving my best effort at attempting to share it with everyone. In so many ways it feels like you just want to be able to give this experience to others, the same way I always tell Kelsey that I wish I could just give her the memory I have of her coming up to me at the pool with all of about 6 teeth and saying "Hey I'm Kelsey! From the All-Star team!" There doesn't seem to be a satisfactory way to genuinely share how much something means to you with the people you love, so this blog is going to be my extra effort to do so.
Two and a half weeks ago now I landed in Rome! Representatives from the American University I am attending here, John Cabot, picked up Kelly and I and brought us to our apartment. I live on Viale De Trastevere, Trastevere meaning "across the river" in Italian. We are about a 15 minute walk or a 5 minute tram from the Tiber River, for those that know a little bit about the geography of Rome. I share an apartment with 8 other girls, a mix from Madison, Marquette, Rutgers, Boston College, Iowa, and one who is an Italian-American degree seeking student. While 9 girls sounds hectic, even to us, I have been very fortunate to have been placed with great roommates. We all get along very well, and I love coming home at night after class because some of my roommates can really cook.
I live with all of the girls in the top two pictures, and most of the ones in the third and fourth are my roommates as well. We have had such a great time going out together, as well as you can see staying in one night to watch Silver Linings Playbook. We've really settled in nicely together and I'm feeling extremely blessed to have gotten so lucky.
Right away the first few days we had some orientation events for school. But we spent most of our days exploring and just trying to orientate ourselves a new city. Those of you who know me best know that I will never succeed in knowing directions while I'm here, as I still easily get spun in Downers anywhere that is not Main or 63rd, but the rest of my friends were and I just try to stay close. Kelly and I did, to probably no one's surprise, get horribly lost the first night. It's especially funny now that we see truly how far away we were from home. During that adventure though, we did manage to find our way to the Trevi Fountain. It was late at night and absolutely beautiful to see it all lit up.
I've spent most of my time the first few weeks adjusting to a new school. John Cabot is very small, the entire campus is two buildings, a huge relief for me especially. The classes are amazing so far. It seems absolutely ridiculous to say that my favorite part of studying abroad is the studying, but actually I have incredibly smart professors from all over the world and am very happy with how it turned out. I'm taking art history, which will essentially be 45 hours of guided touring around Rome with a very passionate professor who deems many of the structures to have a 'sexy bit.' She has no shortage of information and stories on the background of everywhere we go to visit. It's definitely a class to look forward to. I also really like my Italian teacher- I already promised Marco that this is the woman he would want. We're picking up the language quickly just from ordering, shopping, and attempting to eavesdrop on the tram rides- but she is a great teacher which makes the long class go by more quickly. I'm also taking business ethics, which has been particularly interesting because at Marquette the majority of students come from the Midwest- generally Wisconsin or Illinois. However here, the students are not only from different countries, but also from all parts of the United States. It adds a lot more diversity of opinion to the classroom, which is particularly interesting for an ethics course. My english class is by far my favorite- further reinforcing my belief everyday that I will end up in an english related career despite my pursuit of a Marquette business degree. All in all, I love school. Per usual.
This is an extremely long post- had to catch everyone up on the basics of my study abroad semester. I'll post more later about our weekend travels. I miss everyone at home dearly. I could not be happier that my two Grandmas received iPads for Christmas this year. It has made communicating with them convenient and more frequent. Not to mention more adorable because I get to see them on FaceTime.
Also- Happy Birthday Nicole! I love you!
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