discoteches, shopping, and settling in

Buono sera! Once again, so much has happened in the past couple of days. I feel like I should stop writing that at the beginning of my posts, because every day something new and exciting happens. Starting with Thursday night...

Kaylie and Tara with first official apartment dinner in Prati

We made our first apartment dinner in the apartment, it was so good. Kaylie and Ashley took control and made pesto noodles with chicken. We each had our own bottle of wine which made it even better! (Picture coming soon). Debbie and I tried to work with the hot water. We're supposed to get it although it runs out really quick so we have to space out the showering ordeal. For some reason it stopped working for two days straight!! We all lived with (FREEZING) cold showers for 2 days before finally realizing today that we just turned off the hot water switch in the bathroom. Whoops! Now we know, at least.

we found the Vatican City walls!

Kaylie and Debbie know a few people from their school at home, so we decided to meet up with them. We  headed out in the right direction - we knew we were heading towards the Vatican - but get lost of course. Finally find the Vatican and take pictures against the walls, the fountain, etc. Still lost. I asked a guy we saw closing up his Trattoria (in italiano of course) how to get to Aurealia and he pointed us in the right direction. I'm so glad we live in Prati and not the ghetto where these boys are! We finally meet up with them and make our way to the discoteche. It was very fun, a good experience.

We catch up on sleep on Friday, then head out for a little shopping. Kaylie was focused on finding a nice pair of italian boots, so we walked all over Prati and Storio Centro to find them and finally found a great pair. Magnifico! Still waiting for internet in the apartment..today we were promised that it would be here by Tuesday (there was something wrong with the land line and the modem had to be delivered? at least we're getting it at some point). We got home, took a nap, then my roomies went out for a night on the town.

I was missing my yoga practice like woah (I've only been able to do a little bit everyday/every other day) so I stayed in and did a nice 2-hour long practice of yoga and meditation then got in bed for a good nights sleep. It was so good to get back into my yoga routine, I've missed it so much! Set my alarm early for an exciting day Saturday.

Today was so exciting. I woke up early, did a little meditation, then made a yummy breakfast of eggs with toast and peach jam. I love having an apartment yayayay!! Then I headed over to Castel Sant'Angelo to meet up with my friend Sam. She's into yoga and meditation, and facebooked me before we got to Rome wanting to go on yoga adventures together. Of course I was down, I'm so excited to see what the yoga scene is like here. It doesn't seem big at all...yoga pants are a no-go here (you'll get a Roman boy all up in your space and have to throw a "Vattene" or "aspetto mio fidanzato" - leave me in peace/ i'm waiting for my boyfriend) and I haven't seen one studio or mat. Sam knows someone who owns a studio and one of my students told me about her mentor who also has a studio here, so I should be getting into that scene soon.
SO Sam and I met up outside of the castle at the "angel bridge" - too bad there are 2 angel bridges! We found each other eventually and walked around the St. Angelo park. We found a nice spot of grass by the playground and chatted, watched the little kiddies play, and made lots of exciting plans for the semester. For example: check out all the yoga studios, photo shoot on the carosel in princess dresses, go ice skating, etc. The ice skating idea came in because we found a rink in the park right by our apartment!! I took a picture (Jada, Rohan, Page, AC, Ryan, dontcha worry). It's so funny because they were playing unedited American music there ("Billionare," anyone?) because I guess their little kids don't know American cuss words so it doesn't matter. It was so great to meet someone who had the same goals abroad as I do: take in the culture, be immersed as much as I can, see the sights, travel, learn as much as I can...it was great.

ice skating rink in the castle park..definitely hitting this up later.

We walked back towards my apartment and stopped in a little trattoria near my house. It was so cute - so many yummy pasteries and exciting snacks. They had a little fruit drink by the brand "Yoga"!! I'm definitely making that my go-to cappuccino trattoria. Something to note: drinking your cafe at the bar is usually 1/2 the price of drinking it at a table. So we stood there, chatted some more, listened to the Italians around us talk about us in italian (what language are they speaking? where are they from?), then I headed back after we planned a meeting time for tomorrow. Sam doesn't have a phone and I don't have internet in the apartment so it makes it a little difficult to meet up!

Came back to the apartment, did a little yoga, then headed to JCU (my college here) to meet up with my roommates and get some free BBQ lunch. On the bus, an older man from Ghana started talking to me in Italian. He was talking to fast, I was so overwhelmed! I tried to manage "No parli bueno italiano, me dispacio" (i don't speak good italian, i'm sorry), and he got the picture. He said "You from Scotland??!" and I told him I was from the US. I thought he couldn't speak any faster than he already was, but then he freaked out with excitement and the old Italian lady beside him turned around, both apparently asking me a question in italian. I caught "chiasmo" and "bianco" (name and white), but other than that was completely lost. I finally managed to figure out they were asking who the president was who lived in the white house. When I responded with "Obama", they were smiling SO big. "Hallelujah" and "God bless you"'s were all around. It was a funny experience, my first official completely alone experience navigating Roma!

my favorite building in roma (well, so far..)
it's right by JCU and ACTUALLY looks like a
drawing, when i walked by i had to touch it to
check it's real-ness. i love it.

Got to JCU, signed up for a trip to Venice and Verona at the end of the month and a hiking trip later in April, then the MOST exciting thing (well, almost) happened. Before I got here, I had emailed student services asking if it would be possible to teach while I was here but never heard back. I went up to the athletics table and asked the girl about teaching, and an older man jumped in front of her saying "Kelsey? Kelsey?? Teach Yoga?!" Apparently he had gotten my email and just emailed me back today. Since I didn't have internet, I didn't see it. He was the head of the athletics department, so we sat down and figured out a schedule for me to teach in Rome! I'll be teaching Thursday midday and either Monday or Wednesday evenings. I'm SO excited to be given this opportunity. It's so funny how everything works out! The pay is not much (well, not much at all...), but I don't even care. I love teaching and I'm so grateful that I can continue it over here in Italy.

Walked around some with Ashley this afternoon, then came back and figured out my schedule while all my roommates took a big nap. My classes are going to be so amazing, I can't wait for them to start. NERD ALERT: I missed taking classes last semester! At the moment, I'm taking 4 art historys and 1 studio art but i'm planning on switching 1 of the art historys for another studio after the semester starts and classes open up. Most of my classes meet on-site, so there's no classroom - we just meet at different locations around Rome! SO COOL. The studio class I'm taking is Fresco Painting. I literally can't wait. I'm trying to switch into Rome Sketchbook or Photography, but we'll see how everything works out!

The plan was to eat out at a Mexican restaurant down the street (yes, we're eating mexican in italy - i miss margaritas), but it was sooo packed by the time we got there. Decided on the pizzaria across the street instead which was ABSOLUTELY amazing. It's soo good and literally right across the street from our apartment. Late night, anyone?

Bed time for Kelsey. Sorry these updates are so long, it will be easier when I don't have internet every couple of days so I can do shorter posts more often. The internet is slow in this apartment also, so still no pictures, but I will be adding lots and lots once we get wifi in our house. As always, miss and love you all to Pluto and back.. CIAO