tempo per la scuola

Classes have begun! Tuesday was a very long day, my energy was starting to slowly diminish as the day went on. I started out Tuesday with the normal morning routine, then walked to JCU with Kaylie. We stopped by the cute little place down the street (of course!). Mornings at the cafe are so much busier than afternoons! We squeezed in and drank our cappucinos at the bar then headed out. It was very chilly, probably the coldest morning we've had so far.

My first class was Roma Aeterna: The Eternal City through the Ages. It's an on-site class, so we met in a classroom to go over the syllabus then walked around Trastevere (the neighborhood where the school is). It's so crazy how EVERYTHING is ancient. You don't even realize it while you're walking around (well..you sort of do. but i'm already getting used to it haha). We literally stopped 10 feet outside on the entrance for school and our teacher went on for 20 minutes about the buildings all around us - how old they were, their history, etc. We actually walked by some buildings that we passed the night that we were trying to find the Colesseum last week! Our class also walked down along the Tiber River, which was cool. There are steps that take you down so you're right beside the river next to all the street art on the walls. It was pretty muddy and gross because our professor told us that last month the water was waaay higher - about 20 feet higher. "We would all be under water if it was last month" she told us! It's because all the snow melted and November/December are their rainy months.

While we were walking around, my professor gave us some of the best advice I've gotten while I've been here.."When you cross street, most important thing is make eye contact. If not, they run over you." Good to know! She's from Austira. It's interesting because I have to reeeeaalllyyy listen to understand what she's saying. It's good because it forces me to pay attention (or zone out, but I'm striving for the first option).

I had a couple hours betweeen classes so I met up with Debbie and Kaylie for lunch. We talked around the streets by school and found the cutest little panini shop. They were SO nice and it was a really good price - plus it was absolutely amazing food! That's definitely going to be a regular lunch spot for me.

My painting class was at 2:15 at the Art Building, which is up the river about 10 minutes. After an amazing panini at a little shop by school, I left super early to be sure I would be able to find it on time. And of course, I got lost. Luckily, while I was staring at the map and walking in circles another girl from JCU came up to me lost as well, looking for the same place. So we searched some more and after getting directions from 3 different Italians, one of them actually led us to the building. It was right in front of us the whole time, we were just overlooking it! It's weird because it's not like American Universities where the buildings are obvious with huge signs and big entrances. They're just old buildings from like 100s of years ago that the college owns now. So everything looks the same, it's a little tricky!

Painting seems like it'll be cool, the professor was really chill. He doesn't have an accent so I'm guessing he's from America? But we have to buy all of our supplies so that kind of stinks. It's looking to be a little pricey, but at least it'll last me all semester. I got really into painting on my own last semester, so I'm excited to take a real class!

Finished up early so I met Debbie back at the Guarini campus - luckily I didn't get lost getting back. Since we had a couple hours to kill until Kaylie and Ashley were done, we figured we'd head to the art store to get our supplies. QUITE the adventure. Trastevere isn't the nicest part of town, and we got lost. AH. The area that we were in was definitely the ghetto of Rome, from what we've seen so far. We somehow made our way out of the alleyways (I wouldn't let Debbie hold the map out since it drew too much attention) and spotted 2 policeman walking down the street ahead of us. We spent the rest of the walk directly behind them to be safe, then finally found the art store! The man who owned the shop helped me get all my supples and I was right - there were a lot of expenses. Not fun. We went the safe way home, and met up with Kaylie and Ashley to get our textbooks.

cool street art, sketchy area

The bookstore was supposedly on the other side of the river, close to the Spanish Steps. I only need one book for class (well 2, but Debbie and I are splitting the one for Cities, Towns, and Villas and we found it used at school). I guess the money for art supplies is okay because it's still cheaper than what I pay for all my textbooks usually. We got lost getting to the bookstore. Surprise surprise. We're becomming experts at getting lost, there's just so many little streets and alleys and so much to see, it's easy to get distracted! After about an hour and a half of walking around and trying to figure out the bus system, we made the mutual decision to give up for the day and head home. It was getting dark, so we figured we'd just go to the bookstore over the weekend instead.

I ate some leftovers for dinner, booked a flight to Madrid to see Taylor Swift in concert there (Jada and Raphi are meeting me there, and we're staying with Greg!! SO EXCITED.), then went to bed nice and early. It was a loooong day and my feet were pounding from all the walking - not the best idea to wear my boots on a big walking day haha. Now I know! Once again, it's all about learning from experience:)