So, for the
second day most of our orientation revolved around teaching us how to get
around the city, something we’d already kinda figured out. And they taught us how to
buy groceries; it’s very similar to buying groceries at a normal grocery store
in the US. They showed us where the nearest grocery store, farmacia (pharmacy)
and Chinese store (where you can find literally everything) were. It was useful
in that it saved me from having to do a google search.. They also informed us
about how we needed to take our classes seriously, and how special we were to
be studying abroad, “Only 2% of students actually study abroad.” We went home for lunch and I
made pasta. We had to work to figure out how to light the stove, but I only
burned myself once, and with determination and perseverance we got it done. And
the pasta was delicious.
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| Fontana di Trevi... again... |
After lunch, they
took us on a walking tour of downtown Rome. We saw the Pantheon, the Spanish
Steps (again), and the Fontana di Trevi (for the third time in three days). We
also stopped by a gelato shop and Piazza Navona. They also showed us a bookshop
where we could go to buy books for class.
 |
| Part of our group and the Italian guys we met. |
The tour ended
at the Spanish Steps, so we all sat there for a while and ended up talking to
some Italian guys who were all about our age, and I got to play interpreter. I
loved it. It wasn’t anything too complicated, but when their English failed
them I helped and when the girls wanted to say something the guys didn’t understand
I translated it for them. The guys were surprised I spoke Italian, and said “You
are from Italy!” with a very strong Italian accent. Italian guys like to flirt or "play the national sport of Italy." It's flattering but you can't take it too seriously. The other girls also seemed to think I spoke well, but I’m
sure I butchered many things, and my professor would probably be disappointed,
but it was really fun. I think I could do something like that as a job, so I guess
so far this study abroad thing is really helping me out.
After kind of making plans to hang out with the guys the next night, we got on the Metro and made our way back to our apartment. Finding our way back so far has been relatively easy. We’ve taken three methods of transportation so far, buses, Metro, and walking, I like being able to navigate the super easy Metro system they have here it’s only 2 lines, and they intersect at “Termini” or the terminal, and directly above it is the bus terminal (same name) where you can switch between many of the buses. The public transportation here is great! Well, by great I mean relatively convenient. The buses are often few and far between, but you’ll get where you’re going eventually.
We ate at another chain restaurant that was also very good. And we made plans to go to the Vatican the next day around 11:00. So we got to sleep in a little bit, until this point we’d had things we needed to do between 8 and 10 in the morning.
After kind of making plans to hang out with the guys the next night, we got on the Metro and made our way back to our apartment. Finding our way back so far has been relatively easy. We’ve taken three methods of transportation so far, buses, Metro, and walking, I like being able to navigate the super easy Metro system they have here it’s only 2 lines, and they intersect at “Termini” or the terminal, and directly above it is the bus terminal (same name) where you can switch between many of the buses. The public transportation here is great! Well, by great I mean relatively convenient. The buses are often few and far between, but you’ll get where you’re going eventually.
We ate at another chain restaurant that was also very good. And we made plans to go to the Vatican the next day around 11:00. So we got to sleep in a little bit, until this point we’d had things we needed to do between 8 and 10 in the morning.
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