Summary of the First Two Weeks Part I

These first 2 weeks of classes and living in Rome have been all over the place, even from last night. But first the beginning...

My flight left Monday Aug 17th 2009 from LAX at 5:30pm and then 11 hours to Heathrow, a 2 hour layover, and another 2 hour flight to Rome later, I had traveled forward in time 24 hours and I was in Rome at 5:30pm on Tuesday. Special thanks to Alex for letting me sleep on her lap on the plane. Since I was traveling with a group of 10 people from UCSD the airport stuff was pretty simple and there was nothing to worry about. Once we got outside we had to take a taxi to our hostel, which is a standard price of 40 Euro (multiply euro by 1.5 to get approx dollars ). After checking the taxi for the offical Roma logo, we had to divide everyone and the massive amounts of luggage into 3 van taxis full with luggage. And of course none of the girls wanted to sit in the front so I had to do it. It was a real adventure witnessing a taxi driver drive a stickshift by holding the steering wheel with his left hand, and shifting gears/texting with his right hand all while going fast. This got scary when we got near the Vatican with sharp turns and heavy traffic. After we all survived the taxi ride we got to our hostel that we would spend the night at because we had our official check-in tomorrow. The hostel on Ottaviano Street had a small lift and of course no air conditioning. With the hot and more importantly humid weather everyone broke a sweat moving the luggage (the guys), especially lugging the luggage up 3 flights of stairs and in the smallest lift known to man. Once we got in the hostel a young Scottish guy was running it. I remember we all went to a ristorante for dinner and got a small pizza for 5 euro. No more buying restaurant pizza for me again (2 frozen pizzas cost 2 euro from the supermarket). All I remember is watching a soccer game that night and taking a much-needed shower. Also seeing a hostel for the first time with all the beds in one room is trippy for sure. With the whole 9 hours ahead thing I slept and woke up at weird times that day in the hostel, but i dont really remember. We were all tired. At first Rome kept looking like a facade from a movie scene because it kinda looks like little Europe from the Universal Studios tram tours.

From the hostel we had to take a taxi to the ACCENT study center (where my school is) to do an official check-in. And then from there we went back to the hostel to get our luggage and go to our apartment Residence Candia. It turns out that the hostel on Ottaviano is 1 min away from Candia, so I didn't need to take a taxi with my light luggage but the girls who of course brought more luggage did. We got our room assignments in Candia and it said I have a single even though I signed up for a double/triple. One of my roommates was a friend I traveled with on the airplane from UCSD. We moved our stuff in the apartment (which is the smallest in Candia) and met a bunch of people. We met our third and final roommate soon after that also. Since the apartment is so small my "single" didnt really exist and I "moved in" to the triple room (there's only 2 rooms in this apartment anyway). My "single" room was the couch in the kitchen. But since I signed up for a double/triple I pay that price no matter what. We complained for them to move us, especially after seeing how much bigger the other apartments are, but they gave us the runaround (which they're still doing). Then me, Eric, and Zach met some girls in another apartment and along with some of our original UCSD travel group we all went out to lunch. In Rome there are little fountains that stream clean water 24/7. So naturally I didnt buy water but I just took a plastic cup and went outside and filled it with water. I haven't bought bottled water this whole trip. Every place to eat only has Italian food (read: pizza or pasta) and we soon found that out. After getting a pizza thats wrapped in paper we decided to go sight-seeing. From what I remember some girl handing out fliers who spoke enlish showed us that the stairs going down under the street was the metro entrance for Ottaviano stop, and we took that to the Trevi fountain. The metro costs 1 euro and makes an X across Rome, so its useful to go to major locations. Then from what I remember we all went to the Trevi Fountian, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and from there we got kinda lost but eventually walked back to Candia 4 hours after we started. Of course we all got sweaty and gross, which is the standard M.O. for anyone in the summer. I followed the tradition of throwing a coin in the Trevi Fountain meaning that I would come back to Rome. It turns out you're supposed to toss it over your head, which I didn't do. Oh well. La Fontana di Trevi also has a drinking fountain. I drank from that and the water like all fountains in Rome is cold and refreshing, especially in the heat. Since this is taking a long time (this is only the first 2 days) I have to continue this later. But thats all I remember from that day. Of course I didn't think to bring my camera but it was a fun day. I actually haven't been back to those places since, and it just turned Sept 4th now. To be continued...