Hello family and friends!
I am hoping to use this blog to document some of my experiences abroad this year as a way to stay in touch and keep everyone updated. I am going to be in Rome for the fall semester and Bejing for the spring semester this year, so hopefully I will have lots of stories to tell by the end of it all!
Today marks my first official whole day in Rome, and I already feel like I have a lot to tell! I flew in Wednesday on a group flight which took about 10 hours. The trip having been only my second time on a plane (and my first long international flight), I found the experience to be very novel, if a little long. I was a little sad because I didn't get a window seat, and was instead sitting right in the middle of the plane, so it was hard to see out, which was too bad since I was looking forward to the view. (I did get a quick glance of the Alps at one point though, which was pretty exciting.) We had a three hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany, so I can technically say I was in another country, even though I'm not sure that counts! We finally got to the campus around the afternoon and they have been keeping us busy with orientation activities ever since.
Loyola's John Felice Rome Center where I am staying is lovely, though it's pretty old - I believe it used to be a convent and was converted sometime in the 1960s. The neighborhood we are in, Monte Mario, is also lovely and charmingly Italian. I've done a little exploring already, and hope to know my way around by the end of the semester!
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| The view from my window. |
Today, after our orientation activities we had a very nice convocation dinner out on the courtyard, complete with some really authentic Italian food and champagne! Afterwards, the school facilitated a scavenger hunt of the city - we had a list of places to see and things to take pictures of in Rome. The list consisted of mainly the big landmarks, such as St. Peter's Square, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, etc; we had two hours with which to complete the scavenger hunt, so I basically did speed sight-seeing with a group of people. While I wish I had had more time to spend at each landmark, it was honestly surreal to see so many amazing sights in one night. It's just a taste of what's to come, I guess! The best part is, most of these places were no more than a 20 minute bus ride away from the campus.
I'll have some cute group pictures to share when I get them from my
friend, but for now here are some of the things I saw (try not to be too
jealous!):
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| St. Peter's Square |
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| My first gelato! I especially loved the dark chocolate! |
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| Trevi Fountain |
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| The Tiber River - Il Tevere in Italian |
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| Castel Sant'Angelo |
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| The Pantheon |
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| Colosseum! |
I'm still getting over the jet lag a bit and getting used to the time change, so now I plan to do a lot of sleeping!
