arrival in Roma

after many, many hours of travel, yesterday i finally arrived here in Rome. i still don't think that i quite realize everything that's going on.

my travels were mostly uneventful. had a 7 hour layover in Philly. managed to get some sleep on the plane, despite the man one row ahead of me who was convinced that the only way he could get through the flight was to go to sleep and that the only way he could get to sleep was by constantly pestering the stewardess for alcohol. being drunk only made him loud, not sleepy, and once as he stumbled down the aisle he somehow planted his hand right in my face, which gave me quite the shock seeing as i was sound asleep.

upon arrival in Rome things went very smoothly. customs was essentially nonexistant. one guy looked at my passport, two guys in one kind of uniform and two in a different kind of uniform looked at me as i walked by with my luggage. no one spoke to me, in Italian or English. Meg (who was on my flight) and I got a cab and arrived at the Centro gate with no trouble.

i was shown to my cell, which is the size of an ordinary single room but with two beds and one desk. it will suffice, i don't plan on spending too much time here. after meeting several people who had arrived before me, we went out to get some lunch, since meals aren't provided on weekends. seeing as many of us were jet lagged and still used to American culture, we forgot that everything here is closed on Sunday. luckily we did manage to find a pizzeria that was open and we grabbed a slice. we went up to the Villa Pamphili, a huge park that's just a block from the Centro, ate there and wandered around. we returned to the Centro mid-afternoon and met other people as they trickled in. in the evening i managed to go with the wrong group of people and wound up only taking a walk, not going to dinner. i also discovered on that walk that dog crap is everywhere in Rome. i made this discovery while wearing my new shoes. back at the Centro i turned on the late NFL playoff game and dozed off in the second quarter, so i went to bed. i hear carolina won.

today was an orientation type day. we got a syllabus rundown of the city course and general rules and regulations. then we took a walk around the Villa Pamphili and the rest of the Monte Verde neighborhood where the Centro is located. whenever one of the professors said "so do you know where you are now?" my answer to myself was invariably "no i have a terrible sense of direction." i'll have the general hang of the area in a few more days tho.

i'm sure i'm missing important stories so in the future i'm going to try to post things as soon as i think of it. if anyone wants to know more about anything, hit up the comments.