More Exciting News....

This week has been pretty good so far.  I was assigned two papers this week.  One of them is for my History of Modern Europe class.  It is due in two weeks and I have to write about how Marie Antoinette’s lifestyle while she was Queen of France reflected the ideals of the French monarchy that lead to the French Revolution.  That should be a fun one!  The other paper that I have to write is for my History of the Catholic Church class.  It is due right before Thanksgiving, so I have some time, and I have to write about the Second Vatican Council and if it had a positive or negative impact on the Catholic Church we have today.  As you can tell, with traveling and schoolwork, I am very busy.  It is getting hectic here in Rome, but I am making sure to still have fun.

My roommate Cuyler has been joining me for dinner every night now at Casey and Bliss’s apartment.  We have been having some really good food – all thanks to Bliss!  Yesterday, we had Taco Tuesday night and it was so good!  We all needed a little taste of home, so we decided to do Taco Tuesday Roma style!  It obviously wasn’t the same as the USA, but we still had a great time.  Then, last night we continued the fun by all going to Scholar’s Irish pub for karaoke night!  We had a blast, but didn’t get home until early in the morning.  It was not that fun waking up this morning for my Ancient Rome and Its Monuments class, but my roommate Cuyler had to come with me, so we ended up sharing in each other’s pain! 

Now for the other bit of exciting news that I have to tell you all.  Next week, Casey and I have a friend, Laura, from St. Norbert who is coming to visit us in Rome for the week.  She is studying in Cairo, Egypt for the semester.  Casey and Laura are both in the sorority Kappa Beta Gamma, so I know them both very well.  While Laura is here, Casey, Bliss, Laura, and I get to go to the Vatican next Wednesday morning and have an audience with His Holiness!  I GET TO MEET THE POPE!!!!!!!  I am soooo excited!!!!  I cannot wait!  We have to dress up nice and obviously it’s going to be an awesome experience!  We might even get something blessed or get to take a picture! 

Laura’s Grandma knows a priest who works at the Vatican that got us the hook up.  We are so excited and cannot wait to have this opportunity!  I will be sure to blog about it later that day!

This coming weekend, I am just chilling in Rome while all of my friends are going to be gone.  Cuyler and Peter are going to the Amalfi Coast with SAI and Casey and Bliss are going to Sicily with SAI.  I will be writing my papers and exploring Rome on my own.  Without Bliss here, that means I have to cook for myself!  Oh no!  Should be an interesting weekend!   

A Weekend in Italy's Amalfi Coast

This weekend began very early.  We had to be up and over in Piazza Trilussa by 6:45 AM.  Six of us from the apartment were going on the Amalfi Coast trip, and the other two roommates were traveling elsewhere, so everyone was up early.  I left that apartment to meet Casey, Bliss, Breonna, and Kristen at 6:15.  I got a cappuccino and a donut before we hopped on the tram to get to the Piazza for the bus.  It was still dark out, and pretty cold for a September morning in Rome.  Needless to say, the tram was empty, so we made it to the bus in plenty of time.  The bus left the piazza at 6:50 AM and before the tour guide had even gotten through the itinerary for the trip, Bliss was already getting car sick in the seat in front of me.  Bliss went up and sat by the driver at that point because as long as she can see out the window, she is fine.  The bus ride to Naples took about 2 hours and went pretty smoothly.  We were warned that the port of Naples is not the safest place in the world and that there are a lot of gypsies around so we needed to watch our luggage carefully.  We stood around for about half an hour in the port waiting for the ferry, and then took a 40 minute ferry ride to the island of Capri.  Bliss and Tynisha sat on the open air top of the ferry while Casey and I opted to sit below in the enclosed space.

The ferry ride was not bad and went smoothly.  Bliss does just fine on water, but doesn't do too well in cars.  As we were pulling up to Capri, we could tell that there were storms rolling in.  The rain started coming as we got to Capri around 12 noon.  We were supposed to go directly onto a boat tour of the island and then take a boat into the Blue Grotto, but because of the bad weather, our plans changed.  Instead, we waited for the public buses to take us up to our hotel.  There was a problem here.  With about 55 people needing to get to a hotel, and public buses that are as small as cereal boxes that run every 45 minutes, there was a lot of standing around at the bus stop.  Finally after waiting for about one hour, we all decided just to take cabs to our hotel.  Our hotel was in Anacapri - the more neighborhood area of the town.  The cab drivers are CRAZY and fly down very narrow streets at ridiculous speeds.  The roads are just on the hillside, and give you the feeling like you are going to plunge to your death at any moment.  The streets are just wide enough to fit two cars, and when two cars need to pass one another, the drivers slow down only a tiny bit.  Basically, I could never drive in Capri and had to check my pants after riding in that cab.  We got to the hotel and waited to get checked in.  I was sent along with 10 other students to a villa hotel down the street because the other hotel was full.  Our villa was run by a sweet couple who spoke broken English.  Their villa was very nice and we could see the Mediterranean Sea from our back door.  It was amazing!  After we all got checked in, we went and got lunch.  We got a choice of pizza or pasta, so I of course chose pizza.  We had some amazing ice cream for dessert too.  Casey complained a lot about being tired and gave me her ice cream to eat.  I didn't object!  After lunch we were taken to this shop in town that makes sandals for women.  The girls in the group got to get custom made sandals for only 50 Euro a pair, so the shop was packed.  It was neat to watch how the sandals were made and see the nice work of the craftswoman.  After that we all got to try some Limoncello, a type of "digestivo" served in Italy.  Limoncello is a very strong lemon flavored liqueur served in restaurants and sold in stores that people drink after a meal to help with digestion.  I bought a little bottle of it for Mom, Dad, and Lauren to try when I come home!  Wooo hoo!!!!  Capri and Sorento, Italy are known for their Limoncello, so it was sold everywhere we went this past weekend!  When we got free time to walk around the city, Casey, Bliss, and I walked around to see what the town was like.  We saw a lot of neat shops and stores and bought some interesting gifts.  We were all pretty tired, so before dinner we went back and took a little nap in the hotel.  At 7:30 PM, the whole group met for dinner at the hotel.  We walked to this restaurant down the street and were served a multi-course Italian meal.  We were served Bruschetta, Calamari, Seafood Risotto and Pasta, Beef with Potatoes, and Creampuff desert with red and white wines.  It was an amazing dinner, and took a long time to eat.  We left the restaurant around 11:00 PM to find it pouring rain outside.  Since it was raining, most of us just decided to go to bed.  A couple brave souls ventured into town to check it out, but returned home cold and wet early in the morning while I was warm and comfortable in my bed.

Saturday, I woke up to rain.  I walked over to the main hotel to get some breakfast with Casey and Bliss.  The manager told me that I needed to eat at my villa, which is opposite of what I was told.  So, I went back to my villa to see the sweet Italian couple bringing out breakfast cakes, scones, coffee, juices, and bread for us to eat.  It was such a nice breakfast right on the edge of the sea.  What a way to start the day!

After breakfast, we were told that our plans changed again.  We were originally supposed to do the Blue Grotto tour from the day before, but the water was too rough, so that got scrapped.  Instead, we walked up to the main center of Anacapri - a ten minute walk UPHILL from the hotels - to catch the bus into Capri.  We walked around Capri in the pouring rain huddled under umbrellas and saw some of the shops.  We also went to this lookout to see rocks sticking out of the water from the cliffs.  It was amazing to see, and I took tons of pictures.  We then got some free time to walk around the shops of Capri and explore the town.  It was hard to do in the pouring rain, but I managed to buy some gifts while Casey, Bliss, and Tynisha walked with me.  The rain got kind of bad and we decided to take cover in a cafe.  We ordered some pastries, and I got a cappuccino.  A cappuccino and pastry in Rome would cost me under 2 Euro.  These cost me 7 Euro because we sat in the cafe (which threw in a "sitting fee") and since Capri is filled with tourists, EVERYTHING is overpriced right off the bat.  Around noon, we took the tram down the hill to the port of Capri and took this massive ferry over to the mainland to Sorento.  Once we got to Sorento, we walked up the hill and saw the sights of the town.  We got the afternoon to ourselves to walk around the town and go to lunch.  We had lunch at a restaurant that looked cheap, but ended up costing us alot of money.  We forgot to look at the service charge before we sat down, so we each got charged 4 Euro to sit at the restaurant.  The wait staff also was very rude to us because we were Americans.  We noticed that they were being snooty to all of the American tables and spending all of their time at the locals tables.  It was kind of annoying, but we got over it.  After lunch Casey, Bliss, Tynisha, and I walked around town to explore.  We saw a bunch of shops and I saw a really neat church dedicated to the Blessed Mother.  I took a bunch of pictures inside the church too.  A did a little bit of damage to my credit card with my purchases is Sorento, but I figured it was fine since I was in Italy....Haha!

Around 5:00 PM we waited for our ferry back to Capri.  This time it was a smaller boat, and it ended up being only half full.  Bliss and Tynisha sat up top while Casey and I sat down below.  We had a really rough ride going back.  Our ferry was going against the waves and it was really really rough on the water.  It felt like we were in a toy boat just being thrown around.  The crew was handing out "sicka bags" to people who looked nauseous and just told us to hang on.  It was rough, but I took some neat videos on my camera of me and Casey freaking out on the boat!  When we got back from Sorento, everyone was exhausted.  A bunch of us tried waiting in line to get the buss, but the bus never came after being in line for 45 minutes, so we caved and took a taxi.  Another horrible taxi ride under my belt, I really didn't need another.  Once we got back to the hotel, Bliss, Tynisha, and I hiked up to town to get some wine for the evening while Casey slept off a migraine.  We got lost in the tiny residential roads of Anacapri, and were starving by the time we got back.  So, we got Casey up and hiked back up the hill into town to get some dinner.  We ate at this amazing restaurant, and I got the best tomato and mozzarella salad I have ever tasted!  It was a great way to end my day!  After we left the restaurant around 11:00, we all decided to go to bed because we had a big day a head of us and were all wiped.

Sunday, I woke up to find that our bathroom door had been jammed shut, so I couldn't use the bathroom.  One of my dumb roommates at the hotel slammed the door in the middle of the night and ended up jamming it.  The old Italian man thought it was funny, and didn't really mind.  He just kept saying "I fix. No problem!"  Haha!  After another amazing breakfast, I said a nice "Grazie mile!  Ciao!"  To the old couple and left the villa to go to the place where our shuttle was going to pick us up.  We got down to the port of Capri around 11:00 AM and we informed that our 11:35 ferry to Naples had been cancelled due to high waves.  So, our plans changed again, and we had to take the 12:20 PM ferry to Sorento and have our coach bus meet us there.  We got time to eat a snack in Capri and walk around one last time.  We got on the massive ferry to Sorento and waited for our bus.  There is a family who runs the bus company in Sorento, and since the bus company we were using wasn't theirs, they wouldn't allow our bus to come to the port to pick us up.  So, we had to hike uphill with our luggage for about 30 minutes to get to our bus.  Our tour guide was not pleased, but it was quite the adventure.  We had to go up these steep steps on the side of the hill and it definitely gave us all a workout!  Once on the bus, we drove to Pompeii and had some lunch at a local restaurant.  The wine they served us was amazing and a had a healthy serving of that after the long day we had had so far!  Pompeii was amazing, and we got to see really neat stuff.  Since the city was basically preserved by the volcanic ash, there was a lot of frescos on the wall and casts of people who died from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  I took a ton of pictures and loved ever minute of it!  We even got to see the brothels from the old time of Pompeii and got to walk inside!  All of us ended up walking through Pompeii because the workers who lead hiking tours up Mount Vesuvius were on strike yesterday, so that was no longer an option.  We left Pompeii at 6:00 PM and headed north to the mozzarella factory.  Once we got there, we got to see how mozzarella cheese was made and got to try some fresh mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, and some other cheeses.  It was really nice, but we only stayed for about 45 minutes since we were behind schedule from earlier in the day.  The drive back to Rome was nice, but long.  We finally got back around 10:30 PM and ran to the tram stop.  We waited for about 10 minutes for the tram and then took a bus.  The bus stop was past our apartment, but we didn't care.  We just didn't want to walk the whole way back with our luggage.  We also realized that the reason why the trams weren't running was because a taxi hit someone outside our apartment, so it was blocking the tram tracks.  Welcome back to Roma!  I Skyped with Mom, Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa Fischer when I got back and then went to bed.  I was so wiped from the weekend.  Although we had a lot of bad luck this weekend, and out itinerary was completely useless, I saw a lot of neat stuff and took tons of pictures!  It was nice to see another piece of Italy!

Exciting News!!

Yesterday, Wednesday, was a long day.  This is my only early day for classes during the week.  I have to be to my on-site Ancient Rome and Its Monuments class by 9:30 AM.  I am in the class with two of my roommates, Christian and Cuyler, so that makes it easier to get up since I have people to share in the pain with.   Since the class is on-site in Rome, we meet all over the city, so we usually have to leave the apartment by 8:30 AM to deal with the morning rush of Italians going to work on public transportation.  This week, our class met at the Roman Forum.  We saw some amazing ruins, such as the Temple of Saturn, the Temple of Vesta, and my favorite, the Basilica Aemilia.  I had to give an oral report on the Basilica Aemilia yesterday in class, and it went very well.  My professor is very laid back, and said I did a great job on my presentation.  After class I got lost for about 45 minutes across the river looking for a print shop that I needed to go to to pick up a study packet for my Abnormal Psychology class.  I was getting so frustrated, and I even talked to three police officers or "Polizia Municipale" in Italian and asked them how to get there.  I kind of got what they said to me in Italian, and I eventually found the place.  I also had my History of Modern Europe class Wednesday afternoon and then my day was done.  Casey and I attempted to ride the tram back together, but something went wrong.  We still aren't sure what.  All of us piled on the tram and were waiting for it to leave the platform.  All of the sudden, a bunch of Italians started yelling, and everyone piled off of the tram and people started walking, so Casey and I followed.  We were one block down the street when we saw the same half-full tram drive by us.  Ugh!  Wednesday night Bliss made Chicken and Fettucini Alfredo for dinner and it was so good!  My roommates Cuyler and Peter joined us for dinner, as did Casey and Bliss's roommates, Kristen and Bryonna.  We had a great time and downed two bottles of red wine!  We laughed so much and I don't think I've ever had that much fun!  Afterwards, we all decided to go out, except for Bliss and Bryonna - they had "homework" to do.  So, Peter, Casey, Kristen, Cuyler, and I all went out for drinks at Scholars. We had a blast.  I met this drunk Irish lady at the bar.  Her name was Helen.  She was in Rome on "holiday", she owns a taxi cab service at home, and she has been divorced for 15 years.  We are new best friends.  She was crazy!  But it was a great time!  Casey, Cuyler, and I took a cab home since the trams stopped running at midnight during the week, and we are pretty sure the cab driver ripped us off.  Oh well, at least we got home!

Thursday was a normal day.  Class as usual all day.  I had my first Italian quiz today, and I think I did pretty well.  I'm learning a lot of things and I'm able to talk more with people.  I feel like I'm actually becoming a local.  Cuyler gave me a buzz cut with the trimmers I brought from the USA with me before dinner.  My hair is really short now, and it feels weird!  Cuyler and I are pretty sure we friend the clippers though.  He was buzzing my hair when all of the clippers got really hot and started smoking in his hand.  We threw it out on the balcony and let it fry out there.  It eventually cooled off, but we are afraid to use them now!  Luckily he had some of his own clippers and was able to finish me hair.  Good times with the roommates!  After that, Cuyler and I went over to Casey and Bliss's apartment for dinner with them and their roommates.  Bliss made sausage and potatoes.  She is such a great cook!  After dinner, we went back to our apartment and I packed to go to the Amalfi Coast this weekend with SAI.  I will write about my adventures when we come back Sunday night.  I'm so excited for this trip.  We leave at 6:45 AM sharp tomorrow!

Last bit of information: the EXCITING NEWS!!!

My dad is coming to visit me here in Rome in about a month!  He will be here in Roma with me from October 21-25!  I am so excited to have someone here to share Roma with and let him see how I have been living for the past couple of weeks!  I cannot wait to have him here!  

Also, my friend John pulled some strings at his school and got two tickets for my dad and me to go under St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on the Scavi Tour to see the Necropolis and the Tomb of St. Peter.  I tried to get them myself, but was told the tours were full for when my dad was going to be here. I told John about it, and he used his seminarian magic and got us two tickets!  I love having John in Rome with me!  He is such an awesome friend!  

Thats all for now!  I'll write when I return from the Amalfi Coast!

Meeting Up With Friends....

Yesterday, Monday, was a pretty easy day.  I woke up and took it easy in the apartment for a while.  After I had lunch in the apartment, I went to school to work on some homework.  Mondays are pretty easy for me.  I only have one class in the afternoon from 3:45-5:00 and it's History of Modern Europe. It's definitely a nice schedule to transition into a new week!  I got a lot of homework done and then went to class.

After class was over, I Skyped with my buddy Eric Wagner from St. Norbert.  It was nice to catch up and hear all of the on-goings from the De Pere home base!

Then, around 7:15 last night, I met my good friend, John Gibson - a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, for dinner.  He has been living in Rome since July of 2009, so his Italian is molto bene!  We met at Piazza del Santa Maria in Trastevere.  It is a beautiful old piazza with a Church called Santa Maria in Trastevere.  The neighborhood that I live in is called Trastevere, and Santa Maria is the oldest church in Rome.  We went to a little restaurant that John knew of and we had a great dinner.  We each ordered Bruschetta and then I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara.  It was excellent along with the red wine we had!  It was great to catch up and hang out, and we were at the restaurant for about two hours - not uncommon for us Italian locals!  Haha!  John had to get going to go and finish his practice homily that was due today, so we decided that we were going to get together a bunch more before I left.  John will most likely be ordained in about 3 years or so.

After dinner, I went back to my apartment and got some gelato with Casey, Bliss, and their roommates.  The gelato place by our apartments is so good.  The gelato costs 1 Euro and the owner is so nice!  His name is Salvadore and always tries to talk to us in Italian.  He always smiles and says "Buonna Sera!" when we walk in.  He is such a great guy, and has such good gelato!

After I got some gelato, I had a Skype date with my parents!  We talked for about an hour and then it was time for bed!  I love catching up with them twice a week when we Skype.  It's nice to see them and stay in the loop about the activities back at home.

Today, Tuesday, was a regular day.  I got up and had a cappuccino at a "Bar" down the street from my apartment on the way to school this morning.  My first class was at noon today.  Classes went well.  I have a quiz in Italian on Thursday, and a presentation in my Ancient Rome and Its Monuments class tomorrow on the Basilica Aemilia in the Ancient Roman Forum.  It should all go well, I'm not too worried!  I better get back to doing some homework before I get to bed.  Take care all!  Miss you and love you all!

A Sunday at the Colosseum....

Yesterday, Sunday, was a great day here in Roma!  The sun was shining, it wasn't too hot, and the market was booming!  I started out my day by going to early Mass (well, early for me, Mom and Dad!) at 9:00 AM.  I will probably never go to that Mass again because they didn't sing as much as at 10:30 AM Mass, and they didn't sing the Gloria, they said it.  That is my favorite part of the Mass, and they skipped it.  Oh well, there is always next week.  After Mass, Bliss, Tynisha, and I went to the market while Casey slept in. There were the usual vendors, but the market never gets old.  You always find new things to buy too!  After the market, Casey finally got out of bed and her, Bliss, and I went to grab some pizza to go for lunch and then we took the tram and buses to the Colosseum!

Casey, Bliss, and Me at the Colosseum

It was such an amazing sight to see!  The size of the structure and the obvious care and planning that went into the building of it was awesome to see!  There were tons of people there, so we decided that we had better look for the ticket line.  Luckily we ran into this tour guide who told us about this deal that if we paid 8 Euros on top of the 12 Euro entrance fee, we would get a guided tour of the Colosseum, Capitoline Hill, and the Roman Forum that day.  We said we do it and paid 20 Euros each!  Best 20 Euros I have ever spent in my life!  The tour guide in the Colosseum was a little hard to understand, and didn't stay with us very long.  The three of us felt a little ripped off, but we have fun exploring on our own and taking a bunch of pictures!


We had a blast walking around and looking for new photo opportunities.  Casey kept making fun of me for trying to take some "artsy" pictures.  I took a bunch of them because you can do so much with your camera and with the rock of the Colosseum.  Here are some of my favorite pictures that I took:

"The Stories Etched Into the Stone"

"The Stones Tell the Stories"

I really enjoyed taking those fun pictures, so Casey can make fun of me all she wants!

And of course, as I promised my fellow Doves who work at Krause back at home, I would try and take pictures of my Krause mug in front of famous places, so here you go guys:

Krause Funeral Home goes to the Colosseum!!

After our tour of the Colosseum, we found a gift shop so of course I had to go inside and buy something!  I bought a professional picture of the Colosseum that I want to frame when I get home.  I looks so pretty!  Around 4:15 in the afternoon, we met our new tour guide, Alex, outside the Colosseum to take us to the Forum.  He handed us off to this tour guide name Felicity, or Fee, because he "wasn't feeling well" (we think he had a hot date to go on because he looked healthy to us!)  Anyway, Fee was an AWESOME tour guide.  She was very energetic, very informative, and had an awesome British accent!  I loved her.  She used to be a History teacher.  I wish I had her as my teacher.  I would never skip class!  (Not that I do....)  

Anyway, the Capitoline Hill is where Rome was founded and where the rich and famous people of ancient Rome used to live.  The ruins of their palaces are up on the hill, along with the newest addition of buildings - Mussolini's summer palace.  It is now a museum where people can go to look at ancient sculptures.  We went into the museum to check out the sculptures, and they were very interesting.  Casey wanted to go in so we could tell people that we were in Mussolini's summer palace.  Take that Mussolini!  

The tour of the Forum was conducted from the top of the hill.  We could see basically all of Rome from up there and Fee pointed the buildings out to us.  I am going to go into the Forum for my classes soon, so I will see the rest of it later.  We could see St. Peter's Basilica from the top of the hill - of course, ruling Rome's skyline!  It was an amazing day!  

Casey and I were getting hungry and we saw some dark clouds coming, so we decided to go back to the apartment.  Before we got to the bus stop, the rain started coming down!  It was pouring in Rome, and people went running for cover!  The trams and buses were packed!  In our panic to find a bus, we got on the correct bus line, just going the wrong way, so we rode around town, in the wrong direction for about an hour.  By the time we got back to our tram stop, we were tired, fed up, and starving!  The positive side of the situation, which I always try to find, is that we got out of the rain.  Casey had a hard time seeing the positive side of the situation.  Haha!  We were going to make dinner, but we were so tired, so we went to our favorite pizzeria around the corner from our apartments.  The woman is so nice and always smiles and blows us kisses when we come in.  She always tries to make us order something new, and usually is very convincing, so she succeeds in her quest with us!  Casey, Bliss, and I had an awesome dinner and then went to get some gelato down the street from our apartments.  It only costs 1 Euro and is AMAZING!  After enjoying my gelatoAmalfi Coast of Italy with SAI.  Should be a fantastic week!!

The New Experiences Never Stop....

Thursday was a big day at John Cabot University.  All of the study abroad students had to finish the process for the "Permesso di Soggiorno" or Permit to Stay.  I had to go through the line and allow PosteItaliane or post office employees look over my passport and application so they can keep track of me while I'm here.  I was issued a small piece of paper that I have to carry with me when I travel stating that the Italian government has given me permission to study in their country for the allotted time on my passport.  I basically had to sign my life away saying that I wouldn't become a ward of the state if I ran out of money, and Mom and Dad had to do paperwork before I left saying that they would support me and not abandon me if I did something wrong or ran out of money.  Oh the comfort of studying abroad!

This is a fresco from the church wall of St. Peter and Jesus

Thursday was classes as usual, and I was on campus from 12:00 noon until 6:30 PM.  The highlight of my week thus far was the field trip that Father Phil took my History of the Catholic Church class on during class on Thursday.  We took a small bus across the river close to the Ancient Roman Forum.  We got out and were right near an attraction newly opened to the public - Carcere Mamertino - the prison where St. Peter was held before he was crucified in Rome!  My professor has a friend who runs the newly opened prison, so we were allowed to go there during class.  The story is that St. Peter was held in the prison in this tiny cell.  There was only a hole to get into the cell at the time he was in it.  Shortly after being taken out of the prison, he was crucified upside down on a cross in Rome because he felt that he was not worthy enough to die the same way as his teacher and friend, Jesus Christ.  We got a tour of the cell and of the small church directly above the cell.  Faithful Christians in the early centuries made the area directly above the prison cell into a church and appropriately called it the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul.  Today, there is a larger church built on top of the church of St. Peter and Paul called the Church of St. Joseph the Worker.  Basically, the Church of St. Peter and Paul is in the basement and the jail cell is underneath that.  We didn't get a chance to see the Church of St. Joseph the Worker, but we did get to see the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul.  There are amazing frescos on the wall, and a beautiful altar with a golden cross.  The church fits maybe 20-30 people, but it was such an amazing experience!  Being in the prison where St. Peter was held before his death was an awesome feeling.  It was surreal to try and comprehend the fact that the rock of the Catholic Church, St. Peter, once stood where I was standing.  The pictures I took turned out great too!  


Friday was a make-up day for classes at JCU and we had a Thursday class schedule since it was the make-up day for Thursday, November 25.  My day started out by being 15 minutes late to class because something was wrong with the tram on our block and it wasn't running on schedule.  All of the Italians were yelling on the platform, and one elderly lady in high heels walked by me and I'm pretty sure I caught her mumbling something about having to walk in her good shoes to the store and then some bad Italian word I don't know.  What a way to start out the day!  The rest of the day continued as usual, and classes went until 6:30 PM for me.  I did go with some of my friends to the T-Bone American Steakhouse for lunch.  It is this restaurant where we like to go near campus with meal deals for JCU students and it is also nice to get a little taste of home.  They have typical American burgers, chicken fingers, french fries, anything you want!  It was such a good lunch!  After classes ended, Casey, Bliss, their roommate Kristin, and I went to a pizzeria over by school and got some dinner around 9:30 PM.  We got some pizzas with spicy salami on them and some bruschetta with tomatoes, and basil!  It was so yummy!  And of course, we had two pitchers of the white house wine or vino bianco.  It was so good and sweet too!  We sat around for a while and took our time, like all of the local Italians do at restaurants for dinner.  It is not uncommon for Italian families to sit for hours in restaurants.  It's so much fun being a local!  After dinner, we decided to go out for some drinks to our favorite bar - Scholar's Lounge and Irish Pub!  It was great, and we had a blast! Casey, Bliss, Tynisha, and I went their met some of our friends and my roommates for the evening!  They play 90s music, and the music selection was fantastic last night!  Bliss drank her first Peroni and I had my first Guinness beer!  Soooo good!!!


Today is Saturday, and it is pretty gloomy and rainy in Roma.  We decided today would be a lazy day and a day to catch up on homework.  Bliss, Casey, and I had some breakfast and then went to the bookstore in town so I could get the last of my textbooks and Bliss could get some cookbooks to spice up our meals over here!  We have been doing homework this afternoon and went to the market to get some food.  I called home around 5:00 PM my time from my Google Email phone and talked to Grandma Kasprzak, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Rosie Hoffman.  It was nice to hear voices of the family, and it was nice to catch up for a bit.  Tonight, Casey, Bliss, and I are going to try and make this pasta creating that Bliss found a recipe for in here new cookbook, and then just hang out tonight and take it easy.  A bunch of my roommates left this weekend.  Culyer went to the opening weekend of Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany and some of the other guys planned a day hike somewhere.  Tomorrow, we are planning to hit up the Colosseum and some of the other tourist spots across the river!  I'm having a blast!  Amo Roma!  Miss you all! 

Learning All Around....

This week has been going well so far.  I have been feeling really great lately, and have been having a lot of fun with my roommates and Casey and Bliss.  

My classes are getting really interesting.  Today, in my Ancient Rome and Its Monuments class, we had to meet at the obelisk in Piazza del Popolo at 9:30 AM so my roommates, Christian, Cuyler, and I had to leave the apartment at 8:40 AM.  Waaaayyy too early!!!  When the whole class met at the Piazza, from 9:30-12:15 PM we walked around this museum in town that had ancient artifacts from the Etruscan people who lived near the present day city limits of Rome in the early centuries BC.  WE learned a lot about how they lived and what kind of crafts they made.  We saw a lot of carvings, clay figures, and learned a lot about their funeral rituals (which I was all about!) because they taught us alot about their everyday lives, their houses, and positions in their civilization.  It was very neat, but we unfortunately could not take and pictures.  

My History of Modern Europe class just finished covering the Fall of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as the royal family in France and we are moving on to the Napoleonic Era.  My professor just stands their and lectures the whole time as we feverishly write what she is saying, but she is young, and cute, with a sassy Scottish accent, so it makes the class worth it.  My History of the Catholic Church class is by far my favorite course of all.  It is taught my a priest who teaches at a Catholic University in Rome.  He is very energetic and is very funny.  He is very open minded and makes us all want to participate.  He has taught me so much already, and we have only had the class three times.  Tomorrow, we are going on a bus tour to the prison where St. Peter was taken before he was put to death.  That should be so amazing to see!

On the way home from school today, I decided to walk instead of take the tram.  It was nice, and I figured the exercise wouldn't hurt.  On the way, I stopped for some dark chocolate and chocolate chip gelato, so that kind of cancelled out my walk, but it was still a nice treat.  I also did a lot of observing on my way home from school today.  I realized that I miss so much when I take the tram home instead of walk.  In Italy, people park EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE that they can.  They will park on the sidewalks, in front of cross walks, in front of other cars, etc.  There was a woman who came out of a store and noticed that she had been parked in.  He car was parked perpendicular to the flow of traffic.  Another car parked right in front of hers and parked her in.  The woman proceeded to stand at her car and honk the horn until the person came out to move their car so she could leave.  Then, I was crossing the street on the way home, and I clearly had the walk sign in my favor.  Well, that doesn't matter for Italian drivers!  They'll just run you right over and if they need to break for you, they will honk their horn until you move quicker - even though you have the right of way!  Another thing that I noticed today is how messy Italian roads are.  There are no lane lines!  They have European round-abouts in the city that are about 8 lanes wide without ANY lane lines!  I think going through De Pere, WI - the land of round abouts- is difficult enough, let alone a huge one without lane lines!  Watching Italian drivers is VERY entertaining and always makes my day.  

Before dinner tonight, I did some homework and went on Skype and talked with my really good friend Tom, from Rockford, IL.  It was great to catch up with him since I don't get to see him very often.  It was his lunch hour at his school, so since he had no students in the room, we had time to chat.  One thing that I told him that I want to share with all of you is that I would recommend this experience to anyone!  Once I got over the homesickness, and have taken on a love for Roma, it has bee nothing but amazing.  Sure, I have down times where I miss home a lot, but I knew that was going to come with being thousands of miles form home for this long.  I also told him that I do miss American culture very much because it is my comfort zone.  Here, I am completely out of my comfort zone, I only have one close friend from home with me, and I am still learning how to be a local.  Despite all of that, I told him that I was so thankful that I took this leap of faith and took advantage of this experience because I am living in a country that I am gaining a strong love for, I am living with people that I will have life long bonds with, and most importantly, I am learning so much about myself - and I have only been here for two weeks.  Time is beginning to fly, so I can't wait for the adventures to continue!  Thanks for all of your love and support!  Keep it coming, and I can't wait to be reunited with all of you!  

A Day of Random Thoughts....

So, today I had no class.  My only class of the day was cancelled, but not really because I have to make it up later this week.  Lame.

So, today was filled with a lot of "me" time.  I mostly sat around the apartment and relaxed.  I did some homework, and caught up with life at home.  I Skyped with my good friend, Drea, back at home in Sheboygan, and I also Skyped with Mark and Liz.  It was so good to see everyone and get some love from home!  

One thing I noticed today was that Rome is very dirty.  I guess I have known that since I got here, but I really realized it today.  There is garbage all over the place, and your shoes just get black from the streets.  Since I am a supporter of walking around barefoot in the house, I never wear socks.  I have had to wash my feet three times today and now once more before I got to bed because the apartment floor is so dirty.  I was like that when we got here and that's how it is in all of our friend's apartments too!  Crazy!

Also, tonight was the first night when I had to cook my own dinner.  Casey and Bliss were meeting a family friend for dinner, so I was on my own. So, today I went to the market and bought some pasta, butter, bread sticks, garlic, and iced tea for my meal tonight.  Around 8 PM I decided to make dinner.  The first problem was that I have to light our stove manually and the only thing we have to light it is a cigarette lighter.  Well, since I smoke SOOOOOOmany cigarettes, I knew exactly what to do.  I didn't want to blow the apartment up, so I asked one of my roommates to do it.  He got it lit, and I started making my pasta.  I tried to turn down the flame, but the knob was very touchy, so twice I put the flame out by accident and had to relight the stove.  Both times I'm burned my thumb using the lighter.  Not a good start to dinner.  The second problem that I had was that I bought ground garlic, not garlic salt.  So, I was expecting my garlic pasta to have a slight salty flavor, but it didn't.  My pasta was awful.  It was the worst dinner I've ever made.  Hopefully I won't have to make dinner on my own in a foreign country too many more times!  

It was definitely an interesting day filled with learning experiences!

A Weekend of Exploring Roma...

This morning, most of my roommates left really early in the morning to take the train to Venice for the weekend.  Casey, Bliss, and I decided to sleep in.  We met around noon at the tram stop along with Tynisha.  Tynisha had marked some spots on the map of Rome that were in the movie Angels and Demons.  We took the tram and the bus to the other side of the city and had lunch at a nice, but kind of expensive Italian restaurant.  It was right on the sidewalk in a more" touristy" part of the city, but it was a nice day out, so the prices didn't seem too bad.  I ordered a pizza and some white wine.  It was a pretty good meal.  After lunch we took the tram around the city and saw two spots from Angels and Demons: Piazza del Popolo with the church Santa Maria del Popolo in it and we also saw the church Santa Maria della Vittoria.  Inside the second church is the statue from the movie called "The Ecstasy of St. Theresa".  It was a very powerful statue to look at and I took tons of pictures because it was a beautiful church.  Along the way on the tram, we also stopped to see the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.  I got some chocolate chip gelato by the Trevi Fountain, and it was really really good and cheap!  We also walked around to a bunch of shops and bought a couple of things.  

After our day of adventures, we went to dinner at this restaurant over by campus around 9:00 PM.  I got another pizza for dinner and Casey, Bliss, and I shared a pitcher of white house wine which tasted so good!  My pizza had bacon on it, which was really good and had a kind of cheese which I can't remember and couldn't pronounce.  After dinner, we went back to my apartment and Casey, Tynisha, and I went out for drinks with two of my roommates - Peter and Cuyler. As we were getting on the tram outside our apartment, Casey got caught up in a crowd when all of the sudden a young Italian man popped up in her face a went "Raaarrr!"  She ran on to the tram yelling, "Tim, save me!"  It definitely made for a good laugh.  We made our way over to Campo De'Fiori and got some beers.  After a while, we made out way over to Scholar's Irish Pub in town to meet some of the other people from our building - Jeff, Jackie, and Sarah.  We had a bunch of fun at Scholar's and they play a lot of like 90s pop music in the bar so it's always a good time.  We all were signing, when all of the sudden, Cuyler and Peter asked Casey and Sarah to dance.  The four of them were dancing when all of the sudden the bartender made them stop because it is illegal in Italy to dance in bars.  You can only do that in disco-tecs.  Who knew???  A little bit later, I noticed this creepy Italian man staring at Casey, and he wasn't trying to hide it at all.  So, me being the sly dog that I am, made Casey hold my hand so he would stop creeping on her from the bar.  It worked!  Around 1:55 AM we all had to make a mad dash for the tram because the last one went back to our apartment at 2 AM.  Friday was an awesome night!  

Saturday consisted of sleeping in as well and doing more exploring of the city.  Casey, Bliss, Tynisha, and I had lunch in Campo De'Fiori and then walked around the market there.  The girls bought some things and then we took the tram back to the other side of town and walked around for a bit.  Soon, after lunch most of the shops close around here because everyone takes an afternoon break and then the shops re-open around 4 or 5 PM.  We decided to take a rest and go back to the apartment for a bit before heading to dinner and going out on the town again last night.  We decided that the four of us would make dinner last night, and Bliss made us Tortellini for dinner.  It was really good.  WE also bought some breadsticks, white wine, and Ringo for desert.  Ringo is almost like and Oreo with white cookies and chocolate frosting.  After dinner, we got ready to go out and ended up at Scholar's again.  We met a bunch of the people from our building and had a blast.  Bliss decided to come out with us, so Casey dressed her up, put some makeup on her, and she partied with us for the first time.  Bliss admits that she doesn't like to party, but she wanted to try it and ended up having a blast!  

This morning, I got up and went to morning Mass over at Santa Susanna.  It was very nice and I enjoyed it very much.  I didn't get lost on the buses all by myself, so that was a plus.  After Mass, Casey, Bliss, and I went to the open air market right behind our apartments.  The stuff there is so cheap so Casey and Bliss each bought some dresses and purses.  After the market ended around 2 PM, the three of us decided we would try the McDonald's by our apartment.  We got lucnh, but decided we would never go there again.  Foreign McDonald's just isn't the same, and it was really expensive.  Then, we went back to their apartment and booked all of our flights and hostels for our weekend travels:

Athens Greece (October 15-17)

Frankfurt, Germany (October 29-31)

Paris, France (November 12-14)

London, England (December 3-5)

Can't wait for the adventures to continue!  I'm Skyping with my parents and Lauren in about 10 minutes, and then I don't have class tomorrow.  My only class got cancelled, but I have to make it up later this week.  Oh well!  Hope you are all enjoying keeping up with my adventures!  Amo Roma!!    

Celebrating the First Week of Classes!

Yesterday, Thursday started out with a trip to the school book store.  It is called the Anglo American Bookstore, and is on the other side of the river from school way far away!  I got on the bus with Casey and Bliss and we followed the route that JCU gave us as directions.  We eventually made it to the bookstore, and realized that it opened at 10:30 AM not 10:00 AM like JCU told us.  Oh well, no big deal.  It gave us an excuse to go to a cafe and I got my first cappuccino in Italy!  It was so good!  It only cost me 1 Euro too!  

After we left the bookstore with most of our books (some of them were on back order) we got on bus number 53 because it said that it would stop at Argentina (the stop for the tram to go to school).  What the three of us didn't know was that we needed to look for Largo de Argentina, not just Argentina on the bus stop schedule.  Needless to say, 45 minutes and 25 stops later, we got to Argentina and ended up on the complete opposite side of Rome than we should have been on.  We were so lost and had no clue where we were!  We called the Study Abroad Italy office and told them our situation.  The nice ladies there figured out a bus route to get us back, so 2 buses, one hour, and 30 stops later we were back to school.  I ended up missing my Abnormal Psychology class, so I only had two classes yesterday instead of three.  Casey and I decided that the only way to recover from this horrific ordeal would be to go out for some beers tonight! My Italian class is going great, and I'm learning the basics about this awesome language!  I even  taught Mom, Dad, and Lauren a couple phrases when we Skyped the other evening!  My History of the Catholic Church class is AWESOME and I'm learning so much!  It's definitely my favorite class over here so far.  

When we all got read to go out for dinner, Casey, Bliss, and our friend Tynisha from Northern Kentucky University went to a small restaurant around the corner from our apartment.  The woman who owns it is very sweet, and very funny.  Last night, Casey, Bliss, and I all ordered cheese pizza and Tynisha ordered Lasagna.  The woman kind of rolled her eyes and smiled at us and then looked at Tynisha and said "Four Lasagna" and shook her hand and walked away.  10 minutes later, four steaming plates of AMAZING lasagna were brought to our table and the woman came back and asked us, "You like?" and we all said "Si! Grazie!"  It was one of the funniest dinners we have had, and it was a great way to try something new.  After we were done with dinner, it was time to gather the roomies and the rest of the ladies from the apartment and hit up Roma for the evening!  We ended up walking to another side of the town for like 25 minutes to go to this club.  It was kind of in a sketch area, so some of us weren't feeling it.  When we got this club, the bouncer saw that we were American and immediately told us to turn around and don't even think about coming back.  Wow!  Thanks and welcome to Italy!  So, that kind of shot our night in the foot because by the time we walked back to go to some other bars, we were all so tired no one wanted to go out anymore.  Hopefully Friday night will be more fun!  

The First Week of Classes...

Well, as I am writing this, I only have one more day of my first week of classes here in Roma, Italia.  My classes are very interesting, so this should be a fun semester.  I am taking History of Modern Europe: The Age of Nationalism, Abnormal Psychology, Italian 101, Ancient Rome and Its Monuments, and History of the Catholic Church.  They are all going great, and the professors over here are very nice.  I have a pretty open schedule, and I don't start before noon, except on Wednesdays.  The university is closed on Fridays, so we have only four days weeks over here.  Earlier this week, I found this neat thing on my Google Email account where I can call any landline in the USA for free and talk to people from my microphone in my laptop.  How neat is that?  I have used it a couple of times to call home!

Eating over here is amazing.  I have been having wine with a lot of my dinners, and lunch ends up being whatever I can find at the market.  There is a market right behind my house that I shop at a lot.  For dinner, I usually end up going over to Casey and Bliss's apartment because we decided we would all eat together.  Bliss cooks, and Casey and I clean.  It's an awesome set-up! 

This weekend the plan is to just stick around Rome, hang out with the roommates and friends from school, enjoy the night life, and explore some more.  The week has been going by fairly quickly, and before I know it my time her will be over, so I need to continue knocking things off of my "to-do" list!  I am having some issues getting my books for class, but that should be solved within a day or two.  It rained here in Rome for the first time today since I got here, so the tram on the way home way packed to the brim!  Packed tram in Rome on a hot summer day = major BO!  Gross.  Man, I was lucky that my stop was only a short distance from school.  

I have been reading my notes, well wishes, and emails from home every time I get down in the dumps about being so far away from home, and it always cheers me up.  I am really enjoying my time here and I am so happy that I decided to take this leap of faith this semester.  I am taking time to learn more about myself, the beautiful Italian culture, and more about my faith.  Every time I read the notes I have received from home, I always get more and more motivated to go out and see more of the things Rome has to offer!  I'm doing very well over here, and I hope all is well back in the States.  Just know that I am gone now, but my spirit and thoughts are with all of you every day.  I think about my beautiful family and awesome friends often, and miss you all dearly.  God has a plan for me, and being in Rome for this semester is part of the process of figuring it out!  And so far, I'm loving every minute of it!  Take care and know that my love and prayers are always with you, and when the time comes for me to leave Roma, it will be truly bittersweet, but I will be overflowing with joy to see all of you back home! 

Getting Used to the City and Visiting the Vatican

Well, since I've been here, I've been REALLY homesick.  I've had a hard time adjusting to the newsness of the city which came as a shock to me.  I finally went to the Study Abroad Italy office in Rome and talked to our program leader.  She gave me suggestions about how to deal with my feelings of homesickness and helped me a lot.  I have also been getting amazing support from family and friends telling me to get off my butt and go explore!!  I love it!

Saturday was filled with going to some appointments at school to apply for my "Permesso di Soggiorno" or Permit to Stay here in Italy for the next three and a half months.  We had to present our passport, our acceptance letter to JCU, and 116 Euros.  After the appointments were over, I went back to my friend Casey's apartment to plan out weekend trips around Europe. Casey, her sister Bliss, and I went to a small Pizzeria for dinner and had a great meal!  

After dinner, I went back to my apartment around 9:30 and my roommates asked me to go out with them for the night.  Our original plan was to go to the Coliseum to get some pictures and then go out and explore the night life more.  The bus we were waiting for was taking too long, so some of us broke of from the group and went to the bars!  There is a booming amount of bars over by our school and the streets were PACKED!  There were people all over the place and driving was almost next to impossible for the people in their cars.  What shocked me was to see Italian families sitting down to have dinner at restaurants around 11:30 PM.  The restaurants and bars were packed!  We got some drinks at a bar called "Friends" near campus, and hung out in the street.  After staying at that bar for awhile, my three roommates and I walked across the bridge to Campo De'Fiori to go and hang out.  Campo De'Fiori is a huge square on the other side of the river where there are tons of bars and restaurants.  It is always packed at night with locals and tourists!  We went to a bunch of bars and got cheap beers.  The best beer I've had over here so far has been called Peroni and a huge bottle of that costs about 2 Euros!  Total steal!  How can you not have some?!?!

After a late night of being out with the roommates, I got up to go to Sunday Mass across the river.  I met the Study Abroad Italy program leader, Lisa, at the tram stop and her and I took a bus to Santa Susanna Catholic Church.  It is an English speaking church and going to Mass really helped me with my homesickness.  The Mass was amazing and made me feel like I was at home.  The song that we sang during Holy Communion today was "You are Mine" and for some reason, it made me think of my Grandpa Kasprzak.  I got a really comforting feeling when I thought about him and knew that he was watching over me in heaven while I am studying and traveling abroad.

After Mass, I took the tram back to my side of the city and went to the open air market with Casey and Bliss.  There was anything and everything at this market and it stretched for blocks right behind our apartment buildings!  It was awesome, and it runs every Sunday from 7 AM until 2 PM.  I also go some Strawberry Gelato while I was walking up and down the streets which was a nice way to start the afternoon.  After we finished at the market, the three of us went to go explore the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica with our friends Jake and Tynisha. We took the tram over to Vatican City and walked around the square.  It was amazing to see the simple and awesome beauty that the Vatican has.  There are these neat little water fountains in the square that are constantly flowing with crisp, cool, clean water for people to drink.  It sounds minor, but it's the best thing in the world!  The statues of the saints around the square were huge and had amazing detail!  I took so many pictures too!  The inside of the Basilica was amazing and Sunday afternoon Mass was going on at the altar.  The security is very tight there, and if a person isn't covered from shoulders to knees, they are not allowed in the Basilica.  There were so many amazing statues, paintings, altars, and artwork.  It was breathtaking.  We also ventured into the tombs of the popes.  I knelt down and said a short prayer and the tomb of  Pope John Paul II with other Catholics from around the world.  You weren't supposed to take pictures in the tombs, but I turned my flash off and took pictures of the Tomb of St. Peter and the Tomb of Pope Pius XI.  I tried to take one at the Tomb of Pope John Paul II, but there were too many security guards around it.  After spending the afternoon at the Vatican, our group got on a bus and went in a circle around the city.  We thought we were completely lost, but then realized we got off at the correct stop with a stroke of luck.  We brought the tram back to the apartment, and then got a bunch of the students in our apartment together for dinner.  We ordered pizzas in and hung out on the balcony.  I also skyped with the family back at home today to catch up on life.  Had a great weekend with my roommates and friends, and I'm doing so much better now.  The grinding of tram brakes, ambulance sires, the sound of buses driving by the apartment are becoming familiar sounds in my life.  I love Roma so so much!!

First Excursion with Study Abroad Italy

Yesterday was an amazing time! All of the students who are attending John Cabot University through the company Study Abroad Italy were given the opportunity to go to Ostia Antica. It is an ancient Roman village on the banks of the river that was abandoned many cenutires ago. It used ot be a thriving port town in ancient Rome, but now is a preserved area of ruins. It was very interesting to see, and we walked through many parts of the town to see shops, restaurants, mansions, public baths, private baths, temples, and theatres. I took a lot of pictures, so I will be putting those on my Facebook soon. For those of you who can't see my Facebook, you will be able to see all of my pictures when I come home. After our tour of Ostia Antica, we went to an Italian farm to eat lunch. This farm is also a resort with a pool and lodgings. All of the food we ate was organic, and was grown or raised on the farm. It was a traditional Italian meal with multiple courses. I took pictures of all of it and the menu since it was so good! It took a while to eat, and the water and wine kept coming, so I definitely wasn't complaining! It was an excellent and busy day. Tomorrow is Sunday, last day before classes start. It is quite warm here, I am definitely ready for the weather to start cooling down, which won't be for about another month. Anyway, I will try and post once more before classes start, and then it's time to hit the ground running! Rome is a wonderful city, I'm having fun, and ready for the fun to continue!

Second Day in Rome

Today, we had a lot of orientation activities.  I learned a lot about life in Rome, getting around the city, and the school.  My roommate and I are getting along great.  We walked around the city and talked today, found a grocery store right behind our apartment, and went to this awesome little restaurant with my friend Casey from St. Norbert and her sister, Bliss.  Casey, Bliss, and I also planned out most of our travel excursions for the time we are here.  It seemed like a long time that I would be here, but after trying to plan everything, we realized how short our time here actually was!  

I had some pizza for dinner at this Italian restaurant and ordered a small bottle of white wine with it.  It was so good!  

I am feeling a lot better about being in Rome, and am slowly getting adjusted to the life here.  It will be an interesting next 15 weeks!

First Day in Rome...

The first day was a little tougher than I expected it to be.  After I arrived in Rome, and stopped at the nearby Hilton to check in, I was shuttled to my apartment and dropped off there.  I hadn't eaten anything in a long time, but didn't feel too good.  My suitemates and roommate had eaten already, so no one wanted to go grab a bite.  I am still feeling a little homesick and unsure about the situation.  I am lacking confidence in myself right now, but I hope God will help me find that so I can make the most out of this awesome experience.  I had an up and down day with feeling bad/being homesick.  I was homesick throughout both plane rides because it was really sinking in how far away I was going and for how long.  I had some ups when I met my roommate, he is awesome and we get along great and also when I walked around the city for a little bit to explore.  I also had to find some deodorant that I could buy since I forgot to pack mine.  I walked into a store and the woman began speaking to me in Italian.  I told her in Italian that I was an American and that I didn't speak much Italian.  I asked her if she had deodorant and she understood me.  I thanked her in Italian and was pretty proud of myself.  Now I am ready to hit the hay since I haven't slept at all since God knows when.  Tomorrow we start orientation, so I will learn the ins and outs of living life in Rome! 

On the plane....

Although I am posting this now, I wrote this on the plane ride from Chicago to Amsterdam:

The plane ride is going smoothly so far.  We currently have about 4.5 hours left of the flight.  We have had dinner already.  I had some chicken with rice and a salad.  There are a bunch of movies available to watch on the plane, and so far I have watched Pocahontas (it made me relive my youth!).  Right after the plane took off from the runway, I opened the notebook of messages and letters that people wrote for me.  It was very comforting to read all of the messages of good luck, advice, and prayers.  I am blessed to have so many awesome people in my life.  The plane ride has been hard knowing that I won’t see anyone for 3.5 months, but I know that this will be an amazing experience.  I am very scared for what lies ahead, and waiting in the airport for my plane to leave sucked.  I have a pit in my stomach, but know that that pit will go away once I get adjusted to life in Rome.  I once read a quote in a picture frame that stated, “Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to”.  I believe I took a leap of faith today and for these next 3.5 months because I am scared to death and my body and mind keep telling me to hightail it back to the United States, but my heart tells me that this is what I am meant to be doing right now.  I am so scared, but so excited.