Things have slowed down a bit since my last post. Classes started Monday, and I believe orientation is officially over. I've never been a student that hated school, especially in college, and I realized yesterday as I sat in the classroom listening to Dr. Cole talk about Italian culture and beauty I found myself content, happy even. I'm a science guy; humanities is not my thing, but when you study the history, architecture, religious influence, etc. about a new culture where you reside, it's a game changer. I'm excited to learn all this semester has to offer me both inside and out of the classroom. Because of classes starting, however, I haven't had much time these few days to explore the city. I did, earlier tonight, head out with a group of about ten or so students to get our hook up of gelato for the night and on the way got called an asshole by an Italian man on the street (the one word in English!) so that was a nice ending to my day. This week also launched the community dinner, and my group was the first up to bat. After consuming excessive, yet delicious, amounts of pasta and bread, we decided tacos would be a nice taste of home. Turned out everyone else thought so too! Now we had to get creative, example: there's no sour cream here, but we substituted greek yogurt instead. Earlier this afternoon I took advantage of the beautiful day by going for my first run through Rome with Abbie and Alexander. After running through the park, witnessing British-children-soccer-practice, and running aimlessly through the streets of Rome we finally got back to campus refreshed. This morning Dr. Cole took us on an impromptu mini field trip to a local church, St. Agnes Outside the Walls, named after a young martyr, St. Agnes. The beautiful building was impressive, but not as impressive as the fact that this is an ordinary church here in Rome! Tomorrow marks the beginning of our excursions through the city and let me tell you I can't wait! For now I think I'll help myself to some Nutella and cookies since gelato didn't work out.
Yesterday was our first day out on the town, which has caused me to sing Fun.'s song all day long. If you don't know it, you should look it up because it's a good one. We took a walk through the neighborhood, visited the grocery store, and learned how to use our money vouchers. The grocery store was definitely a new experience for us, though most found it more strange than I did. For those of you familiar with Chinatown in Philadelphia, it's very similar to the underground market. To access the grocery store, you need to walk through a shoe store, down steps, and through a baby clothes store then voila! Grocery store! I didn't take any pictures of it though so you'll have to use your imaginations! After an incredible dinner of pizza rolls, a group of us students stayed in the dining room learning common Italian phrases from Dr. Cole, a great way to end our second day in Rome. This morning a small group and I took a walk to a local park, which was beautiful! It reminds me of Longwood Gardens, without the mass varieties of vegetation and tree houses... so basically the trees and buildings remind me of it. Throughout our meandering through the city we were instructed when crossing roads, if the crosswalk man is green, you walk. If he's yellow, hurry. And if he's red, stay where you are. Alexander coined the term "red man dead man" and boy is it true! Yielding to pedestrians isn't really a thing here. A large group of students is currently on its way to another park, but I wanted to blog a little, do some homework, and practice withdrawing money from an ATM. Tonight is a photo scavenger hunt and dinner out in the heart of Rome and I can't wait. So until next time, au revoir... I mean arrivederci! Well, we're finally here: Rome, Italy. After delayed flights, speeding through airports and some terrible jet lag, it's almost time for me to finally eat dinner, get gelato then go to sleep! I'm not one for heights but when I fly I realize what an incredible place God has made for us to live in. When landing in Philadelphia I had to snap a picture of the city of brotherly love in the sunset as I said my farewells for over three months. (I didn't even have time to get one last federal donut!) Then after the sun rose and we flew through Europe I quickly snapped another picture of some snow capped mountains as we casually flew over them. I didn't have many opportunities to pull out my camera today and take good shots but I did get a few from the garden around the place we're staying, which just so happens to be a convent...I think. Nuns live here that's all I know right now. Someone needs to keep me in check over here in Europe! Well after long and stressful flights, a valiant battle with jet lag, accidentally getting a shower in the girls' shower, and trying to retain the large amounts of information thrown at me today, it is finally almost time to eat some dinner, get gelato, and then go to sleep! So to my friends in Pennsylvania (and the rest of the US), enjoy the rest of your Thursday, and to my fellow Romans, goodnight!
As I gear up to fly across the Atlantic and dwell with the Romans for three months, I am realizing how lucky I am to have this opportunity and I want to experience these next three months while sharing it with whoever chooses to read this. For those of you that know me will know that I'm not much of a writer, so I'll try to limit this blog to my forte: pictures. However for the remainder of my time in Beaver Falls I'll spare you of the pictures of the campus I'm leaving behind (If you really want to see that, follow me on Instagram) and leave you with one of the few Italian words I actually know, arrivederci!
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