Actually having class? What is this vacation turning into to?

As most of you know I started my first week of real classes today, the classes are as follows: Ancient Rome and Myth, Cross Cultural Studies, Roman architecture and urban design, the renasainnce and its classical heritage, and my hardest class by far Italian. I have class Monday through Thursday and Italian everyday 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. This week has been pretty hectic, I have been waking up early to run also Pat and I joined a gym so we have been lifting there as well. The gym is called A.S. Trastevere and it is much more different than the gyms at home. You have to bring your own towel, all the weight is in Kilograms, and it is very small. But it is definitely better than nothing! We went to the American bookstore to buy our books yesterday which is located next to the Spanish Steps which is an outstanding sight! We grabbed small paninis on the way (I got turkey and spinach).

Last night we went to Karaoke at this bar called Scholars which was AWESOME, it was packed and singing was so much fun. We also get discounts at the bar because we are students, thankfully because we get ripped off on everything else here in Rome. Everyone stayed out pretty late and then we all had class this morning at 9:30 which was killer, absolutely killer. The class lasted two hours and then I came home, worked out, ate, and cleaned the place. I am currently doing some laundry right now and need to buy clothes pins so that my clothes do not get so stiff.

Some little things I have noticed about the Roman people are that they come off as rude, but I do not think they mean to be that is just the way they talk to people. The scooters are crazy and weave in and out of cars like its a video game all day. The tram is very tricky but everyone here walks or takes public transportation. They do not have a lot of beef here, it is much more pasta and seafood because of the Mediterranean Sea. The staplers are weird and make the smallest little staple in the corner of your papers. People try extremely hard to do things that benefit the environment such as recycle and walk everywhere. No matter what day of the year it is the Vatican is ALWAYS filled with thousands of people. The people who live in the Vatican have their own passports because it is its own country. Everything is in Kilograms (1KG = 2.2ish LBS). Salmon colored pants are the new thing here. You can't run your dishwasher, computer charger, and washer at the same time or you will need to flip your power breaker back on. People sleep from 2 - 6 p.m. The morning is for work and the nights are for dinner and play. I am pretty sure girls here start smoking cigarettes at 10 years old. All the women dress to impress. There are Gabineri that have AK-47's locked and loaded on guard all over town. Sitting down and having one beer over the course of 4 hours is completely normal. Taxis are the biggest rip off, on Sundays once you sit in the cab it starts at 4 Euros and any nights from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. a 5.90 Euro start fee. They only have squirrels here at the Zoo..

Plenty of more to come. Keep in touch. Buonacera

Discotechs riverside?

Last night was to say the least an experience. The night started off by watching some college football at this bar called Abby's theatre which will definitely be our usual hang out. We drank some beers and it was getting late so we decided to grab dinner there. I ordered penne pasta with salmon and of course I got pasta with no salmon! It was still delicious though. After we hung out there for awhile we made the trek back to the apartment and then went to Alex and Gina's place to party a little before hitting up Camp Di Fiori, which is a local hang out for anyone and everyone in Rome. We partied for a little at DJ bar, but the bars here work so weird.. You order and pay for your drinks before at the register and then give the receipt to the bartender. After that escapade we decided to look for a discotech and boy did we find one. It was a crazy rave party on the side of the river, luckily we were with 20+ girls so the boys and I cut the line and got in for free! It was bright pink and they played the top hits from the states with crazy remixes all night long. We all danced the night away and just lived the dream until around 4 a.m. then we walked all the way home which was a great idea because cabs are SO expensive here and any time after 10 p.m - 6 a.m. there is a standard fee of 5.90 Euro which I think is a little ridiculous. last night was definitely one of the best nights I have had here.

Today, Sunday, I am going to most likely just relax and try to look for cheap flights and what not to travel. On my list of travels this semester are the following:

* Oktoberfest in Munich Germany, sensation white in Coppenhagan, barcelona, dublin, amsterdamn, prague, all over Italy, and hopefully greece.

A little bt of this a little bit of that

Today is Friday September 10th and I am finally almost fully adjusted to the time change. I am also starting to get into a normal routine of running and waking up early; thankfully. We have our first Italian quiz today which I studied pretty hard for last night and I plan on studying for this morning for it as well. I might meet some people in my class to study pre-quiz. Another piece of my week I forgot to enlighten all of you with is the part about the Postmate a.k.a. post office. So on my birthday I had to goto the postmate from 2:00 to 4:45 in the afternoon to fill out the "permission to stay" form here in Italy. It is the most pointless form of all time, they make us fill out a questionaire with all of our information and pay 30 euros along with having photocopies of everything we own. But a benefit about being stuck in the postmate all day was that I got to miss most of my Italian class with Gina because she was hanging out a the postmate with me as well. Now I have to grab some breakfast and study. Some other random information is that I live in an area of Rome called "Trestavere" which I am very thankful for. Pat and I are also most likely joining a gym out here call A.S. Trestavere but it is kind of expensive 160 euro for three months so around $190 American dollars.

Tonight we are all going out I am sure, we were trying to book our trip to Capri but it was too last minute. So for now it looks as if that is the plan for next week. I believe we are traveling to the beach this Saturday off the coast of Italy.

The best things in life are unexpected

The more and more as time flies by, the harder it is for me to keep up with my blog. This week we started out week of intensive Italian where we have class for about two hours a day and try to learn the basic skills to communicate with the locals. For me, it is not going so well. I always confuse everything in Italian with all the Spanish that I have learned over the years but Spanish is also in a weird way helping my Italian. I am in class with a few of my friends Jimmy, Gina, Alex, and Tyler which is always fun. We have had class all week 3:30 - 5:30. As for running in Rome I am keeping up with it because every time I go running I discover something new and interesting about the city that we all reside in. Yesterday on my run I went the opposite way down the river through grassy and sandy paths, about 5 miles down river I ran up a bridge and witnessed an amazing sight of crazy graffiti all over this one factory. Usually there is random graffiti all over this city but this place was different there were bubble 3-D letters covering the whole entire building in every color you could imagine. More colorful than you could ever imagine. I used to think graffiti was just there to make someones mark but the more and more I stare at the artwork all over Rome the more I feel like it has more meaning than just someone breaking the law. Tuesday night was my birthday, we were planning on going to Ice bar which is a bar completely 100% made of ice which would have probably been pretty funteresting but instead we went to Campo Di Fiori the local hang out for younger kids our age. Tons of kids from our program came out for my birthday so that was nice being with everyone. Yesterday I thought that I had Italian at 3 for some reason so I walked to the center and luckily Gina was there early too! I came home and took a nap which was much needed because we did not get home until very late the night before. I woke up sometime around 8:00 p.m. and got to go out to dinner with Sarah which was awesome as expected. We met at the Vatican and then went to this little restaurant called "Piacere Molise" I had pasta with shrimp and cochera and she had fried eggplant; both dishes were outstanding. Then out of no where on our walk home there was a firework display off in the distance which was remarkable and unexpected! Yesterday was yet another awesome day and night here in Italy.

As for the rest of my day, I am going to hit up the center a little early and study because we have our first Italian quiz tomorrow. Plus it is Thursday tonight so we will most likely be going out with everyone. Hope all is well at home.

kev

1st official week

Saturday was another amazing day in this brilliant city built purely by concrete. We got in pretty late on Friday night so every slept in pretty late. Eric and I went to exchange some American $$$ at the local merchant. On our way we found a insane AS Roma store and I wanted to buy everything. I made a turkey sandwich on sourdough, amazing of course. Then we met up with some guys from Penn State at a local bar called scholars for a couple of cocktails. Then we went to a Pennsylvania bar where they showed the Penn State football game! It was pretty fun besides the 4 Euro draft beers. After that we had the night Coloseum tour which was remarkable, but to honest everyone was too excited to go out so we did not listen as carefully as we should. We took the bus the wrong way back to the bars of course, since we all still do not have a clue on how to get anywhere! We all decided to suck it up and taxi it to a local bar called the "bulldog" where they had 1 euro shots and such. After an hour of that we continued the night once again at Campo Di Fiori, which is always the place to be on a night out in the center of Rome.

The noodles in Roma are ...

It is finally Saturday and I am adjusting to the lifestyle of a true Italian. We have four different types of garbage bags in our kitchen: food and organic waste, glass plastic and metals, paper and cardboard, and everything else. Pat and I also did laundry yesterday for the first time without a dryer, hanging our clothes up all over the apartment and outside on anything and everything. Yesterday we went to a very secluded lake called " Lago Di Martignano " which was amazing. Our whole program took a bus from our center and drove up this mountain to what I thought was comparable to a country club. We got to hang out with everyone and swim, paddle boat, and kayak! They also made us a really good lunch were we were served bread, cheese, sausage, and prescuitto. Oh and they gave us coca-cola in huge glass one liter bottles, I drank water of course. We arrived back at the center in Roma at around 7:00 p.m. and had to wait for our Italian placements. Luckily I placed in beginner Italian with about 50% of the students, some of them are already fluent. Everyone was so tired and ansy to get off that bus because it was our first Friday night in the city. We all walked our separate ways home since all the students live in random apartments scattered all throughout this majestic city. When we got back I Pat and i made angel hair pasta with spinach and baked chicken which was phenomenal.

Around 9:30 pm people starting showing up at our place for a Roman "pregame" it was actually more like a Big Ten conference pregame since we had kids from Indiana and Penn State partying with us. Instead of the usual wine and 24 ounce beers. We got vodka and more vodka with some wine and more wine. All the boys arrived and we watched the new jersey Shore before the girls came, who tend to get lost sometimes but I feel bad for them because some of them live so far away; but it is awesome having them over. After our group of about 25 people hung out for a little at our place we decided to walk to "Campo Di Fiori" which is known as the hang out spot on the weekends. We walked because not everyone has bus passes yet, and riding the bus without a pass is very tricky because if you get caught the patrol guy will take you off the bus and to the nearest ATM and demand you take out 100 Euros to pay him the fine. We walked into a DJ club bar type thing where it was so small but there were tons of the kids from Santa Clara in our program drinking there. The way you get drinks at some bars and clubs is you go pay the cashier and then give the receipt to the bartender. Shots were very cheap (7 Euros for 5 shots of whatever kind of liquor you wanted) so around $9 in the states. After that we were determined to go to a Discoteca called MODE, these are basically dance night clubs. But this one was amazing, first you walk in the door girls pay o Euro and guys pay 10 Euro of course, we always get screwed. You walk down a bunch of stairs to a huge dance club with couches and people everywhere dancing and partying harder than you could ever imagine. It was insane, i loved it. Walking everywhere is starting to hurt everyone's feet and legs but we will get used to it! I went to bed at 5:25 am when the sun was coming up, but got 6 hours of sleep which is the most I have had consistently the whole time I have been on this journey. The plan is to go to Florence on a train this coming weekend. As for tonight we are going to the the Coliseum, for one of the three times all year that they give a tour of it at night! The rest of my day will consist of going to the store to get some cleaning stuff! Maybe nap and then run, dinner, Coliseum and out.

Ciao, kev

Put it this way, Rome is an experience of a lifetime. I had some doubts about leaving the norm and everyday activities. But I seriously love this place: everything is amazing. IES does a outstanding job, we eat gourmet meals everyday. Even when we make pasta and red sauce it is outstanding. I love the bread more than anything and I had turkey for the first time here which I could eat 8203 kilograms of. The milk is even better. My apartment is insane; we are truly in the heart of Rome. Today we went to a gorgeous lake where we hung out and swam with everyone from our program. I have already met so many awesome people and I have been here for 4 days.

To be honest people told me that studying abroad is a life altering experience, I am experiencing first hand. Anyone who has the opportunity to do this definitely 100% do this.

R O M A

Orientation @ IES

This morning I woke up at 7:00 and took my first run in Rome which was obviously amazing. I ran down a main street to the river then took the stairs down to the water side and ran three miles than ran around the other side and ran back another three miles. During my run I experienced so many different things from bums sleeping under bridges to stray dogs running around randomly. I love running here. I actually saw two of the girls running this morning that ended up being in my orientation. I got back to Morisini around 8:15 and we all showered; planning to leave for school by 9:00 a.m.

Once we arrived at class we went in the basement and met up with April who goes to school with Pat and I @ U of I and talked to her and her home-stay mate for awhile. Orientation was pretty boring they were just going over certain procedures and things of that manner. Finally at 1:00 p.m. they had a gourmet catered meal prepared for us on the terrace at our center. The food was all little sample appetizers but outstanding (as it usually is here). Everyone talked and we met some people which was pretty interesting. After lunch we went back and had more meetings and lectures, we each had to introduce ourselves to the class of 100+ and about 25% of the kids go to school together in California. But there are kids from everywhere from Penn State to Harvard to Tulane. It is crazy how many different people from everywhere are here together to allow themselves to experience the trip of a lifetime! Our meetings ended around 3:30 p.m. where the cell phone meetings began. There were two choices of phones but I chose the pre-paid phone so that I could not go crazy over minutes and texts so at this point my piece of garbage phone was free with up to 100 free texts a day and calls cost .16 cents a minute. My phone only has 22 euros on it. Hopefully it will work out to my advantage and I won't be using my phone so much here in Roma. After getting our phones everyone exchanged numbers but I met so many people that I barely remember any names, but no one does since everyone just wore name tags. I am terrible with names.

Overall, orientation was long and drawn out but definitely necessary for basic things that we should know about safety and that. We also tried to find a new way home from school and got lost of course, but that is okay because we will definitely get it down eventually. Tonight everyone is going to text/facebook and try to plan some pre-game somewhere. Word on the street is we are partying by the Colisseum. Anyways, I will keep you as updated as possilbe.

Ciao

p.s. we went out and got extremely lost but luckily ended up at the Vatican, maybe the most prestigious chapel in the history of the world.

Finding my apartment, via del mirisoni 16

hello everyone! Usually i will not blog this often but since I have a lot of down time now before orientation starts tomorrow I am trying to write as much as possible to share my experience so far!! This morning I woke up around 9 a.m. at my hotel and had the free hot breakfast, which of course consisted of a load of bread and jelly, but at least it was free since everything is SO expensive here. I had to go check in at the IES center which was about a 5 minute cab ride that I could not walk because I had my suitcase, travel back, and regular backpack. I thought I would see a lot more kids checking in, but I only saw one girl with everyone getting in at different times and what not. Then I grabbed another taxi to my apartment which is located southwest of the center. The taxi drivers are insane and drive all over the place even some sidewalks if need-be. I arrived at my apartment and there was no one there to let me in so I went into the "office" where an elderly Italian women tried to help me, she seemed very helpful but of course spoke not a lick of English. I was stuck outside my apartment with no way in! Then finally after about an hour of waiting a kid a little older than me showed up and was from IES, he let me and showed me how to work the electric, washer, fridge, ect. My apartment was incredible, definitely old but had a very big balcony which connects all of our bedrooms and the kitchen; the view is amazing it overlooks several other apartment communities. We also have two bathrooms which is very convenient. I received my welcome packet which stated the next week's agenda for me, which also looks hectic. We have orientation all day tomorrow and then starting Thursday we have intensive Italian for 5 hours; hopefully that will be very helpful.

When i got to my apartment one of my roomate's Eric who is from Virginia was already here sleeping in his bed, most likely tired from the flight. I unpacked all my stuff, having no clue where to put anything at all. After I was all unpacked I decided to go exploring, but before I could go anywhere... I found Pat standing in the middle of the street with his bags, the taxi driver dropped him off and demanded 50 euro and just left him!!! So I walked back with him and he unpacked everything. While all of that was taking place our other roommate Mike from New York arrived and we got to know him a little. Then Pat and I went on a journey for some lunch, we walked all the way to where our classes will be held and decided to turn around and get a bite to eat. We walked into some local sandwich place not knowing if it was okay to sit down or not because here they often charge you a service fee. We both ordered the same sandwich one with pizza bread, zucchini, and cheese along with some tap water. It was actually really good and filling! Then we found our way back to our place. Tonight we are hoping to meet up with some people that Pat met on the plane, but we will see how that goes. My other two roommates are out getting food and walking around now and Pat is sleeping because he is most like still exhausted from the plane!

I on the other hand am still in shock that I am actually here in Rome already, I can't believe this summer flew by so quickly but I cannot wait to see what awaits me and where I travel to in this incredible area. I am finally adjusting to the time change even though I am still a little tired. I am also starting to pick up on a little Italian since everything here is in that language.

Finally here!!

I arrived in Rome this morning at around 9:00 a.m. at the airport and we parked the plane in the middle of a runway, got off and everyone was getting on a bus so I got on! I had no idea where it was taking us, but I truly had no other choice because the whole plane got on it! Once I got into the terminal I anxiously waited for my bags which luckily were two of the first suitcases on the track! At this point I could barely keep my eyes open because the awesome guy next to me and his wife laid on me basically the whole 9 hour flight. I soon found my taxi driver (who continued to not tell me his name even though I asked 9x) and of course he was driving 130 down the Auto-ban the whole time. He was very nice though and showed me a bunch of cool buildings and stuff on the way in! The driver also took shortcuts all over the place, where I definitely thought he was taking me to kill me. Rome is beautiful, I do not even know how to explain it. Finally after about 30-40 minutes I arrived at Hotel Navona, which happened to be on the second floor with no elevator. Once I saw the hotel I thought it was going to be huge and elegant, which I guess it is except for my room is about 8x8 and I can't even stand up straight in the bathroom. I immediately got into bed and searched for a Italian channel to fall asleep too. I slept for about 5 hours and then went exploring. I found the coolest shops with everything you could possibly want to buy. They even have a Ray Ban sunglasses shop right across the street from my hotel. I am back in my hotel now for a little bit just to email home and let everyone know I am here and alive. I found the graffiti ALL over the place in Rome very intriguing, it is everywhere.. I almost wonder if it legal to do. So far from the people I have came into contact with everyone that speaks English is extremely nice and the Italians are too, I have noticed that they try to help me speak their native language and figure out whatever I need, so far they have been very helpful. Tonight I will go have dinner at some local bar and hopefully taste some of this Italian food everyone is talking about. Anyways, I am safe and so excited I don't even know what to do or think. I will blog sooner than later.

Just the beginning of packing..

This is almost everything, without my clothes, I obviously will have no room for anything...

Last week home in A-town..

This week has been to say the least, hectic. I am running all over place to ensure that I have all the clothes, passports, credit cards, photocopies, tickets, hotels, and even small things such as my iPod and camera. I never imagined going into this studying abroad process that it would involve so much time and effort. It was almost as much work as a four credit hour class down at U of I. Today is Wednesday and I have only four days left in the states. I am arriving in Roma on August 30th at 08.05 a.m. where I will be meet by a taxi to take me to my hotel for the night. I plan on dropping off my bags and going exploring by myself... but we will see how that works out because I have no idea what to expect and/or do. I will most likely post while at the hotel the night before IES orientation which is at 10:30 a.m. on August 31st, were I get my apartment keys and all that fun stuff. I will be in touch. Good luck to everyone starting the semester at their home schools, I hope school is not to difficult here in Italy, but at the same time I hope to learn more about myself than I have in the three previous years at the University of Illinois!!

ROME HOUSING ASSINGMENT

Today I received my housing assignment as follows:

Via Emilio Morosini, 16 with Pat Bille!!!

I am living in a two bedroom double apartment with a kitchen and a living room. The best part about my living situation is that it is only a one and half mile walk to class; but the better part is that the fastest way class is to travel by water taxi. In one month in two days I will be there and I could not be more enthused about the adventure that I am about to begin..

IES Rome, Italy Fall 2010

The time has almost come as summer is already flying by...

I have booked my tickets for Rome and I am leaving Chicago August 29th and living the dream for four consecutive months in Italy until December 20th, some place that is completely foreign to me. There is still so much to do before I leave, but I could not be more excited to embark on a journey of a lifetime.