Getting to know the city

I'm terrible at keeping up with blogs, so here's the short picture version of the first few pre-studying days.

Day 1(Thursday) and Day 2(Friday):
We got in to the Rome center just in time for the meeting. The taxi ride over was interesting. The freeway is the same-ish as in the US, but once you get into the city, none of the roads are perpendicular, and people end up driving in roads that look more like alleyways. These are so skinny that I was amazed the taxi even fit through. Most people here seem to ride motorcycles or tiny cars. One time while we were crossing the ponte sisto, there was this huge, macho looking guy in this tiny smart car who whistled at us. XD.

Our apartment is super far away. It's a 20 minute walk atleast. Since none of the roads are at right angles, it's really hard to find the most direct route there. Half the time we tried to take a new path, we'd walk in a huge circle and end up exactly where we started. I think the distance is worth it though because there is a cute little market nearby where we can buy fresh fruit and vegetables 6 days of the week! =D Yay! Christine and I were buying from this one stand and after we picked out a bunch of fruit and vegetables(I got cherry tomatoes, other small tomatoes, one big tomato, strawberries, cherries, a head of lettuce, 3 plums an

d an orange), we were like "crap, do we have enough money!?!". She had 15 euros and I had 20. After they finished weighing out our food and totaling the amount, it ended up being 5.48 euros! So cheap!!! =D I'm gonna eat fruit everyday! They were super fresh too!

We also watched one of the world cup soccer games today at Magnolia, this cute little poopnhnnnn <--Shurui and Daniel did thispoop

I don't remember who played, but our whole class went with Lisa and had drinks and watched the game on these nice TV's. =D My first time watching a soccer game! I got a Bay Breeze, it was happy =D! The power went out in the middle of the game, though. So we sat there in the dark and talked.

That's all I remember. I have possibly the worst memory ever. D=

[Right now, Shurui is like NOOOOO F***** NOOOOOO!! because he lost his tetris game. XD. He is majorly addicted.]

Day 3(Saturday):

Today, Lisa took us to Trattoria Moderna to have our welcome dinner. There were appetizers, 2 main courses, and dessert (oh, and coffee afterwards).
The octopus and [fish] dish was surprisingly good. Everything that we ate at this restaurant was delicious. The vegetarian lasagna was super rich; the pork came with amazing spinach; and a baked peach and tiramisu to top it all off. After that meal, I was pregnant with yet another food baby. I swear, this time it was twins.

Oh! We also had wine. It was pr

etty good, I thought, although I don't know exactly how to drink wine just yet, or what I'

m supposed to be tasting for. Subconsciously, I think that if I drink more, it will just come to me. I had three glasses of wine.

After dinner, to stave off the inevitable food coma awaiting me, I had coffee! My first ever espresso shot. It was so good. The coffee was so rich and flavorful; bitter and sweet(lol, i put a whole sugar packet in), but not in

an awful way. It was suprisingly good. I admit, I was skeptical at first, because I tend not to like strong coffee drinks, but I really liked this. Plus, no dairy to make me sleepy. Yay, now I don't have to worry about being lactose intolerant and drinking coffee.

Since tonight was

our first real weekend, some of us decided to go out. I definately had too much to drink in a short amount of time. Oops. Atleast I have an interesting story to tell. =X