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Ciao world! aka hello my family and friends who probably subscribed to this after my mom or dad sent you an email. Either way, I am happy you are here and SETTLE in because I have some stories for you.
This week has been crazy. As you probably know by now, I am very much in Rome and very much loving every step of this crazy adventure (literally! currently averaging over 22,000 steps a day so I feel very productive haha). Let me tell you all about it.
Like all great fairytales, this story starts off with a girl named Camille, a passport, and a 26lb duffel bag filled with LSAT prep books...
DAY 1: Monday, Jan 10 I flew out of O'hare around 1800 (yeah that's right, 24-hr time! I'm a European girl, get used to it!!). Before my flight, I successfully met another girl from Saint Mary's who happened to be on my flight, and left my PURSE in the bathroom :') luckily I noticed 0.2 seconds after it happened, got my purse from the woman who came into the stall after me, proceeded to hug her, and went on with my day. Lesson learned: don't be dumb, make sure I count my belongings (3 bags: duffel, backpack, purse), and leave with the same amount OR condense things to make my life easier. So THAT will not happen again. Anyway.
I got into London where I had a 90-minute layover, met up with some more Saint Mary's girls, and pip-pip-cherrioed our way to Rome. We left at 0920 and got into Rome at 1300 or so. Customs, baggage claim, bus ride, yadda yadda yadda. THEN.
The John Cabot University bus arrived at none other than - yup, you guessed it.
John Cabot University: An American University in the heart of Rome.
This is when it hit. I'm in Rome. Rome, Italy. AND I'm a student here? What is this life! I still can't believe it and it's been almost a week. Part of me hopes this feeling never leaves because I do not want to take this opportunity for granted for even one second.
So all of us study-abroaders had some orientation stuff and then I got to go to my apartment. YES! My apartment.
My very own (with three others). This is my first apartment experience ever because I am still in the dorms at school, and I gotta say, it is amazing! I feel so old?! But in a cool, independent, "I'm a local" kind of way, ya know? And now, a brief intermission to MEET THE ROOMIES:
Alrighty, on the left we have my sweet, sweet Genevieve. Quiet, composed, and FUNNY. She is a junior at SMC with me studying Neurobiology (when writing this I had to ask how to spell 'neuro' so you can only imagine my reaction when I found out her major).
The beautiful girly in the middle is Miss Olivia. Bubbly, thoughtful, and fun AS HECK. A city girl through and through, Olivia is a junior at American University in Washington DC. She loves earrings, brie, throw blankets, and the environment. What more could you ask for?
Last but certainly not least, our Sicilian queen, Kayla. Swaggy, intelligent, and hardworking. A junior (graduating EARLY) from Lewis University in Illinois. Makes some bomb espresso and is the pinnacle of fashion. These are my girls and I am so excited for the rest of the semester with them!!!!! You'll be hearing more about them so put these names in your glossary (should I make a glossary page on the site? Might be helpful honestly hahaha).
----Backstory on the title of this post (very much abridged): Kayla and Olivia go out to dinner with a group on night 1 and order Lobster Pasta. Il cameriere ( the waiter) brings out a whole LIVE lobster in a bucket and asks them if the lobster is up to par. Them, not knowing anything about the readiness of a lobster, tell him yes. He brings the meal out, they eat, they ask for the check (In Europe, you must ask for the bill! The wait staff will NOT disturb your meal by bringing you the check and do not want to rush you. Once you have a table, it is yours all night long if you want! I love this.), and the total is €140. THAT IS $161 US DOLLARS. They were obviously RATTLED, disappointed, and just shocked. Lesson learned: lobster is sold by weight and prices are €x/oz----
Back to regularly scheduled content- the first night I went to dinner with Genevieve to meet up with a bunch of the SMC girls.
We went to a place in Trastevere (add to glossary, this is the name of my neighborhood in Rome) called Pimm's. I got gnocchi alla sorrentina (tomato sauce, fiordilatte cheese, parmesan and basil). It may have quite possibly been the best pasta I have ever eaten. And yes, that IS a glass of wine, thank you for bringing that up. Guess what folks, I'M LEGAL IN ITALIA! Best pasta ever + fellow belles + first night in Italy + a legal glass of Pinot Grigio??? Are you kidding?? So so so amazing.
DAY 2: 0900 walk to the Trevi Fountain with Genevieve, Kellie, and Meaghan (all Saint Mary's girls). It is about a 30-minute walk, which is crazy to me. One of the most famous fountains in the entire world is 30 minutes from me. According to Wikipedia, it has appeared in several notable films such as La Dolce Vita, but I am not sure why The Lizzie McGuire Movie was not mentioned? Any volunteers to go and edit the Wiki page? Moral of the story, the Trevi is beautiful. So stunning. And the walk to the Trevi is just as stunning. The architecture and history and streets are unmatched.
After we left, we were HUNGRY girls. (Italian lesson! "Ho fame" pronounced "O fahm-ay" means "I'm hungry" but is literally translated as "I have hunger") We went to GiàRoma1886, a super cute cafe for omelets and americano. Talked, ate, planned trips, told stories. Living is so good when in Roma. Everything is automatically 10x sweeter because of the city. Naturally, after brunch, we went to get gelato because, hello...quando a roma ("when in Rome")!
My first gelato of the trip with my two favorite flavors, Stracciatella (chocolate chip) and Tiramisù. Walked around, saw some different Piazza's (plazas), and went to the grocery store. So, kinda cool but kinda not- the grocery store is in a clothing store. You have to walk through a clothing store (a CUTE clothing store, might I add) to get your groceries. While amazing and a genius marketing scheme, it is so bad for me but a great test of self-control.
Got lost in the grocery store, couldn't find a loofah, bought some popcorn, spoke Italian to the cashier lady. I'd say it was a successful trip (besides the loofah).
La cena (dinner) was deliziosa, as expected. The 4 of us went to a ristorante down the street from our apartment called Polpetta, which means "meatball". Kinda funny and the meatballs were legit.
I had 4 (quattro) formaggi (cheese) PIZZA (pizza). Wowowow. The waitress was so sweet and hardly spoke any English but me, being far too confident, was talking with her in Italian, and then she said one complex sentence that I didn't understand and my credibility went out the window hahaha. At least I tried? It's been kind of a bummer because most everyone speaks English and knows we are American so they will speak English with us rather than Italian :/ I want to get better at my speaking, writing, talking but these dang Italians are making that kind of difficult!
Then came the ~bar~ uhuh, that's right. My FIRST bar! Sit down for this one because the story is too funny (I am literally laughing as I type because it is so ridiculous). While at dinner, I text my friend Claire who studied abroad last semester in Rome for a fun karaoke bar she went to while here. It happens to be an Irish pub (how fun), named Scholars Bar. Naturally, I text the whole Rome-SMC group chat saying "Scholars Bar. 10:30. KARAOKE" FORGETTING we have a midnight curfew during this first week of orientation. So the roomies and I and our silly booties don't get out of the door until well past 10. To our fun little surprise, after our 20-minute walk, we have a line to wait in outside of the bar (HUGE face palm type of moment). The bouncer (we named him Sergei) was nice but we had to wait for over 20 minutes. This is a 40-minute excursion at this point. By the time we get in, we have only 20 minutes to be there before we had to walk back for curfew. Awesome. THEN. To our fun little surprise again, the waiter SEATS us at a booth. We were so shocked and did not know what to do because we obviously were not going to order drinks or anything with only 20 minutes.
You may be wondering, What did you do Camille? We did what any logical group of girls would do. We calmly, subtly, left. Exited. Cruised. The picture above was in the midst of us laughing and trying to figure out the game plan. Luckily, there was a back door so we could avoid Sergei. Our big group of American girls made it back to our apartments both safely and timely, without breaking any bones or curfews. First bar experience was a success? No drinks, but a whole lot of laughs and mems. And that was just day 1+2.
Ciao for now, love you all!
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