Hey Guys, Do you realize?

Friday, walking down to Via Del Corso for some shopping after seeing the crypts I talked about earlier my friend Rachel said, "Hey Guys, do you realize we're in rome right now?"

We all kind of laughed, but understanding the sentiments she was getting at, it was no big deal to just wake up, and go see some crypts, and go sight see in Rome. This was our "normal", we weren't traveling anywhere, this is just where we live, no matter how long it is for.

We kept saying it as the day went on, as we walked along the Tiber, through the Piaza di San Pietro and past the vatican, "do you guys realize". It became almost a joke, but also a reminder to stop and think about the fact that this is what we are doing with our lives right now.

The question stuck with me, and I kept saying it as Megan, Will, Greta and I spent the day in Orvieto eating and drinking in grottos, seeing sights we couldn't imagine, and still trying to take the time to recognize and appreciate what we are doing.

So, thanks Rachel, going forward I will keep saying, "Hey, do you realize..." to myself, and to others so I can keep realizing and appreciating all that this trip is for me. All while defining what it is for me along the way.

Orvieto no she didn't

Another week in Rome, I've been here for almost three weeks, and I can say, I am in Love.

Love with Rome, love with the culture, love with my classes (most of them), love with my new friends and love with EVERYTHING I have done so far.

This week Wednesday we had the Mass of the Holy Spirit for the JFRC and had a great dinner near Piazza Navona with fifty of my nearest friends. We then went out and celebrated the fact that it was, umm Wednesday.

Friday some friends and I took a cab down to the Capuchin Crypts which were wierd, as they are decorated with bones from Monks over hundreds of years, that were then organized to be decorative a few hundred years ago. All I know, it is was odd, and beautiful at the same time. Then we did some serious shopping on Via Del Corso, walked around Rome by the Tiber, and ended up with some sore feet, but some really nice new Maroon Suede Loafers, you know, the ones I bought in Rome. (check out my tagged photos)

Friday night we went to Trastevere for the first time and had a nice time hearing all about the places all of the full year students kept telling us about, had a simple night and prepared for our trip to Ortvieto the next day.

Our train was at 9 am, so we got there, and I took my first European train ride, to Orvieto, when we got there, there was a Funicular that took us up to the main part of the city. The views from this cliffside town were amazing over the hills around the city. It was nice to walk around in just a group of 4 looking around the city. I had the best expresso (cafe, duh), climbed through a random tunnel in some crypt below a church, you know, normal stuff.

We had lunch in an old grotto/old rope making factory where I had amazing ravioli with truffles and ricotta cheese, had wine, bought wine, and made our way back to the train. We got home and had pastries from the "secret bakery" and officially named the day TREAT YOURSELF.

Now, I have to do some homework and laundry, all of the fun things that makes the really fun things possible.

ORIENTED

I am just heading home on the wonderful bus I seem to have called home for your last 3 days. Orientation trip or bust. Since Friday at 7am I've traveled to 6 different southern Italian cities and seen more new things than I thought possible in sync a short term

Friday we left campus at 7:00 ROUGH. Fine for me, I was just up until 2:30 doing absolutely nothing. We drove to Reggia di Casrera, and old palace that was both huge and gorgeous. Couldn't really understand the tour guide but it was a in nonetheless. Then we headed to lunch which looked just like a wedding reception in a huge room. The scene of 200 college students soaking wet from rain walking in to that was pretty amusing.
We proceeded to Salerno where I had an amazing and unexpectedly nice hotel room with a balcony overlooking the bay. Thank god for the off season. We had a welcome reception with well wishes and advice from all of the JFRC staff about our time studying abroad. I got really in to it. We wrote letters to ourselves setting goals for the semester which we get back when we leave. Hope I make it

The next morming we all got on the buses only to realize Zach wasn't there. We called him, he was asleep. We left. He "turned his alarm off in his sleep" he ran and made the last bus running to it. I would have paid money to watch that. We went and saw the Pasteum Scavi, ruins that are actually older than the Parthenon (only by 3 years, always read the fine print. Our tour guide went way over time much to the chagrin of Cindy (Shes the dean, and HBIC, I love her) Then we went to an organic farm where they produce Mozzarella cheese. The buffalo they use to make the cheese have Mozart daily and a massage machine, random, but hilarious.

We then proceeded to have a 3 hour long lunch with many musical interludes and amazing food. We all got up and danced while the cutest group of old people played music and taught us some fresh moves. After lunch I went to Agropoli, we were just walking around and had no idea where we were going when we stumbled upon the most beautiful bay at sunset I have ever seen.(See Photo) We then went back to the hotel and prepared for dinner and a night out.

After another great meal at the hotel (they upped the number of bottles of Vino/Table for the last night) We headed out to take Salerno by storm. We stopped at our first bar where the best music from 2005 was playing. After a while some of my friends befriended some Italian girls who were set to show us the best of what Salerno has to offer. We ended up at some club with a high cover, so instead we went to the hole in the wall next door.

Needless to say, it was amazing, European dance music, the whole scene. We ended there and went to bed. Twas a great time. We were up early today to go to Sorrento. The bus trip up was amazingly beautiful with the cliffs, bay, and Mt. Vesuvius in the background. We started off in the hills above Sorrento touring a lemon farm and testing amazing food (best bread ever; there was fennel in it) and some lemonchello.

We ended up in Sorrento where we did some touring, saw more of the bay and local shopping. This weekend never stopped getting better and I can't wait to see what the rest of my travels bring me.

Bussing it home now to pass out dead. This weekend was exhausting with many new memories, friends, and potential Facebook profile pictures (PPP's). I guess I have class again tomorrow. I mean my first class is at 2. Better rest up.

Buonanotte

(Hope I don't snore on the bus, how embarrassing)

To Roma and Beyond

Saturday I went to the Colosseum and Forum with all of my classmates, and it was something I really can't put in to words. I stopped and couldn't really even comprehend how old these buildings are, and how they were ever possible built. I took my first Roman bus without a tour guide, and found my new favorite Pizza place by Piazza Navona where I ate the most amazing 4 euro pizza in my life, I'm sure it will be outdone many a time over my time here, lets be serious.


Sunday we took a day trip to Tivoli, a small town about an hour north of Rome, and toured Villa D'Este, the summer residence of a former Cardinal. There are over 500 fountains on the property, and we had an amazing tour guide that made all of the difference, she was an archeologist, and was able to show us how the property has changed since it was built over 2000 years ago, then we had lunch in a restaurant that was super creepy at first, but we were told to only have 5 tables and now held our group of 200 because they kept discovering and excavating rooms that they found out were crypts below a church directly above. That was an experience to say the least.

I had my first classes yesterday, My Italian class was a comedy of errors as everyone in a 102 class struggled to understand our native speaking Italian professor with limited English- It will be an interesting semester for sure. My second class I've had was Values Based Leadership, which is an elective I'm taking that seems amazing. My professor is the director of the Rome Center, and is interesting in his own right, his name is Emilio Iodice. He's worked for 5 administrations in the White House, he was in the top ranks of the diplomatic core, and is considered one of the most decorated officers in American history, has been knighted in Italy and Spain. Essentially he is crazy, and there are only 6 of us in the class, it is going to be an amazing exploration of leaders of the past, taking positives and negatives from each of them and applying them to ourselves.

Aside from school I have SIDE TRIPS SIDE TRIPS SIDE TRIPS planned. This weekend I am going to Castera/Solerno/Sorrento as my last "official" Loyola orientation trip.

I booked a trip for Istanbul for the weekend of February 3rd, and will be residing in Roma for the weekend of my Birthday, it just seems fitting. The weekend after that, I am going to Firenze, which will be cool.

The trip I am most excited about is my spring break trip I just booked is to TUNISIA March 2nd-11th. Tunisia is a place I'll never have a chance to go to again, and it is an optional study trip organized by the program so I will be with my SLA's (like study abroad RA's) and a professor and tour guide that study the area so I can get the most out of it. It is going to be an amazing experience for sure.

Other than that I still have to go down to the Piazza and buy full size toiletries and do some laundry, and you know, buy books for my classes, all of that just seemed so much less important than making friends and booking trips, you know?

My First Days In Rome

The trip over here was pretty uneventful, there
was a huge group on the flight that I got to know before we boarded,
I had an excellent seat to Frankfurt, first row of economy in an exit
row, (Thank god there were no emergencies, I lied to the flight
attendant, I really don't think I'd be that helpful)

We had three hours to kill in the Frankfurt airport, so me and my
newfound JFRC buddies took over an empty gate and BS'ed while we were
all slap happy tired as it neared 2 am at home. I PASSED OUT on the
flight from Frankfurt, only to wake up for like 5 minutes cruising
over the Alps. IT WAS GORGEOUS

Got here, split a cab with one of the people I met to get here, was
exhausted, started orientation, slept, and then started our first
comedy of errors of trying to find a bar thats a 10 minute walk away.
Needless to say it took us over an hour to get there, but it was great
when we did, it was after 1am, I had 1 drink and was falling asleep so
I walked back up my new friend monte mario and went to sleep.

Yesterday was my first real day in Rome. Mitch, Matt (mitch's roomate)
and I went to find the local Piazza Balduino, bought some stuff,
spoke in Italian, and felt super Euro. We found the supermarket, I
bought alcohol for the first time (CRAZY), I love il VIno, I also love
that here it is separated out by region. Then we went back to campus
for more orientation festivities.

We has convocation, as this is another university I will soon be a
"graduate" of, and learned that this semester marks the 50th year of
the centers existence. Cool stuff, they introduced all of the staff
and everyone seems AMAZING, the stuff they have for us to do here is
CRAZY.

Then last night is when stuff really got crazy, before dinner Mitch,
Matt, Olivia and I decided we could walk to the vatican, only like a
30 minute walk (according to a priest on campus, so we believed
him)and then get on the metro and go to the trevi fountain. We ran in
to the head of res life on our way out and he gave us a recommendation
for a Gelateria and a restaurant near the vatican.

It was not a bad walk at all, tempered with some AMAZING gelato that
we found to be much better than the second Gelato we had last night.
The vatican and il piazza di san pietro were awesome, there were still
Christmas decorations up everywhere, which was cool (facebook pictures
to follow shortly)

Then we went to this small restaurant in some weird alley looking
place near the Vatican whose name escapes me and we had amazing food
we all ended up loving, paired with vino rose della casa! We also made
a point not to speak ANY English to the waiter, which wasn't bad, but
it was an interesting challenge not to even fill in with random words
we didn't know. When the waiter brought the bill he said in hilarious
broken English "Thank you for a a using a my a language" it was really
cool and we were all pretty proud of ourselves, obviously.

We decided to keep walking to the Trevi, since it's a very pretty
walk, which was a great idea, it was amazing to be walking around Rome
at night, it was super quiet and awesome. We went to the spanish
steps, met by some persistent rose peddlers which were super hilarious
after a while.

Ending up at the Trevi fountain at night was great, more than I
expected, and just like everyone told me, you're just like chilling
walking through some alley like street, you turn right, and theres
this amazing fountain. A bride and groom were there taking pictures,
it was just all so perfectly Roman.

Then we went to the metro, tried to take it home, but got off about 4
stops to early due to some language barrier issues and lack of good
map with some very nice metro workers. We were lost but we figured it
out and got home like 40 minutes later. We did stop and ask some guy
where we were. His face when I said "sono perso" was hilarious, turns
out we were one block west of where we needed to be, aren't you happy
I am being so detailed?

So we got back at like 12:30, after having walked for over 6 hours,
naturally we decided to go out again and meet up with some more people
at the bar we now knew was only 10 minutes away since we got lost the
last time.

Woke up awhile ago, got lunch, and am headed to a speech about all of
my study trip options!

Woop woop, also got the confirmations for the hotels for rome and
paris with my mom and sisters, cannot wait.

From The Plane

I don't believe in finding yourself. I believe in thing the time To listen to yourself.

As I sit in the plane awaiting my first trip to Europe, I can't help but get a little introspective. For all of winter break, people have been giving me little slivers of advice, wishing me well, and sharing in my excitement.

Each and every one of these speeches ended with "you are going to have the time of your life", and "this is such a great opportunity". These two things put a lot of pressure on me I wasn't expecting. not that I am not expecting to have the time of my life, but now this trip has something to live up to.

The second bit of common sentiments expressed to me really makes me think. Everyone saying that this is going to be the trip of a lifetime and talking about the opportunity I had made me really starts to take ownership of this trip.

It started to process to me that now I was on my way, my bags were packed, my uncle got me a waist wallet for Christmas, and in a few short days I would be on this plane to Rome.

Now I sit here and am faced already with cultural differences on the plane. The success of this trip I have finally realized is not the nice new luggage, the money to travel or even who I get to spend time with.

The only thing that can really make this truly a trip of a lifetime is myself.
This brings me back to my first point about not believing in finding yourself. Finding Yourself, in my opinion Is just a cliche excuse college kids make up to fly to Europe.

Isn't all of college about "finding yourself"? Taking time to listen to yourself is what I believe in. Actually stopping and trying to understand who you already are and why, not chasing a stereotype around Europe, or a college campus for that matter.

That being said the opportunity I have to study abroad is one I won't squander trying to find myself, but instead listen to who I am.