ROMA!

I’m finally in the city of Rome. My travel experience wasn’t amazing but I got here in one piece and my bags did too J! My first flight was late so that set things back but the wonderful United Airlines clerk got everything switched over which meant I flew into a different German airport, Frankfurt, but it really wasn’t that big of a hassle. The flights went really fast, I didn’t have much of a layover anywhere except in Frankfurt and most of that time was spent trying wake up and be a normal person again from my 9 hour flight across the Atlantic. I finally got to Fumincio Airport in Rome around 2:15 p.m. It was kinda crazy from that point on. We waited for about 3 hours in the airport for a shuttle to the school to check-in and get everything we needed. I piled in a van with 4 other people and all of our luggage around 5:00 and took the very interesting drive through the city, many small winding streets and CRAZY traffic. We made it to the office and then got our phones, keys and signed lots of paperwork, it was all a blur. I was so tired and we only had about 5 minutes to do it all because our shuttle had to get going. It was way too much information to process in such a short period of time, but we loaded back in the van and our driver maneuvered through traffic and dropped us off at all of our different apartments.

I arrived at my apartment complex, and lugged my suitcases up 2 flights of stairs, thank goodness it wasn’t 7 like the boys I had been dropped off with (little did I know there was a small elevator I could have used). I reached the door and attempted to open it with my new set of keys, one of which definitely resembled a car key. I think I must have made quite a ruckus, because I soon heard voices from inside. “I think some one is trying to get in.” and I answered back introducing myself and it seemed like forever to get it unlocked and we tried everything finally I turned the key just right and the door opened.

I walked into my apartment, I was expecting the worst. I mean from all of the information we had received from Study Abroad Italy it sounded like our living situation could be quite interesting. I was also worried because we had 9 girls living in one apartment! I was praying it was huge and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was. You walk in and the “dining” area and living room were really small with a teeny-tiny TV. As you continue down the hall it turns to a wooden parkae floor which is absolutely gorgeous, we have 4 pretty good double sized rooms and one single, 2 bathrooms and a nice kitchen. There is also a beautiful blue tiled balcony that you can access from three of the bedrooms! It was so great to find that we had a nice place to live! My roommate wasn’t there when I got it but 5 of the girls were, and they all headed out to dinner. I stayed in to unpack and after a while 2 others arrived and we went to find some food as well. That dining experience is a whole other story! After we finished we headed back to the place and I got to meet my roommate. She seemed really nice, but we didn’t spend much time getting to know each other. We sort of unpacked and then crashed out. We had to be up for breakfast at 8:30 at the campus.

P.S. the picture is my room...when I moved in, you can't really see all of it and this blog is kinda lame, I can only post one pic at a time...i'll work on that though so you can see more :)

Love
Nic