Rome, Italy

Post to come, just got to Italy. Internet unbelieveably slow.

OK here we go.
Rome, Italy.

We made it. But first, the exam.

So this morning I woke up early at about 6 am to study some more for our first exam. It worked out well because sun rises at about 4:30 am. So then I had breakfast and then usual and rode to school with Rebecca and Clair. I had no accidents today. So far so good.

At about 9 am we jumped right into the test. It was fairly challenging, but mostly straightforward. Dr. Diller used a problem about air flow rate in ducks, which I seemed to write a lot about. Thus I “inspired” the problem. You're welcome friends.

After 3 hours, we headed over to the canteen (cafeteria) to have a quick bite of food before riding back to pack. I grabbed a sandwich for later. So we rode home rather quickly and finished packing. Today was the hottest day we have had so far, and it was probably only about 75 degrees Fahrenheit at the most, but the sun shine was blistering. We decided to ride our bikes with our stuffed backpacks and by the time we got to the rail station, Rebecca, Clair, and I were covered in sweat.

Anyways so we caught the train to London Stansted. The airline we are flying is called Ryan Air, and it basically flies all around Europe for a relatively reasonable price. After we checked our bags, we headed over to the terminal. Security here is pretty interesting. When you come through, they will randomly search you. And by search, I mean frisk. And by frisk, I mean grope and feel you up. Clair got “randomly” selected and the woman proceeded to search her. Clair kept laughing because I think the lady was tickling here. This was entertaining.

Waiting in the airport.

We get to the terminal at around 4:00 pm and we have about an hour and 15 minutes to kill. At this point I am deathly dehydrated. They made me poured out all my water in my nalgene, and there are absolutely no water fountains. I did however see one of those water coolers that dispenses hot and cold water from a 5 gallon jug behind this customer service desk. The woman working behind the counter appeared to be relatively young, so I figured I might be able to charm my way into getting some of the cold water. I was like, this is going to be awesome. So I walked up and put on a smile and said, “Hello, excuse me miss, is there a water fountain of some sort where I could get some water?” She didn’t even look up. She just said, “No sorry.” Then I was like “Do you think I could have a little of the water that yall have right there?” I pointed right at the jug. Again, “No, sorry.” Then I walked away dejected. I have zero charm.

So we boarded our plane at about 5:15 pm. It was an airport where you have to walk out to the airplane. Nice.

We flew Ryan Air. I'm not sure if i was violating security by taking these pictures. But oh well.

On the flight I let Kacie watch Gladiator. Apparently she has never seen this movie. I could not believe this. I felt that it would be appropriate to watch it before going to Rome. Not that Gladiator is an accurate representation of what Rome was like. But it’s got Russell Crowe in it, which is fine by me.

Sunset over Italy.

Anyways so the flight lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes. We landed at about 8:40ish (an hour a head of London).

Michelle, Deepa, and Lesley getting off the flight.

Jennifer and Laura.

Then we rode this bus line called Terravision that apparently has it’s business in shuttling people to and from the airport to the city centre. So we tried to get on this bus, but it was hard to figure out what was going on because the Italian people running the bus kept telling us to come, then back up. And this other annoying lady kept saying wait you cannot go until have given you your free cup of coffee coupon. Ehh. So we piled onto this bus and it just took off. I was having a great time just because we are now in this country where we can’t speak the national language, and we are on this bus heading to God knows where. It’s so fun because we are kinda just winging it. We have nothing planned, and we don’t know what is going on half the time. Just going with the flow. At least we have each other. This is pretty much exactly what I had in mind.

Termini train station where we were dropped off.

Termini area.

So from the city centre we walked to our hostel, which is about half a mile away, pretty close. The name of the hostel is called Freestyle. It’s in the most random location and there is no sign for the place. Anyways, so it is fairly small, and we are fairly large. It took almost half an hour to get our group all checked in. This guy named Tito was handling everything.

Prego.

He is this pretty funny Indian guy. Anyways so six of our group: Michelle, Lesley, Mike, Travis, Bryan, and Deepa stayed in the main building. The rest of us: Me, Clair, Rebecca, Kacie, Laura, and Jennifer had to go to their annex location which is about a 2 minute walk around the block. Kinda strange, but whatever.

Walking up to the room.

Anyways so Clair, Rebecca, Laura, and Jennifer have their own four person room. Me and Kacie are in a room of 3 other guys, who enjoy being shirtless. It might be a little awkward for her, but she can handle it. So anyways their names are Andrew (Virginia), Matt (Canada), and Nam? (London). They turned out to be pretty cool and they talked to us for a while. Apparently they’ve been here for a while and they gave us a bunch of tips on where to go and when to do it. I’m very excited.

Standing around before dinner. Rebecca, Clair, Kacie, 3/4 Jennifer, and 1/2 of Laura.

One of the rooms.

So at around 11:20 pm, we decided to go and grab some food because most of us didn’t really eat dinner.

Where we ate.

Bryan, Michelle, Lesley, Michael, Travis, Deepa

Laura, Clair, Jennifer, Kacie, Rebecca

It also turned out to be Kacie’s birthday at midnight, so that worked out really well. I had some ham bruschetta and crayfish risotto. It was to die for. The last time I had risotto was the last time I was in Italy.

Tangent: It was funny because my dad sent me an e-mail reminding me about the last time we went to Europe. I was in the summer between my 8th and 9th grade years. If I could go back in time to that vacation, I definitely would. We took a three week tour of Europe and hit Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Me, being the juvenile kid that I was, spent most of my time playing Tetris instead of appreciating where I was. Basically I am an idiot. But I do have record scores on Tetris that I believe no one will ever be able to match. It was like 141 million. If you think you are better than me and have a Gameboy Color and a link up cable, call me. I’ll be happy to eat you for breakfast. Oh, same with a TI-86. Anyways I digress, but I really regret not absorbing every minute I was in Europe.

So towards the end of dinner, we had the owner of the restaurantbring out a tiramisu dessert for Kacie right at midnight. It worked out pretty well because he didn’t really understand at first, but then he really came through with the lights turned off and sparklers. Kacie had no idea, so it worked out well. We sang her happy birthday and such.

Tiramisu

Here’s the funny part. Right as Kacie was about to dig into her dessert, the owner was like, “No, no, no, don’t eat.” And then something in Italian. We were like uhhh. Then we took the dessert literally while Kacie had her spoon in it and took it away. We were speechless. Seriously, did that just happen? We ordered a dessert… why did he take it away. But I think it was because there were burnt shavings from the sparklers on the tiramisu, so he brought out another one. Turns out, he was a really nice guy. I want to go back sometime.

So we walked back home. When we got close, I was like, "hey, we need to turn this is our street." The girls were like, "how do you know?" "I see it. Right there, Senso Unico." "Um, James, senso unico means one way."

My bad. and now we are sitting in our hostel foyer area, and I am writing this blog. The internet is ridiculously slow, so I will probably just post writing, and then pictures sometime later, maybe when I am back in Cambridge. SO check back.

I am currently waiting in line to take a shower. All the girls are showering one by one, plus the other people in our annex need to use the bathroom as well.

Our bathroom with no toilet see and a bidet.

Rebecca and Clair, cleaning.

Sitting in the fridge. Oh my God was it hot.

Clair mopping the flooded floor

Kinda hectic, but it all adds to the experience. Great times, better stories.

Anyways, to everyone back home: We are in Rome, we are safe, we are having the most amazing time, and we are tired. Goodnight.

Ciao,
James