Santa Marie Maggiore, about two blocks from my apartment.
This was a great night. Steph and I stopped by our Professors apartment to say hey, and him and his wife ended up inviting us to a classical piano concert in a beautiful church near Piazza Novona. After the concert, you bring your ticket to a nearby Trattoria and receive a free glass of Prosecco, delish Italian champagne. It was a great surprise and one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
This was after riding a bus around, we ended up in the Villa Borghese Gardens. It was a beautiful winter day, it made me very thankful I wasn't there in the 100 degree heat that hits Rome in the Summer!
This was the night we watched the Seahawks lose at a bar (big surprise). I had to leave before the game was over because there were these trashy guys behind us with handle-bar mustaches cheering on Greenbay. Gross. At least my Campari drink was tasty.
Santa Maria Maggiore again (Front View).
Our apartment! If you look really close, you can probably see the hookers that hang out on our street. I'm going to try to take some undercover pictures of them soon. Hey mom, if I go broke I at least know how to make some quick cash! Haha just kidding...
This was on Sunday morning when we ventured to the Trastevere neighborhood to go to the flea market. I got off the bus early, but we came upon some cool side streets and a gorgeous view.
The Villa Borghese Gardens again, don't you just want to pick one and eat it?
On Saturday we went to the Quirinale, according to our Professor the President of Rome lives here and normally nobody is allowed in, but they are doing an exhibit on stolen and illegally obtained Roman artifacts that they have gotten back over the years. I wanted to crack up the whole time because 80% of the artifacts were taken from the Getty , it made me smile because it reminded me of this summer. I started taking picture s of the building because that was almost the best part - unbelievable chandeliers and furniture. I almost got kicked out for taking pictures but I managed to be undercover and take a few. The whole time I was paranoid I'd get pulled away by the Italian police or something!
In other news, the most basic things in life tend to be the most difficult in Italy. We have no idea how to work our washing machine, when we try it runs for like 4 hours and no water even goes into the machine. As of now I will be wearing dirty clothes my entire time here which is fine with me but probably not the people around me...Going to the store is also really interesting - it's hard to know what you are buying because the labels are so hard to read, especially if you are trying to buy meat or dairy. I constantly feel like I am doing something wrong, the looks you get from Italians while at the store or shopping aren't the most encouraging, even when you try your best to speak Italian. You just have to ignore it when people look at you like you are the dumbest person ever, but it can be a bit hard at times.
Aside from my daily struggles with simple tasks, I had something intense happen to me on the bus today. Our apartment has to ride the bus to class because we are so far away, and our Professor bought us a monthly bus pass - only to find out this pass was for "Italians only" (a little rude to foreigners if you ask me) but the "Non Italian" bus pass is like 90 euros compared to 18 so I've just been using my Italian one. Every once in awhile, an inspector gets on the bus, asking people for tickets to make sure they aren't just riding and cheating the system. So today, I was spacing out, and suddenly I hear someone say, "Ticket, please." I look up and it's an inspector. My face turned bright red and I just thought, "Shit, this is it. I'm going to get fined over 100 Euros..." I showed him my ticket and he just glanced at it and said, "Thank You." I couldn't believe it! Maybe he didn't care because he saw I had a ticket, or because I'm some American girl, or maybe I was just lucky. Who knows what could happen next time. I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one...
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