A day in the life...

Week 1 of spring semester = complete!  To be honest, I'm glad it's over!  I have never wanted to wish away my time in Rome, but this past week was a pretty tough transition time for me.  Classes and getting around Rome went very well, but I struggled getting acquainted with the new group of students, as their mentality about being here is currently very different than mine.  But despite bouts of homesickness and fall-semester sickness, I have experienced several reminders of the promise that this semester still holds.  Change is bound to be tough at first, but now that I have gotten over the first few transitional days, I feel ready to embrace the new.

In my re-acquainting phase this week, I spent a lot of time simply walking around the city by myself and visiting both sights I've seen as well as those I haven't.  I typically have my afternoons free while many of the girls are in class, so it's the perfect opportunity to go exploring.  As I was on one of my excursions the other day, I was thinking about how cool it is that I can just wake up every day here and be like "What do I want to do today?"  There are obviously so many things in Rome I have yet to see, so normally I aim for one or two and walk in the direction of the destination.  Sometimes I don't even make it to the place I had originally set out to visit, as I get sidetracked by various places on the way.  I end up stopping in random churches and admiring Caravaggio paintings, praying in front of the tombs of saints and apostles, stopping in bars to enjoy a cappuccino and pastry, and gazing out at the Foro Romano from atop Capitoline Hill---just to name a few :)  It's the best way to enjoy the city.  Just walk.  You'll always be impressed by what you find.

A little hard to see, but can you spy the dome of St. Peter's Basilica?!

Il Foro Romano

Tomb of the Apostles Philip and James

Mamertime Prison where St. Peter was imprisoned prior to his crucifixion

Other interesting/random things that happened this week:

• Our Philosophy professor, Andrea Branchi took us out for pizza in Campo dei Fiori during class! When in Rome...

• I took Ana to Giolitti for the first time (aka the best gelateria in the universe) and she claimed I ruined her gelato by telling her to get "panna" (homemade whipped cream) on top!  For the record, everyone else I have ever gone with LOVES the panna. Silly Ana :)

• I went to Sunday mass at Saint Peter's Basilica and then stayed for the Angelus (when the Pope prays with everyone in the square from his window). 

Viva il Papa!

A lovely Sunday morning!

• I climbed the dome of Saint Peter's for the second time--this time with Ana and another girl on our program (who is actually from Australia!) named Hillary.  Ana complained about the 500+ stairs the whole way, but I promised her that the view at the top is worth every step, and of course she loved it :)  Who wouldn't?!

United States, Australia, and Mexico represent :)

We stayed at the top of the cupola for sunset...nothing short of amazing.

We have another make-up day of classes this Friday, so Ana and two other girls on the program (students at Penn State and Clemson), and I are planning to leave for Florence Friday night and spend the weekend there with hopefully a short stop in Pisa!  I'm in the process of trying to plan other weekend trips--there are so many places I want to see! I am going to Paris in mid-February and I would also like to go to Cinque Terre, Sicily, Brussels, a few cities in Austria, and Ireland during my time here.  This semester we have more open weekends to travel so most of those places should be do-able.   

Well, that's all for now!  Buona settimana a tutti! Ti amo!