It's so incredibly late at night right now, but I feel like I should update! Rach and I got back a little while ago from dinner with my dad, who was in London on business and decided to make a stop to Rome to see me! We went to Gaudi Pizzeria, which is a restaurant where my dad's whole side of the family ate 2 years ago when we were in Italy all together! It was my dad, Rach, Sabrina, Amanda, and I. I had linguini with pesto, basil, and fresh parmesan, as well as the Gaudi salad (ham, smoked mozzarella, tomatoes, and lettuce) It was all delicious. We had great conversation too, and I was glad my dad could meet some of my friends here. I was a little sad after dinner when I got back to Paola's just because it was so good to see my dad that I didn't want him to leave tomorrow; I feel like this was such little time with him. At the same time, it's only 5 weeks until family week, and this weekend I'll be distracted since I'll be at OKTOBERFEST! I can't wait to embrace my German heritage at this historical event (Pa, I wish you were coming with us so I'd have an excuse to say the name "Nussel" and sound SO local).

My favorite trip so far was this past weekend's excursion to Tuscany! Our class went to a wine tasting at this beautiful castle which I doubt I'll ever find again, it was in such a remote location. The scenery was amazing - everything was so green and you could only see mountains for miles and miles. We tasted four different wines: the first was vino bianco, the next two were different kinds of Chianti, and the last was an auburn colored dessert wine that Italians use to dip their biscotti in! I'm guessing this is the equivalent to me dipping Oreos in milk....? We ended the night with a huge dinner where the main course was PHEASANT!? I'm glad I tried it, but I'm not sure I'm ready to eat such a "delicacy" any time soon. Sure it tasted like chicken, but still.

Tomorrow morning, I'll have breakfast with my dad, then jet off to Munich with my friends around 7 P.M.! Who knows, I may return to Italia sporting a brand new pair of lederhosen.

Here are some pictures from my first few weeks in Rome! I, of course, left my camera charger at my house in Pennsylvania so my camera has been dead since about day 2, so most of these are taken from my friends' albums. My computer isn't really letting me put them in order for some reason, so some may seem random, but no big deal. Enjoy!

 on our way to Roma!

 Rach and I in front of a fountain in Piazza Navona during our first walk around the city with DDV

First night out in Piazza Navona

SO happpppy to finally be here

 Ponte Sant'Angelo

Just the Colosseum right down the street from our host mom's house

 Dinner with the group at an amazing pizzeria

Streets of Roma

 Having a drink at one of the many public fountains in Rome

Largo Argentina, where Julius Caesar was assassinated!

 Me, Ariana, Erica, and Rach inside St. Paul's

All of us waiting for the bus to Sperlonga!

The group on Ponza's rock beach, better known as Piscine Naturale

Literally a make-shift jacuzzi built into the rock

We found my dog Owen's TWIN in Ponza by the way...

Rach, Kara, and I serenading Scholar's Bar in Campo di Fiori with Blink 182's classic What's My Age Again at karaoke night! We all always have so much fun there

Okay this is all my computer will allow me to put up without any trouble; I'll try and post more later. This past weekend was fun! On Friday we all went to DJ Bar, a REALLY fun place in Campo. The music was blasting when we all walked in, and downstairs there's like three different  lounges - basically reminded me of The Den at Loyola (R.I.P.). Needless to say, all the girls claimed a room and danced insanely to Grillz by Nelly (shoutout to my mom because she loves him), obviously a classic.

 Saturday was very rainy. Kind of a let down, but we still got to walk around a bit and ended up meeting our friends at St. John's in their dorm (they were staying in a dorm because they were getting moved into another host family, since their first one was so far outside the city) to just hang out and bond. We went to dinner with Kara, Merena and Laura (we all live near each other) to a great restaurant in Campo. Rach and I had pasta with mushrooms, it was so delicious.  We called it an early night because we had to wake up early for mass. Sunday morning we attended a service at Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the most famous churches in Rome that's literally about 3 blocks away from our house.  Rach and I grabbed a quick lunch and I bought postcards, then we walked down to the section of our street where there was the Colosseum to our right, and the Forum to our left. AMAZING. Rach and I were in shock for a good few minutes. I can't wait for family week because that's when everyone gets together and goes on tours of these places! I can't believe I have all these historic sites and places at my fingertips. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed because there's just so much to take in I don't know where to start. I'm so thankful I have three months here.

Our explorations led us to find a restaurant called Wanted. We read the menu and it had the best sounding pasta and pizza for about 8 or 9 euro each - such a good bargain for quality food. We called some of our girlfriends and met there. Everyone loved it. I'm so happy we have such a great group of people on this trip, I've made close friendships with people I never even knew at Loyola. Studying abroad really opens your eyes to how limited our world can be, because we make it that way. It's not our fault; sometimes that's just the way things happen. But just being with these different people, in a completely different culture, on the other side of the world... I've already realized so much I feel like and it's only September. 


Today we went to the catacombs in San Giovanni for our Liturgy class; we didn't spend one second in a classroom today! We walked the Appian Way to get to the catacomb site, which was so gorgeous. Then DDV bought us tickets and we started the tour. Our guide gave us a brief introduction of the tombs that we were about to see, and then we began our journey down three or four levels into the ground. I don't get claustrophobic, but a few girls were a little flustered as the hallways got more narrow. At one point our guide made us walk through a section of the catacombs in complete silence because we were walking, at that point, past all the graves of martyrs who stood up for their Christian beliefs man years ago and were punished for it. One tomb we saw had a glass covering over the top so you could see inside - you could see the woman's HAIR and bones! So crazy. Only in Rome would a Theology class be held in catacombs.

This week is looking like an extremely busy one: tomorrow (Tuesday) I have Italian for three hours, then a meeting about service, dinner at our friend Amanda's host family's house for her 20th birthdaaaay, then hopefully a discoteca to continue the festivities. Wednesday I have Italian and then another 3 hours of service, which I am a little nervous for because apparently the homeless people you serve at the soup kitchen yell at you because they want more bread or something. Hope I'm not on bread duty for that reason...and because Merena told me there's lots of crumbs with that job. Yes, everyone here somehow got me to confess my phobia of crumbs. Thursday and Friday are our Italian finals - first written, then an oral. Like how is our first Italian class ending already... so incredibly weird. Everything's starting to move WAY too fast. This weekend we go to Tuscany with DDV which I'm so excited for. We have an appointment at a museum right when we get there, and then Saturday or Sunday night we all go to a wine tasting! Is this real life. 

Ciao ragazzi!

And so it begins.

            I am in Rome until December. I honestly have to keep repeating this phrase to myself every day, over and over, because it still seems surreal.  I always knew I had to come back to this awe-inspiring place ever since I came here three summers ago with my dad’s whole side of the family. We saw the typical tourist favorites: The Colosseum, the gorgeous Trevi Fountain, St. Peter’s… and although it was wonderful I knew I wanted more. When Dr. Dawson came to Loyola to talk about studying in Rome for three and a half months, I was sold immediately.  It just felt right. I definitely felt a little anxious as my departure date in August loomed over my head and summer came to a close, and I’ve already had my little bouts of homesickness here and there. But I cannot get over this immense opportunity that I’m so lucky to get to take. 

            Let’s see if I can summarize up until right now. We arrived around 8 A.M. Roman time on Friday August 27^th. After checking into a hotel close to our new school, St. John’s, we had a chance to sleep a little bit until orientation began. We walked around the city with the whole group, and got our first gelato! SO delicious. After DDV (what I’ll be referring to Dr. Dawson as) showed us around what seemed like the entire country of Italy, we went back and got much needed sleep. On Saturday night after more orientation, we decide to bond with the group a little bit! A few casual glasses of wine on the roof terrace later, we all went out together to a fun bar in Piazza Navona! The next day, we left the hotel and departed for our host family’s house!

            Rachel’s and my host mother is Paola Pippia, an older woman in her 60s who lives in such a lively neighborhood RIGHT near the Colosseum!  Paola is lovely.  We are the first girls she’s ever had, and she definitely seems a little shy still, but we don’t mind at all.  She speaks no English, and at first Rach and I were intimidated by this communication barrier. But she is so incredibly patient with us, and thankfully she understands almost any hand gesture you could ever think of.  She’s a fantastic cook too! Yesterday night we had fish that looked like they could have been caught minutes before, straight out of the ocean, but we still tried it! A few “no mi piace’s” later, all three of us were laughing about it. Other then that, the meals have been so, so good.

            Our whole group went to Sperlonga the weekend of Sept. 4^th, then Ponza the next weekend. Sperlonga was just a day trip and Aurora was there too, but by the end of the day all of us were ready to stay there for like a month, it was that beautiful. Little did we know we’d seen nothing yet – Ponza was stunning. Transportation got a little complicated to say the least, but once we were all there we had the most fun time. We stayed at Aurora’s friend’s houses. I stayed with a few girlfriends on the top floor of the first house, all the boys and four other girls stayed on the bottom half, and then the rest stayed in the second house just walking distance away. In my next entry I’ll be sure to put up pictures, because the view we woke up to was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It was so nice to be all together. We all love our host families so much and we are getting to learn so much about the culture from staying with them; I absolutely love having my own bed, and it’s nice to just hang out with Rach and chill out at the end of our busy days. But it’s hard to get used to not going back to dorms after classes and all being able to hang out!

            So far I think my Italian classes are my favorite. I like that we are all in the same building Monday-Friday, and I forgot how intriguing it is to learn a new language (I’ve been taking Spanish for years). Our teacher is hilarious, and she is extremely good at what she does. We already had our first midterm, which I felt really prepared for thanks to her.

            I haven’t had too many Liturgy and Art and Architecture classes, but I can already tell they are going to be challenging. In a good way. Honestly, theology and history have always been my least favorite subjects, but I have to take my second level of both of them for Loyola’s core; and what better place to take these two subjects then ROME. I’m so excited that the city is basically my textbook. We’ve already been to a significant amount of churches for holy water – in one of them we drank holy water!? My favorite so far was Santa Croce, in Gerusalemme, Rome. This church is built on actual Jerusalem soil, and it’s breathtaking inside. There is a statue of St. Helen inside the church (Emperor Constantine’s mother who basically founded this church) and inside the glass case she’s in, the public can write prayers on scraps of paper, like any scrap of paper they can find in their bags, and place it next to Helen in the glass case. I wrote a prayer on my train ticket from Ponza.

Besides Liturgy, Art and Architecture, and my two Italian classes, I am also taking a Travel Writing course to satisfy my minor in Writing. This is a career I would love to pursue. We are assigned readings in two books, one of which is called “The Best of Outside: The First 20 Years.” In here are essays from Outside magazine that famous travel writers have compiled about their adventures abroad. In one essay called “Going Places,” by Jim Harrison, a quote really stuck out to me; I read it over and over.

“Moving targets are hard to hit. You are doing what you want, rather than what someone else wants. This is not the time to examine your short comings, which will certainly surface when you get home.”

So simply written, and yet so profound. I’ve felt so restless these past few months and I didn’t understand why. But this is what abroad is all about. You have to keep moving. We cannot let ourselves fall victim to habits and routines in this life. Being halfway across the world from my family and friends is a complete loss of my comfort zone. But this is essential.  This is how you find out the person you want to be, and what’s truly important.

Until next time, CIAO!