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!