a beginning

Studying abroad has always been something I have wanted to do. I didn't have my heart set on coming to Rome right away however as time progressed, and I began to understand the advantages of the program, I became evermore excited to start. As usual the first adventure happened in transit. After arriving in Milan, Italy the airport closed which forced us to spend fourteen long hours staring at each other through the night. By the time we arrived in Rome the next morning it had been over 36 hours of travel and less than one hour of sleep. However my architecture all-nighter training pulled me through without any mess. As we came into Fiumicino on the last leg of the flight I could look east at the Appenines mountains which make up the backbone of Italy; and west to the Mediteranean Sea. Rome is in a geographical wonderland, nestled in rolling flatlands with both mountain and sea within grasp. If Rome was Ames, Boon would be the Med. and Neveda (IA) would be the mountains. I was very happy.

The next valuable lesson we learned was about traffic patterns in Italy. We got a taxi to bring us to the housing office where we needed to get our keys. To sum the drive up, Italians take every sign, light, or other vehicle as a suggestion for what to do, and that is all. In order to get through the throngs of Vespas our driver would nearly nudge them out of their lanes and onto the shoulder. This excitment was mixed with the odd combination of American pop music and 2000 year old buildings out your window.

After finally getting to our apartment it was time to settle in and attempt a grocery store run. On the way to the store we passed the Pantheon which sits about a block from where I live. Its a big building. I cannot describe how big it is until you stand inside it. So unfortunatly thats one of the many sights I will have to pass on my way to studio everyday. The next challenge came at the store in identifying what products were what. I took around 20 min. trying to pick out the butter (still not sure if I got the right one). My food selecting now is the great variety of potatoes or pasta. I think I also got some milk, bread, and possibly soup mix???? Thankfully food costs were less than I expected them to be, very similar to those in Iowa (except in euros).

So here I am now, the rest of my roommates are still drifting in, I live in a 10 person apartment. The food is in one of the three refridgerators and we figured out how to turn the water heater on, now all we have to do is figure out why its leaking!

ciao from Romatrevi fountain