Roma

This weekend our program took all the people who live in the apartments to Rome. Our program is about 140 people big so they split these longer trips up into to different groups.

We left Barcelona on friday morning at 4am. It was rather early, but we all made it to the buses on time. Once we got to the airport we had a little scare though. Kathleen was looking through her purse and couldnt find her wallet anywhere. She knew she had broughten it, she remembered looking at it on the way to the API office, but it was nowhere to be found now. Her wallet had all her money, cards, and passport. After searching the airport and calling the bus she was on, we found it!!!! It had fallen out of her purse on the bus. After that we got a small snack at the airport, boarded our plane and was off. I normally have a hard time flying and falling asleep, but I was out before we even took off and stayed asleep right until we landed.

When we landed in Rome the weather was absolutely terrible. It was so windy and pouring down rain. I thought if that is what it was going to be like all weekend I dont know if I would even make it out of our hotel room. Thankfully by the time we made it to our hotel it had all cleared up. The bus ride to the hotel took rather long because in Rome they were having a public transportation walk out until noon, so we got caught up right in the middle of it. Finally we arrived, checked in, got some food and coffee and then headed back to the buses for a bus tour of the town.

The bus tour was really cool! we went all over rome and saw a lot of cool things, and then they stopped the buses at Saint Peter´s Basillica. It was so amazing. So much better than any picture or book I have ever seen. When we went inside Saint P´s I was in awe. It took me about 5 minutes to actually just sit back and take everything in. It is one of the largest, most ornate churches I have ever been in. It was soo awesome!

After the bus tour, all my roommates were tired and wanted to take a nap, but I was way too wired off the coffee so I went with some other girls in my program and we walked down to the Spanish steps. They were way different than I have ever imagined. I thought they were brown and ugly and by the colliseum. When really they are white, broken up into 3 sections, and not by the colliseum at all. But the view from the top was really cool. Rome has no really tall buildings. Everything is pretty flat and you can see forever. I stayed there for awhile, but then I thought that I should head back because I didnt want my roommates to wake up and wonder where I was and I didnt want to see too much without them. I took a nice walk back to the hotel by myself and just took in being in Rome.

After they woke up, we got ready and went out to dinner with some of our friends in our program. Friday night we were doing the Spanish Steps pub crawl, so we needed to be done with dinner by 830 to get to the Steps by 845. Well you would think that in Rome there would be places to eat everywhere, but when we went to the Spanish Steps to look for a place to have dinner we couldnt find anywhere. We walked for about 15 20 minutes and finally found one. I got my first italian pizza. It was good, but not as good as I was expecting. But I was starving so I finished it all hah. We made it to the steps at a little after 9 and made it to the pub crawl at like 915. The first bar was all you can drink for an hour starting at 9, and the only way you would get a bew beer or glass of wine was to finish your first. Well by the time we actually got into the bar it was about 930 so we only had 30 minutes to drink for free, but we were all so full from stuffing our faces at dinner it made it rather hard to even think about drinking. They had one competition while we were at the first bar. It was a beer chugging competition and Erin Kathleen and I all partaked just for fun. Well I ended up winning and got a cool free shirt so that was fun. Dont worry mom I only had four beers all night long! hah We went to a few more bars after that, but I was so tired Kathleen and I came home at about 1 130 and went to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up, we had breakfast at our hotel which was great, and then our program was taking us to the Colliseum. If they wouldnt have taken us it would have been 28 euro to get in, so I was really happy they took us there. The colliseum was so awesome. To see it in person and look at everything was amazing. I still cant believe that they made all that from hand. Its so crazy. Its just so weird to think how old everything really is there. I have been hearing about all this stuff all my life in history class and then to finally see it was so cool. After the colliseum our program planned to take us to the Roman ruins, but you can see them everywhere, so we decided to head to the Sistine Chapel before it closed at 130.

The Sistine Chapel was way different than I have ever imagined. First we walked through the Vatican museum, I thought it was going to be a museum about the church and everything, but it looked alot like what we saw in the Louvre so I was a little disappointed. Finally we made our way to the Chapel. It looked like just a large room with the famous painting. I thought it was going to be alot bigger and look like an actual Chapel. I was a little disappointed by the room/building, but no the art work. You werent suppose to take a picture but I managed to sneak one. We were all getting tired and hungry from the day, so we headed back towards the hotel. I needed food real bad so me and 3 of my friends went to go find a good sandwich place. Once again we walked and walked trying to find one and some how we ended up at the Colliseum. They had a few little sandwich places there, so we grabbed some lunch and ate outside the colliseum. Pretty awesome. I then just came home, took a shower and small nap, and then got ready for the night.

Some of Kathleens friends who went to Seattle prep and go to University of Washington are studying in Rome and so we went to campi de furri or whatever it is called and got some dinner and met up with them. Dinner was so great. we just sat around and enjoyed our last night in rome.

Sunday morning, we woke up at like 9 because we needed to be cheaked out by 930 and then we really wanted to see the pope so we wanted to get out early. Erin Tenessa and I hadnt seen the trevi fountain yet, so we walked there on our way to the Vatican. It was huge. I was no expecting that at all. and Its just in the middle of what seems like a neighborhood. I thought that it was in the middle of some square or street or something. After that we walked to the vatican and on the way there we ran into the Panthione or whatever. I dont really know what it is or was but it was cool to look at. after about a 30 40 minute walk we made it! Sunday was a beautiful day out and so we all just sat around in the square at the vatican and waited. Finally he came out. He said some prayer in italian and then said hello to everyone in different languages. It was so amazing! I am still in shock that I got to see the Pope. That has been one of my life long dreams. And just being there with everyone was amazing. There were a ton of nuns and priests and other religious people everywhere. When he first came out everyone started screaming and clapping.

All in all this was an amazing weekend and I am so grateful for every moment I share here. It is so amazing and I have never been so happy and have felt so blessed. Last night I went on my first run, yes a run, with erin and it was so good. It was so warm and there was barely anyone on the streets and we just ran around barcelona. Just saying that is still so weird to me hah.

well more to come soon! prague this weekend! miss you all!!!!