The first three weeks of this trip were jam packed, and most of my time in Greece was scheduled down to the minute. Now that we’re in Rome the feel of the trip is very different. Instead of all staying in the same hotel we’re spread out in groups of three or four in rental apartments around the city and we have considerably fewer scheduled activities. I’m really glad that the trip was arranged that way, because all of the mandatory group time during the first few weeks helped me to make friends that I’m hanging out with now that we have some free time. My apartment is cute; it has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a patio. It has a washing machine with a very ineffective spin cycle, and an unfortunately timed rainstorm meant that I had my load of laundry on the clothesline for nearly four days. It’s nice to have a little more room than at a hotel, and the kitchen will hopefully help us save a little bit of money on food.
Yesterday the whole group took the obligatory field trip to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. In all honesty it was a lot to take in and I wish that I was more knowledgeable about what I was seeing because I know I missed a lot. In Greece we used a book called the Blue Guide to lead us through the sites which was very academically and historically based. It was dry with a lot of information. Now, we’re using Rick Steves’ Rome 2011, and it has a lot more puns a lot less history. I have mixed feelings about Rick Steves, but I’ll give him a few more days before I pass my final judgment. We also had our first class in Rome yesterday and I did very poorly on a quiz (really though, how am I supposed to study when I’M IN ROME???)
Today we went on an awfully boring bus tour of Rome. As a tour guide myself I hate to criticize too much because I know how terrible it can be to talk at a group of uninterested people, but I’m pretty sure our tour guide, Ned, could make a solid living curing insomnia. His voice was just low enough that I couldn’t really understand him and I found it very soothing. I took a nice nap.
This afternoon we visited the Church of San Clemente, which is a twelfth century Christian church built on top of a fourth century Christian church built on top of a third century Temple to the pagan god Mithras. You can walk down the stairs (and through the centuries) to see all of structures, and it’s super cool.
Tonight we’re having our second big “family dinner,” which just makes me so grateful I’ve found a group of people that I get along with well. I imagine this trip wouldn’t be nearly as fun if I was going solo most of the time. I’m well aware that most of these hyper friendships that form on trips and at summer camp won’t last through the fall, but I have hopes that I’ll stay in touch with a few people when school starts up again.
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