getting used to life in roma..

I really feel like I'm starting to get the hang of everything now!! Last night things finally started clicking, as far as where certain places where in comparision with my apartment. Piazza Santa Maria is only like 2 minutes away.. its an amazing piazza and area with TONS of awesome restaurants and small gelaterias and bars. I am falling in love with this place, and may never leave :)

I also realized how exactly to get to class today, an easy route, as well as getting to Campo dei Fiori (where a lot of partying/boozing goes on! lol) and just beyond that is the Pantheon. And just by chance when one of my roommates and I were searching for hairdryers today (it has been very complicated to find them) we came across this awesome shopping district just east of the Pantheon. Can you say amazing? Oh yeaaah :)

Today's meals: muffin for breakfast on the way to class, vegetable pizza for lunch right outside the Pantheon, and then for dinner a salad (that had surprises hidden under the leaves every bite I took.. beans, mozzerella, corn, peppers, carrots, etc) with a nice Italian beer (it was nameless?) and our waiter hooked us up with a shot of lemoncello. Overall, it was a great day.

At orientation today we had some interesting things happen.. I had my Italian placement exam, which made me feel so dumb because I forgot SO much already.. and it included an 'oral interview' with our professor.. intimidating, yes? But it turned out great and I'm in the class where I should be after 3 semesters of Italian in the states. So that was nerve-racking but its over now! Then we had a little break for lunch and then lots of lectures.. well they werent really lectures. More like hilarious talks about what it's like to be 'a woman in Rome'. It really was hilarious.. but great advice/knowledge! Then a captain from the local polizia unit came to talk to us about being an American in Rome and also a woman from the American embassy here talked to us. There was a lot to learn about being an American and a woman in Rome.. look out- greasy, flirty Itailan uomini, us women know what IS UP! :) We got taught 'the bitch walk' as well as many other clues to dittering their wild advances and stares.

Going out tonight for the first time! Should be a blast.. especially now that we know what NOT to do as an American (the woman from the embassy had many horror stories). A lot of people from our program have been going out this week already, but it was just too confusing without cell phones, but now more ppl have them! Yay!

A domani..