...do as much as you can in one day.

So I've now been in Rome for almost 36hrs. It's awesome. We got to the airport early in the morning and it took a while to get out luggage. Then we went to meet up with the rest of the students from Maryland (22 of us) and the greeters from AUR. Some of us got split up and taken on vans that took us to our apartments, the rest went on a bus. Getting into the van reminded me a lot of me packing my suitcase. One bag stuffed with as much as humanly possible. This van was packed way more than I'd ever like a car to be packed while driving. There were a total of 8 of us in the van: the driver, a teacher from AUR, and 6 students with luggage. Most of us had two huge 50lb suitcases, we all had big carry-on bags, and personal bags. So we opened the trunk and that fit about...hmm not even two girls' stuff? We all just looked at each other like where is the next van? There is no way this little Italian man thinks we can fit all of this stuff in one van. But oh no...there was no second van. Just one. With one little Italian man stuffing our bags into the van anyway he possibly could. So we got into the car and had luggage under our legs, on top of our seats, jammed into our ribs, and yet, we were laughing the entire time, amazed that we were able to fit everything. Here's what is looked like...





















It was pretty ridiculous...but oh well! When in Rome, right? Si.

Then we got to our apartment. The kitchen looked brand new which was amazing considering all the stories my sister had told me about her experience in Rome. The apartment over all is very nice. The rooms are big, there are two bathrooms: one big one and one small one. The TV in the family room next to the kitchen is the tiniest TV ever but its a nice flat screen one. Probably a little smaller than the one in my room at home...so maybe like 18inches? Everything here is very VERY minimal. We got huge closets (not that huge but pretty big, bigger than I had sophomore year at Maryland) and inside the closet we each got 5 hangers. Really...? Five hangers...? That was a joke. So we need to buy some more of those because we only have one dresser with four drawers and a tiny bed side table with two drawers. So we each get three drawers haha. Definitely not enough room. Right now all my clothes are just folded and piled on top of each other in the closet and some in drawers.

There is no mircowave, no dishwasher (just like last semester so luckily I'm used to it), no dryer (can't wait to do laundry), and the water doesn't really drain well in the bath tub. The internet and computer and phone for our apartment haven't really been set up yet so I'm using the WiFi from this other girl's apartment. She goes to school at AUR and is a senior so she was also one of our tour guides, and luckily lives right above us!

Right so she was our tour guide. We took a tour yesterday of some parts of Rome. It started at 6 so it was already after sunset and it was awesome to see the city lit up! We walked up past the school to this beautiful fountain.



Then we continued along the city through cobblestone narrow streets. We saw a bunch of stuff including more beautiful fountains, a bunch of cats, and...drum roll please...the coliseum. Nbd.



After that, we headed home and we all were so tired. It was an awesome day one. Day two was a little uneventful, got lost a bunch, and rested a lot. But I can't wait for what tonight brings me. :)

I'll be posting again soon.

Ciao!