Adjustment

Just realized I’ve been writing in real time, which will get pretty tedious to write and to read. Some highlights since my arrival:

Our flat (since we’re in Europe, I refuse to call it an apartment) is nice. Cramped, but nice. We have a gas stove, a sink, a fridge, plates and silverware, basic cooking utensils, so we’re set in that department. The shower’s temperature and water pressure fluctuates a little bit, but it’s nothing we can’t deal with. No AC, though, which has been killer for the past couple nights. It cools off quick enough with the windows open, but as Cheuk and I are quickly learning, Trastevere (our neighborhood) doesn’t sleep. Sunday night we got woken up at about 4 a.m. to Pink Floyd and the Beatles (guess I can’t complain), Monday night to construction and traffic, and last night to our neighbors, also Americans, having a party on the roof terrace, which is right above our apartment. Also, I’ve gone to bed at 11:00 (voluntarily) and gotten up between 7:00 and 8:30 every morning since I’ve been here. When was the last time that happened?

I’m still getting my bearings. I’m relatively, more-or-less sure that I know how to get from our flats to AIRC headquarters, but I’m not confident enough to try it on my own yet. I don’t need another repeat of the first couple days in Spain, when I got lost two days in a row by myself, four hours each day. Our group has wandered around the city a lot (a LOT, my feet are killing me and it’s only day five), so we’ve seen a lot of the major sites already. The window of our classroom provides a textbook view of Trajan’s column and the Victor Emmanuel Monument (which we’ve nicknamed “The Wedding Cake”). Last night, all fifteen of us met up at about 9:00 p.m. and hiked over to the Trevi Fountain. It was just as amazing as it was the first time. We took plenty of pictures, threw coins over our shoulders, etc. It’s fun to fall into the stereotypical tourist persona every once in a while.

On Sunday, as the first official “field trip” for our TC, we went to the Roman Forum. The only thing I can really say is that it was overwhelming – there were so many buildings, temples, monuments, and ruins that we could’ve spent a week there and still not have discussed everything. I managed to pick up some details here and there, but I had to read about it on Wikipedia later to be able to put names with the pictures I’d taken. We’re going back a couple more times to discuss some specific areas for our classes, which is good. I almost wish we could have taken a class this past semester like the Shakespeare at Winedale program does so that we’d be more prepared; I don’t like how 75% of the information we get during tours washes right over us.

Speaking of classes, they’re pretty straightforward. Nightly reading, two five-page papers a week, discussing any two subjects we’ve learned about in class, a twenty-minute oral presentation on the subject of our choice, a midterm, and a final. Not easy, but not tricky. It seems like a lot, but we’re getting six credit hours in four weeks, so I guess we have to do a substantial amount of work. It happens.

Food is expensive. Let me rephrase that: food is crazy expensive. We’ve been to a couple “nice” restaurants so far, and I dropped 10 euros on cheese pizza and water. Cheuk and I stocked up at the local grocery store so we wouldn’t have to eat out every meal, but with the appetites we get from walking around all day, it’s not going as far as we thought it would. We’re currently keeping a list of close-by restaurants that we can squeeze into our budget. They’re all pizza places, though, so I might be sick of pizza by the time I leave (never thought I’d say that). I think we’ve all just accepted that most of the money we’ve budgeted for souvenirs and museums and stuff is going to be diverted into food. My two guilty pleasures, I’ve already decided, are going to be gelato and coffee. The gelato is godlike, and the cappuccinos and espressos are everything I hoped they’d be and more.

That’s about it for now. I’m actually supposed to be researching for our presentation right now, but mine isn’t until the last week, so I’m cutting myself a little bit of slack. Now that we’ve fallen into a daily routine, Internet access won’t be quite as hard to come by as I originally thought. Hope everything’s well in the States. Take it easy, everybody.