It's been awhile

So I know it's been awhile I know, but I have just been trying to settle into my home away from home. It has been a pretty amazing experience so far and my family has been wonderful. I am learning so much from them outside of school and couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. So I guess this time I will tell you all about what my days have been consisting of the pass few weeks.

Well first of all I go to school Mon - Thurs. I have class from 9am-1pm on Mondays and Wednesdays and from 2:45pm-5:15pm on Tues and Thursdays. My three classes, ya I know only three classes but I did have an intense class in Florence, consist of International Economics, History of the Italian Mafia and my Elementary Italian II class. I have been enjoying the classes a lot and I think I made the best choices. Side note about history of the Italian Mafia, we will be learning about where it started, why it started, how they communicate, watching some actual assinations, and some field trips to the department of state dedicated to fighting Mafia. Italy is one of the very few if not the only country that has a department dedicated only to Mafia. Anyways, the first Friday we were here we walked to the Coloseum, which just by saying I WALKED there is pretty cool. Didn't get the chance to go in yet, but it's an amazing site. Saturday and Sunday we just went out a couple times....I think. Ok I will start to update this more so I can remember what we did! O! I that week I did learn how to make pasta carbenera and chocolate mousse which is pretty sweet. Jojo and I also had our first "dinner party" with Andrea on that Thursday. Our dinner parties are starting to become kinda popular and we had another the next Thursday and we have one lined up for this Thursday. The first time Jojo made spaghetti with some of his own touches which was really good and I made my mousse. I will tell you about the second time when I get to that week. Jojo and I kind of joke around about being "the gay couple" that holds dinner parties which people tend to laugh about because of a picture I posted on Facebook of our first dinner. That was about it for that weekend.

This past week I had classes again...go figure, and I also had a wine tasting class where I learned what to look, smell and taste for with wine to see how good it is. Really interesting stuff. Thursday we had another dinner party with Andrea, Rebekah, and Caroline where I made pasta carbenera for the first time by myself, I also made mousse and Andrea, Rebekah and Caroline made strawberries with homemade cream. Now when I say I made or we made, we all cook a little, clean a little, and we all eat A LOT! Lol. We had a few bottles of vino and really got to know the girls which was awesome! Friday Jojo and I met some friends at St. Peters Square where we walked around for a bit, then we went to Castle of St. Angelo which has an amazing panoramic view of Rome. That night we (and when I say we its always me and Jojo for the most part 'cause he's my roomie) went to our sister's boyfriend's art exhibiton where he showed us his contemporary art piece which was really cool. I think the coolest part about it though was where it was located. It was located in an abandoned dog track that had been empty for a few years and then, it wasn't dangerous or nothing, illegally occupied by some people who made a social center for guys who don't have a lot of money. Allessandro, the boyfriend, used to live there for a couple months but now just helps the place out. Saturday we went to my first Rugby game which was...interesting. Lol I loved being at a game but rugby just aint my sport. It was still cool though. Sunday we went to a Soccer game, and let me tell you, American fans don't hold a candle to passion or dedication like a lot of these fans do. It was NUTS!! But totally fun. Again loved being there but soccer is not my cup of tea. After that we went to our parents church concert where they sang after Charlie Cannon's chior sang. If you don't know, Charlie Cannon is a big, black guy from Montgomery who sings a lot of Gospel songs and who has AN AMAZING voice. Unfortunately we did not get to here his set, but our parents did great and he did end the show with "O' Happy Day" in which we stood up and joined in at some point. We did get to meet him to and he is a really cool guy. After that whole weekend we came home, had dinner and went to bed.

So now you all are finally caught up on my life in Rome. I will try a lot harder to keep this updated more when I have time. Ciao ciao!

Home away from Home

So Jojo and I finally moved into our homestay in Rome or Roma is how the Italians say it. First of all, just want to thank God on here becasue we were both a little nervous, espically with the graffit signs on the outside, but we couldn't have asked for better accomodations. First of all, the family is terrific; there are the two parents and then they have two daughters and one son. The oldest daughter lives on her own, she is 26, and the other two live here with there parents. Luca is 19, Sylvia is 22 and julia is 26. Luigi is the dad and Sabina is the mom and they are very kind people. Luigi is an information technology consultant and Sabina teaches physical education to high school students. Everyone except for Sabina speaks relatively good English, and even she speaks a little, but they understand that we want them to try to speak Italian as much as possible, until we look at them with stupid faces and say "no copisco" which means I don't understand.

Our "homestay" which I said is more like an apartment of our own, has a small kitchen, our own bathroom with a shower, a living room connected to our kitchen, and enough closet space to please most girls these days. Our shower is a bit interesting, it is in the corner of our bathroom and only a curtain that is usually strapped against the wall when not in use, is used to keep the water in. There is a drain in the middle of the area, but doesn't seem to slope that far down so water tends to...migrate to other parts of the bathroom. O well, it is still a pretty neat set up. Our living room is pretty big and everything is designed to fold down when we want more room but there is enough room already. The kitchen has everything we need to make our own food; everything from a small fridge to a stove, a microwave, and an Italian coffee maker which I've actually started to prefer over American coffee. Then we have a seperate room for our beds which is still pretty big. Sad enough, our room now is bigger than the room we had in our hotel in London; kinda crazy if you ask me. We have plenty of shelves for our books, they are brining in a fold away table for a desk to compliment the one that is already in our living room, shoe racks, and I know it's only been one night, but it feels AMAZING to not have to live out of a suitcase anymore.

Around our home we have a huge, well huge for Europe, supermarket, a pharmacy, a tabacchi place and our bus stop is pretty close. A tabacchi stop is where people go to buy first of all, tobacco, but also to buy bus tickets, put euros on your phone, and it is just kind of a utility shop for a city. We also realized that we are not as far from the center of Rome as we thought we were going to be which makes us very happy. The biggest park in Rome is only 5 min walk from our apartment and Jojo plans to run me to death as soon as I buy me some running shoes. Well that's all for now folks. Ciao!

Italian culture part uno

So SOMEONE (Candice) wanted me to update my blog even though not a whole lot has happened. I was going to update it just on Sunday but I guess I will add a few things now! First of all, Italians do not care where there dogs poop! So watch your step when you're walking down the street becuse sometimes there can be doggy doo everywhere! Also, organized parking? What's that? They park on both sides of the street here either which way no matter what. NO TICKETS! Sometimes they even park on the sidewalk entrances...kinda funny actually. Also, a lot more italians speak english then I thought so it has actually been more difficult to actually practice italian in person then having to do it.

Hmmm, it's my friend Jojo's 21 today so we are going out tonight in Florence for the first time...should be an interesting night. Classes have been going good, we had our first quiz today and I think I did pretty good on it. I am really liking the Italian language so I hope my host parents will be cool and help me with it. We are going to be living in Monteverde in Rome which is supposed to be a very Rich, coveted place to live there, but its way out of central Rome where our school is at, but that's ok. Anyways going to Venice tomorrow and won't be back until Sunday. Ciao!