First Full Day

Ciao!

Today will be my first full day here in Rome. After two solid days of travelling I was too exhausted to do much yesterday so I followed the general crowed to the Spanish Steps and the general historic district. Since I was so incapicated by the jet lag, I had forgotten to bring my camera along with me. Today I hope to go back there and make some photographs for you all to look at. Rome is much more than what I expected. I expected a much more touristy area for westerners but it seems that much less people speak English than I had previous assumed.

The weather here has been amazing thus far. It seems to hover in the mid 70s throughout most of the day with a fair breeze. The people are very interesting. I walked into a 'bar' as their called here which basically means a coffee shop with some food. I was trying to figure out how to ask for a special paninino and while I was perusing my phrase book, this stout little Italian lady who obviously owned the place walked up to me, stared me right in the eyes for a full 5 seconds or more, walked away and starting firing off italian things obviously about me to the other people who worked there. I finally managed to figure out that a typical panini with ham and cheese is called 'toast.' I uttered a short, 'me desculpa...gratzi millo' and the clerk laughed at me and said in broken English, 'she says you look like a movie star.' ....yeah i know.

Anyway, today I had much more guts after experiencing these bars a few times (for lunch I walked into one and ordered another panino with an italian beer) and ordered 'un cafe' which is an expresso.

Yesterday was also my first opportunity to visit the Temple's campus here in Rome. It is in a very unassuming building with just a Temple flag flying out of a window. Our whole group met up there to have pizza with eachother (this pizza was much like the brazilian pizza I had in Brazil; it is very flat with not much tomatoe sauce and various assorted toppings such as potatoe and proscuitto (ham).

Today we are having our first formal orientation on Temple's campus at 1 pm (6 AM EST.) Right now it is 9:44 AM which means that it is 3 AM for you all.

I plan on taking many photographs today and posting them either tonight or tomorrow morning for you. I'll take some general pictures of our digs and the area around where I'm living.

Well, ciao, buenasera.

Ethan