hello!

i cannot believe yesterday finally ended! i feel like the 7th/8th went on forever. last night was a pizza party at our school, which is about a 40 minute walk from the residence. you basically turn out of the residence and walk straight the go over a bridge spanning the tiber river (which is not very wide where we cross) and the school is right on the water. it is a long walk, but there is so much too see! and so many vespas/motorcycles to avoid! italians are crazy drivers, and those driving two-wheeled vehicles don't follow any rules, laws, common sense, etc. soo i took a nap before pizza and left with my roommates and friend from the plane. 

the pizza is very good over here. it is still greasy and such, but they put on very good vegetable toppings (like artichoke). i really just wanted to walk around historic rome, so my roommates, plane friend and girl i met at the pizza party started walking. we ended up running into the piazza del popolo, which is only about 10 minutes from the school. 

at one entrance of the piazza are three streets-one on the left, right and center. we walked down the center one, stopping in a beautiful, old cathedral and a cool, carved obelisk. my pictures do not do it justice, but the detailed images up the entire thing were amazing. W eventually reached a massive monument. i knew i had seen it in pictures, but i never knew what it was. i took some pictures and later discovered (thanks to google) that it is the monument to vittorio emanuele II, the first king of a unified italy. it is huge and magnificent, but the scaffolding was distracting. i hope i will get to see it without scaffolding at some point. 

as we walked on a little more, we miraculously ran into the trevi fountain! i swear you cannot walk around the heart of rome without seeing at least a million beautiful, ancient structures. our goal was to find the spanish steps, so we forged on without a map (because my one roommate does not like looking like a tourist) and took back streets. it was very nice out and there were not too many people out. sooo we eventually found the famed staircase, which also had scaffolding! it was at the top where the obelisk is supposed to be between two buildings. i forgot to take a picture of the steps, but i plan on going back many times. 

we decided that was enough walking so we headed back to the residence. i unpacked my bags, video-chatted with samm and took a shower before finally going to bed at 3 am. i had to wake up at 8am to go to an orientation at 10 (the walk really adds a lot of time). we were given keys to the front gate of the school as well as our class schedule at the orientation. i finished organizing the tons of things i brought here (wayyyy overpacked) and now i'm just relaxing. my roommates and i are going to the grocery store about 5-10 minutes from the residence later to finally get food for the apartment! 

soo my roommates. one is named becky and she goes to tyler, the art school associated with temple. my other roommate is named stephanie and she is from fordham too. how weird is that? we were in a class together last semester, but we never met. they are both nice and the first day and night went well. the girl from the plane is julie and she goes to loyola new orleans. the other girl i met at the pizza party is rachel from lehigh. those are the girls i have hung out with the most. i am excited to meet new people once classes start (on monday). 

i think that is all for now. 

oh! i don't know how to upload pictures on this blog...it takes a really long time...so i made an account on webshots so i can easily share all my pictures. so far i have only used my small digital camera, but i am taking my slr to the vatican. the url for that is: 

http://community.webshots.com/user/stephaniegoestorome

i am having a great time here, despite being tired and all. i like being able to walk around and see new things. the whole shopping situation is a challenge because at home i knew exactly where to go to get certain things. it's like an adventure here though. i want italian class to start soon because i feel even basic italian words would make me more confident to speak to the people here and really take in the culture. yay! okay i am going to go nap. more later after tonight's excursions!