Day Two

Day 2 August 16, 2010

(I just realized that I forgot to upload the photos from my camera. And of course, I left the usb connector at the apartment. Sorry. I will try to remember to do it tonight.)


Still in non-stop smiling mode. I have to be careful or I’m going to get smile wrinkles in my smile wrinkles!

I woke up at 8 this morning. Surprisingly the only bells I heard today were my alarm clock, no church bells tolling in the neighborhood. I was out and ready to explore around 9:45. Today started by following Via Giulia to the right of my apartment. I didn’t want to stray far from the “known” without a map. The streets here are VERY confusing! Not only do they branch off into a million little alley sized roads, but the names of the streets, if they are even there, are etched into the buildings. Anyway, I followed the road and quickly found myself at the end of the road and a mini-bus station. The directions from the school said that I should take the number 40 bus to the Main Terminal. Ah ha! The number 40 bus is just down the street from me. So with this good luck I try to figure out how to get a bus pass. There is an elusive monthly bus somewhere out there but I have yet to discover how to acquire one. I settled for the day pass, 4Euro. Eesh!

Even though it is so early in the day and class isn’t until the afternoon, I decide to hop on the next 40 bus and see where it will take me. Thankfully its end point is…at the Main Terminal! More good luck for me. Otherwise I would have been going round in circles for the better part of the day. (As I did when I missed my stop on the return trip home!) Now I find myself really in the middle of main downtown Rome. Wow. So many people. Roads going all ways. Drivers not paying attention to lanes or pedestrians or lights. I had to just stop a minute and soak it all in. The most amazing thing was that I’m standing in the middle of all of this modern mess and just in front of me is this incredibly massive fountain. I look to the right and there is an archeological dig showing ancient ruins. Above the rooftops I can make out St. Peter’s Dome. Seriously I just stood where I was, turning my head from side to side with a goofy grin on my face for a few minutes.

Then down to business. How do I find my way anywhere in the place?!!! Of course, there are vendors just a few feet away selling maps. I get one and after some deliberation am sure of what direction I have to go in. Um, I thought I was sure. Ok, try turning the map around and see where it gets me. Yes, now I am in the right direction….but I overshot my destination. Basically I am trying to figure out where the school is so that I can get there before 1pm. (Sorry, 1300.) I pass by an ATM and try to pull some money from it. It states that it cannot accept my card. Ok, weird but I’m not trying to get money now, I’m trying to find the school. Then I pass by an international calling “shop”. This is a store with rows of telephone booths. I tried calling home to check in, but the line wasn’t working well. So, again a failed side-mission, move on. I’m still searching for the street but discover that I have walked about half a mile in the wrong direction. I guess I got a little distracted. After several wrong turns I find Via Marghera. But now where is Via Marghera 22? I see 21 and right next to it 23….no 22 anywhere on the block. I stop in at 21 and the man there points out that 22 is two blocks down the street. He impatiently explains to me in Italian that his store is not 22, but 21. No duh mister, I’m not THAT much of a dummy here! Hehe. So I find the school and its only 1100 so I decide to do some exploring now that I know where my destination is.

I stop at a tourist center and find out what kinds of offers they have. Some decent trips are offered but I want to check out what the school has scheduled first. Then I head to the Terminal Station. Yes, this is where you take the underground train, but it is also a main city mall. I find a smartphone store and go in to purchase a cell phone. This is where I find out that most stores will not accept my VISA card/Chase debit card. Oh jeez! I head out with a new mission: find an ATM or bank that will allow me to withdraw money. Via Marsala, one of the main streets by the terminal, is lined with shops and ATM machines. I tried several but none worked. It was a little past 1200 so I decided to let that go and head back to school.

The school is very inviting and the staff there is very helpful. I checked in without a hitch and found out that class begins at 1400 (2pm) and ends at 1645 (4:45pm). This is actually good timing because this is the hottest time of the day! And I will have time to stroll around (ok, lose myself) before class and then make a destination for the evening. The school offers many evening events as well. I explore the building and then decide to check out the “club house”, translation: basement café. I grab a prosciutto sandwich and simple salad and spend the next hour and half on the terrace, going online, and meeting fellow students. Everyone here is very very very friendly and outgoing. I feel slightly out of place because my natural instinct is to be quite and just observe everything…but I keep reminding myself that this is NOT why I am here!

Class is a riot. Our instructor, Jasna (yasna), is fun. I won’t go through the details of class, but we did all kinds of activities from play-acting, to listening to a phone conversation, to reading, to throwing a ball around. There was a lot of laughing and joking the whole time. It was gratifying to see that I did actually learn some stuff last semester, but I definitely still belong in level 0! After class, we had a social hour to learn more about the school and meet our fellow students from all levels. It was really nice. I am happy that I made this choice of school.

After that I roamed around some more and then decided to find a 40 bus to get back home. I found the bus with surprising ease….but not so much ease to find the right stop once I was on it! I took advantage of this to learn what sights there were to visit on this route.

Home by 8pm, sorry 2000, and realize that I don’t have dinner. I walk down the next street to see if there are any stores. No. So, I end up at the same grocery store I went to last night. I get a box pizza thinking this is lame! But it’s late to go to a restaurant now, I don’t want to go alone tonight, and I’m trying to conserve money. I’ll spend 4Euro on this instead of 8Euro at the neighborhood joint. How the heck to you use this oven!!! I give it a try and end up with a slightly blackened pizza. But it stills smells amazing and tastes like no other boxed pizza I have ever had. Actually like no pizza I’ve had period. Wow, it’s a good think I only baked half of it cuz I wouldn’t have been able to stop. Unfortunately I was so mesmerized by the delicious smell that I forgot to take a picture. I’ll have to make the other half in a few days. Maybe it will look better cuz it won’t be burned.

…There was a break in my typing. Olga came back home and we talked about our day. Now it is 2300 (11pm) and I’m tired. I’m still excited about my day and don’t feel sleepy but I know I’ll be out soon after my head hits the pillow.

I am sorry if I am boring you with the mundane-ness of my day. I hope that the posts will be more event-filled as time goes by. And I hope I have more time to actually reflect on things instead of giving a step-by-step run down. Send me your thoughts….

Ciao mi amici i mi familia. Buena Serra.