Day 3
• 9:20 a.m. (Ben) 9:50 a.m. (Jordan)
o I woke up and took a shower
o Jordan took a shower last night, so he got up at the last possible minute
• 10 – 11:30a.m.
o Italian Survival Session 2
Same awesome Dutsch Professor.
He took us to Rinlado’s Bar for breakfast. (They make good pastries)
We learned some basic Italian like:
• Non so: “I don’t know”
• Permisso : “Can I get through here?”
• Che Bella! (Pronounced “K Bella”)or Che Bello!: “Hey Beautiful” or “Hey Handsome”
• 11:30-12:45
o Italian Cultural meeting
Italians came and talked to us about the culture in and around Rome.
• 12:45 – 2 p.m.
o Mensa
I had some good pasta with grean beans and an apple
Jordan had the same pasta with pizza bread (it didn’t look like pizza to me) and green beans
• 2-3:30
o Study Trip meetings
Lots of good options. There was was to the ancient Roman port of Ostia where we would also see catacombs. Also, there was a WWII study trip, and there were potential trips to Ireland, Poland, Tuscany, and Greece.
• 4:15-5
o Met with the USA Italian consulate
Gave us some good safety information and directions for what to do if our passport is stolen.
• 5-5:30
o Introduced to the psychological and medical staff available on campus.
• 5:30-6:45
o Jordan and I treked out into the surrounding neighborhood looking for gorceries. Bought some essentials. Jordan and I had to lug all our stuff back up a very large hill.
• 7-10:20 p.m.
o Dinner
We went to a nice Roman restaurant with the whole group
• Served us a 5 course meal that was very good, but I couldn’t eat it all.
• Jordan successfully ate eveything
• 10:20-10:50
o Walked back to campus
o Writing blog update
o Tired and going to bed soon.
Quote of the day
• Me: “What is that red sauce bread?” Jordan: ”Ben, that’s Pizza”
Upcoming Posts
• Soon, we will be including videos and pictures on our blog, we just have not had the time to download them onto the computer.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Day 2
Day 2 Summary
·
10:15 a.m.
o
Roll out of bed after getting 12+ hours of
sleep. (Jet lag eliminated)
o
Jordan hit the snooze button, I took a shower.
·
10:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
o
Floor meeting, followed by FAQ session, followed
by filling out visa paperwork for the consulate. Overall, boring paperwork
stuff. Some useful tips about taking the bus line around Rome though.
·
12:25-2:00 p.m.
o
Mensa (lunch)
§
I had gnocchi with a nice red sauce, spinach, an
apple, and lots of water.
§
Jordan had gnocchi, watermelon, potatoes,
carrots, and “potato chesse egg thing” (Slavik)
·
2:00- 3:30 p.m.
o
Italian Language Survival Session I
§
Our teacher was from Holland. We spent 20
minutes learning some basic Italian. Then he deviated from the schedule and decided
he would bring us to a café and make us order Italian Ice in Italian.
·
4-4:45
o
Break. Jordan and I look up the cost for monthly
Rome bus passes. They are cheap, only 35 euro….
·
4:45-6:30
o
Convocation, followed by dinner served in the
courtyard.
·
6:30-7
o
Break
·
7-10:50
o
Scavenger Hunt
§
Jordan and I were paired up with Molly and
Emily. Winner gets 50 euro off the study trip. Here are all the things we found
on the hunt:
·
The Trevi Fountain
·
The Foro
Romano (The Roman Forum)
·
The Colluseum (it was wicked awesome)
·
St. Peters Bascillica
·
The Spanish Steps
·
Piazza di Novano
·
The Pantheon
·
A Ferrari store
·
The Arch of Constantine
·
Castel di Saint Angelo (The castle of Saint
Angelo)
·
The Tiber River
·
The Walls of the Vatican
·
Trajans column
·
Took a picture with Italian military police (he
left right after we did this, we thought it might have been because of us)
·
10:50-11:50
o
Made our way home via bus 87, transferred at
Piazza di Covero to bus 990. Got off at our stop near Via Massimi.
o
Walked three blocks home.
·
11:50-12
o
Found the nearest water fountain and drank two
cups of water.
·
12-12:30 (present)
o
Updated blog. (After checking Ogame :D)
Quote of the Day
·
“If you are taking a taxi and you think you are
going in circles, you probably are” (said during our FAQ session).
·
“Did that policeman just leave because we asked
to take a picture with him?”
·
Me: “Jordan what did you eat for lunch?” Jordan:
“A potato, cheese, egg…thing”
Italian Cultural
Quirks
·
The toilet can only be flushed by a button on
the wall that does not look attached to the toilet at all.
·
It is okay to stare at someone. This makes the
girls from campus uncomfortable.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Day 1
Day 1 Summary
·
Little sleep on the plane. (00:00 – 09:28)
o
Poor old person movie followed by tower heist.
o
Good ravioli for dinner and croissants for
breakfast – so good that I ate the croissant of the Italian guy sitting next to
me because he was asleep.
·
Arrive at FCO Airport. (09:28 – 10:30)
o
We make our way to baggage claim and get our
bags – it was only about a forty minute wait, helped along by the fact that
many Italian signs had English subtext.
o
After securing our luggage, we made our way
through the airport (following the herd) until we made it to the taxi pick up
area.
·
The Journey to JFRC (10:30 – 11:09)
o
After figuring out how to get in line for a
taxi, we ended up in a taxi with an Italian female driver who did not speak
English. I just continued to say gratsi and Ben tried to explain it to
her in English. We reached a solution
when Ben handed her the paper with our address on it.
·
Arriving at J-Force (11:09 – 11:23)
o
We finally arrived at our campus which was very
nice. It was a little confusing at first
because there are a lot of other buildings (convents and priest houses)
intermingled with it and everything is gated.
o
The ensuing confusion to find the right gate
resulted in us having to talk up and down a long hill several time until I decided
to get out our directions and read where it was.
·
Getting Settled (11:23 – 11:59)
o
We had to go about handing in documents and
getting pictures taken when we arrived. I only misplaced my passport once. We got settled into our rooms later (we are
rooming together as planned) and got unpacked.
·
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (11:59 – 13:40)
o
Follow our unpacking we took a satisfying, yet
short, nap.
·
More tasks (13:40 – 14:50)
o
Following our brief sojourn, we went down to the
Information Commons (AKA the Library – which is very nice) and got our wireless
configured to work on our laptops (although still no wifi in the rooms). During this time we also sent emails letting
everyone know we had landed safely.
o
After this we went to the Mensa to enjoy
lunch. We had some good pasta, carrots,
and fish (which I got totally boned with – literally bones all over).
·
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Part 2 (14:50 – 15:45)
o
Another Nap Time.
·
Neighborhood Tour (16:00 – 17:00)
o
We toured the neighborhood surrounding JForce,
which was nice and our guide pointed out all of the shops, stores, and
restaurants that she enjoyed. The
neighborhood is on one the hills in Rome, so the rest of the city is downhill
of us which is nice.
·
Informational Meeting (17:30 – 18:15)
o
We had our opening informational meeting
(separated into genders) where we were told policies, safety stuff, etc. It was informative.
·
Dinner (18:45
– 19:30)
·
Winding down (19:30 – 22:05)
o
Spent some time doing a few business items in
the computer lab area.
o
We explored the Gym, adored the vast amount of
Carravaggio paintings, and we updated our ogames. We also found a clean water
source after many parched hours of desperation.
·
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Part 3 (22:15 - ???)
o
Went to bed for real this time.
Day 1 Quotes of the
Day
·
“This plane is ROMAN!”
·
“If all roads lead to Rome, do all taxi’s go to
Rome?”
·
“Can I have that guy’s croissant?” (Jordan to
the flight stewardess)
How Jordan’s Latin
has helped?
·
Was able to inquire about a gate (porte) using Latin. Nothing else thus
far.
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