sitting in a roman internet cafe :)

i wanted to post something while i was at the airport in houston but i ran out of time on the complimentary wifi service there :( but i have the entry saved so i'll try to put it up later. apparently my italian mom actually does have wifi in her apartment but her son needs to set it up for me and he hasn't been around yet. also, i have pictures of my room and other fun things that i'll upload as soon as i can! for now just try to use your imagination.
so to fill you in! the flight was long but great. brianna and i had the BEST seats on the plane, the first row in economy class, so we had tons of leg room and the best tv screens. i watched the movie "brothers" and an episode of mad men on the air france tv and slept the rest of the time. air france is so so nice; can't wait to fly it again :)

this is what i wrote in my journal in the air from paris to rome:

landing in paris was amazing! brianna and i could just tell we were in europe from the scenery - a landscape full of pastures, forests, and weird-looking power towers that were just SO EUROPEAN! the airport was cool and brianna noted that europeans are really really beautiful compared to americans. we were only in paris for a short while and i eagerly await my return.

sign at the airport in paris. bonjour!

on the flight to rome:

flying over the alps - AMAZING, so breathtakingly beautiful. unfortunately, there was a group of extremely annoying americans sitting behind me on the flight; i understand now why europeans dislike americans sometimes...they sucked.

the alps :)

other than that, everything european is so much better - even the plane food! air france gave complimentary biscuits (which are, in american terms, coconut cookies and extraordinarily delicious) and these cracker things which make pretzels seem like dog food. i had to listen to rome by phoenix to get me in the mood right before we landed and i couldn't have been more excited!!!

in rome

so now i've been in rome for 2 days and am having an incredible time. my italian mom, ilaria, is so so nice and accomodating and very patient with my terrible italian (i'm realizing every time i try to say something that although i did well in my italian classes at ut, im missing HUGE gaps of information regarding the italian language; i am trying though...). i have a great room with an INCREDIBLE view, including the dome of st. peters, a.k.a. my dream come true.

the view from my room, st. peter's in the distance

my room!

yesterday i spent about an hour unpacking and setting up the room and then i went out with ilaria to meet her daughter and granddaughter, martina, who i have slowly become best friends with :) we went to a little italian store to get some bread and cheese and cookies for breakfast (yeah, italians do that) and other little things. ilaria made a dinner consisting of pasta with grated parmesan, a zucchini and mozzarella fritatta, bread, fresh mozzarella and a salad. note: MOZZARELLA IN ITALY IS SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER THAN MOZZARELLA IN THE U.S., which my mom has noted many times tastes like nothing - here it tastes like heaven :) i have coffee with every meal and it's also a million times better than anything you'll find in the u.s...the coffee, so far, is the best thing i've experienced (in terms of food) since ive been here. after dinner i went to sleep! great first day.

note: i have a hard time understanding the language so, so far, i basically reply with sì (yes) to everything ilaria says...it hasn't gotten me into trouble yet but im kind of afraid it will...i need to spend serious time figuring out how to understand italian better! oy.

today

today was LA FESTA DELLA REPUBBLICA, an annual celebration of italy's indepedence from mussolini's fascist regime. i woke up around ten this morning and watched the military parade celebrating the republic on tv. it was really cool to see the branches of the italian armed forces and i can now recognize the italian prime minister and president! woo. ilaria's husband served in the military and she showed me a photo album dedicated to him - he was SO handsome. i was really touched by the pictures i saw and loved that ilaria was so willing to share something so important to her with me. yay bonding!

around eleven, ilaria's daughter and 2 granddaughters came over for lunch; martina is 7 and elisa is 8 months old. they are ADORABLE. martina and i clicked instantly, once she saw my shoe collection (haha people warned me that italians really judge people by their shoes and even the 7-year-old martina validates that!). she looked around my stuff and like any 7-year-old would, tried on all of my shoes (she liked my new wedges the best - note to mom: i'm so glad i bought those!), tried on all of my make-up and jewelry and painted each of her fingers a different color that i brought with me. we had a delicious lunch of pasta al forno (baked pasta with cheese), leftover fritatta, mashed potatoes, salad, tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, and some other delicious things. i had my coffee and we had cannoli and biscotti for dessert. mmmm.

after lunch, ilaria et. al. and i went on a walk around rome. we went to st. peters where i nearly cried just standing in the center and also went to the church of sant'angelo. i didn't want to look like a tourist today so i didn't take any pictures but i know i'm going back for class so i'll do my touristy thing then. i did, however, stop in a little souvenir shope where i bought my now treasured pocket italian-english dictionary...i'll never leave my room without that now...great success! we also stopped and got some famous italian gelato (i got mixed berry and chocolate) and it definitely surpassed my expectations for deliciousness. we went to one of martina's favorite parks and i had a really nice time attempting to carry a conversation with ilaria and her daughter.

and now, i'm sitting in a roman internet cafe, slowly learning how to use italian keyboards which are a lot different than american ones...it took me almost half an hour to figure out where the apostrophe key is... but, I'M LOVING THIS EXPERIENCE! dinner with ilaria is at 8 tonight and i'm looking forward to eating a pasta with spinach and ricotta :) and drinking my coffee! i'll never go a meal without it. i've yet to have any pizza but i know it's coming...

i think that's it for now. ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao!