First Day of School!!

I mentioned before that AUR sponsors trips to several different places around Italy- including Tuscany, Capri, Assisi, and Pompeii. Well, sign-ups for those trips started on Monday morning at 9 AM, the first official day of classes at AUR. My roommates and I decided to wake up early to make sure we signed up for the trips we wanted. I will be traveling for a weekend in Tuscany (Florence and Pisa), a weekend to the island of Capri, and day trips to Assisi and Pompeii. I'm so excited to be able to travel around Italy and all over Europe. :-)

I didn't have class until 12:30 PM, so I went back to the apartment with Shelby. We stopped at a fruit market right by campus before going back and bought some fresh strawberries and grapes. I was glad that I finally found some strawberries to eat with my Nutella! Before going back to the apartment, I tried to go to the post office. The one closest to the bus stop was closed, so I had to walk like 5 or 6 blocks before I could find the next closes one. Then, I waited in line until I could try to use the little Italian phrases I know to order stamps and mail several cards to the States. I want to thank Aunt Gail for the CD and little book with important Italian phrases- it helped me buy 20 stamps or venti francobolli. It took almost an hour just to get to the post office and back- again, patience, patience, patience!

After grabbing a quick lunch at the apartment, I was off to my first class- it was Masterpieces of Italian Opera and I had class with Lizz and Kelly. The class is going to be a bit challenging, as I can't sing, but we get to see two operas as part of the class. Since opera was founded in Italy, I think that will be an awesome experience! My next class was Consumer Behavior, and after meeting the professor, Marshall Langer, I knew that I would love the class. It's really interactive and I know that I will learn a lot as long as I participate and become engaged with the rest of my class- I think that this class might help me with my career choice, but we'll see what happens. My last class of the day was Elementary Italian, and I think it's also going to be challenging, but it will force me to learn the language and be able to have some simple conversations in Italian.

Since it was Labor Day back in the States, I was able to talk to my parents again, as they both had the day off work. I recapped my "first day of school" to them and told them about my weekend. Then, Shelby, Liz, and I decided to see some of Rome at night- we ventured to the Pantheon, the Fontana di Trevi, and the Piazza Navona. I really love the Piazza Navona when it's lit up at night. There are several fountains in the piazza and lots of restaurants to choose from- it made us so hungry. But I had just eaten some caramel and chocolate gelato, so I was too full to sit down and eat a meal. Then, we tried to find the Steelers bar, La Botticella, near Piazza Navona. We easily were able to find it and met Giovanni Poggi, the owner of the bar. There was a Robert Morris flag hanging up in the bar, given to Giovanni by President Dell'Omo. It was pretty ironic that there was an IUP flag hanging up next to the RMU flag with a Virginia Tech penant underneath. I go to RMU, my mom went to IUP, and my brother, Donnie, goes to VT. It was nice to see some familiar things even though I was halfway across the world!