Let's see if I can remember everything...

Okay, I'm going back to Feb 6th ish because that was when my last real post was... I think?

Despite being really sick, I still went out all weekend. Because I am an idiot. But it's nothing else new. I think it's because I used to ALWAYS be sick in high school, so I stopped letting it own my life. Except for during the week when I'm supposed to be doing school work? Yes. I totally have my priorities straight...?

Feb 7th, I woke up to (surprise!) more rain. I made plans with a girl a went to Mercy with who is at another university in Rome right now, also through MSU. We planned to meet at the Vatican, where I hadn't been before. I took the metro to the right stop and got off. I walked up to the Vatican wall, where apparently I was supposed to go straight. BUT there was a sign that said "Musei Vaticani" and pointed to the right, so I turned right. Walked, walked, walked some more. Kept walking. Shannon kept calling to ask where I was, and I kept telling her walking around the Vatican wall and I should be there any minute. Then I was in residential neighborhoods and stuff, but still following the wall. An hour later, I found my way to St. Peter's square. I had walked around the WHOLE Vatican. In the rain. Way to go. At least now I can say I walked the perimeter of a whole country in an hour?

We went to a small place by her apartment and got some pasta. It was okay. Food is Italy really isn't as good as everyone says it is... or at least not in Rome. Then she showed me her apartment. Which is actually a huge giant place in a hotel. Lucky them! It was really nice. On my way back to the metro, I also wandered through their grocery store, also waaaaaay better than the ones by my house! Dang cityyyy.

That afternoon, Danielle's friend who's studying in Perugia came to visit for the night. We went out for a nice dinner in the Piazza where the Pantheon is. On our way there, we came out of the metro and it was POURING rain. Keep in mind, I'm super sick. So I quickly look for one of the million guys who are always every five steps selling umbrellas. Oh, COOL, there aren't any. After walking for about 15mins, in the freezing rain, we get to the Trevi Fountain and I FINALLY find some guy with umbrellas! Wooooo. So I bought an umbrella and we stayed at the Trev for a while. There was barely anyone there because of the rain, so it was perfect. It's my favorite spot in Roma. Then we continued on to the Pantheon and sat down at a cute restaurant at an outdoor table. There was a tent-like thing over the tables and lots of heat lamps all around, so it was really nice to just be sitting there all warm at a nice restaurant with the rain falling all around us. I got some veal and potatoes and it was soooooooooo good. Yum.

After dinner, we headed to the Spanish Steps for a bar crawl. I am not the biggest fan of these, but my roommates love them. It's just a HUGE group of Americans walking around to bars full of more americans and blahhhh. Oh well. It still usually ends up being pretty fun?

Sunday we went to the local bar that stays open on Sundays for "breakfast", aka paninis. The sun was out (!!!) so we sat outside and just talked for a while. We all took Danielle's friend back to the train station and then decided to go out for Chinese food since we were in the tourist area and if we didn't eat then, we would all starve to death later. We got SO MUCH food for like nothing and it was fabulous. I was still pretty full from my panini, so I ate my egg rolls and took the rest home for dinner. It was sooooooo good.

Monday, my afternoon class was cancelled, so I had the whole day free after 10:30am. I came back to my apartment to shower and make lunch, then headed to the Vatican. I was approached and asked if I wanted to take a tour, so I thought, why not? There was a very interesting group of people on my tour with me, so I mostly just hung out with the tour guide. The Vatican is realllllllllllly cool. There's this long hallway of maps, that is almost overwhelming. (I just tried to post pictures, and my computer won't let me. I have to give in and Find somewhere to buy a flashdrive so I can start posting at school). The Sistine Chapel was much smaller than I expected, but to think that it only took three years to paint is really impressive.

After the tour, I went up to the top of St. Peter's Basillica. I wanted to walk to the top, but they said after 4pm, you have to take the elevator. So I had to take the elevator... boooo. You still have to walk up a lot of really narrow, crooked stairs after the elevator though. It kinda made me closterphobic. It's a great view when you get to the top though! I walked all the way around, then went to where the sun was to wait for the sunset. FINALLY, I got to see a sunset since coming here. Wooooo. It got really cold, but oh well. When I came down, you can walk around on top of the Vatican, which is cool. Then you go back down the elevator and come out in St. Peter's, which is HUGE. Sooooooooo big. There was a mass going on when I came down... I wish I would have come down earlier so I could go. The second it's over though, they kick you out. Which I thought was kind of rude...? Like if you want to stay after mass and pray for even like 5mins, it is not allowed. They come up to you and tell you to leave. Soooooo, I wasn't the biggest fan of that.

When I came out of St. Peter's, I wanted to go to the catacombs, but everything was closed, so I'll have to do that another day. I took some pictures of the Vatican at night, stopped for some gelato, and headed home.

The rest of the week, I didn't really do much besides go to the doctor and sleep a lot. I get SO BORED during the week. There is nothing to do and I can get away without doing any homework, so I just don't. I just sit on my computer and sleep. It's such a waste of time. Plus, this apartment is so depressing and drab. It's when I really miss being at home. I miss coming home to my amazing roommates and being able to hang out (I really, really, realllllllllly miss my roommates!), or running around town trying to throw together a journalism package, or having a job, or having a TV, or even having lots of homework to do. It's just SO boringggggggg.

ANYWAY. Friday morning we headed to Madrid. I LOVE Madrid. I would for sureeee live there. Rome is nice for studying abroad because there is SO MUCH to see in the city, but I would NEVER live here. It's so dirty and Italians aren't the nicest people and I don't really like the Italian language and there is no order to anything and I could probably go on forever about why I would never live here. Madrid, on the other hand, is fabulous. Everyone seems happy and there is COLOR everywhere and there are lots of people playing music on the street. The people seem so much nicer and happier. It's more Americanized, but not so much that you forget where you are. Spanish is so much easier to pick-up and people don't always sound angry or condescending when they talk. I just loved Madrid a lot. OH and things in Madrid cost like a third or a fifth of everything in Rome. Rome is SO EXPENSIVE.

There isn't much to see in Madrid, tourist wise, but the weather was really nice so we walked around a lot. Danielle was a little under the weather, so I didn't get to see half the things I wanted to see, but oh well... I guess it was still nice to just be able to sit outside in the sun with color and happy people around. Danielle has two friends in Madrid, so we hung out with them a lot. The second night, Danielle still wasn't feeling well, so I went out with one of her friends and all the people she hangs out with from her program. It was SO FUN. Probably the funnest night I've had since leaving home. I wish I could hang out with those people alllllllll the time. They're all really, really good at Spanish too, which was REALLY impressive. Their school is all in Spanish and most of them are in home-stays, so they really practice a lot. It was so cool though because when we went to grab food beforehand, they would randomly all just switch into speaking Spanish, like without even noticing until I would ask what they were saying. It was just really cool to observe it all. AND when we were looking for a bar later on, they could stop anyone on the street to ask and then they'd end up having a full-on conversation and ahhhhhh I wish I could do that. I think if I was in Spain, I would have been pretty close to fluent by the time I left. I think my Italian will be waaaaaaaay worse than my French when I leave Italy. I was already picking up some Spanish by the end of the weekend. Dang city.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 8am (after coming home at 6am...?) and speed packed while Danielle took her time getting ready. I rushed out the door to do some last minute sight-seeing before we had to leave for the airport at 9:30am. I went to Plaza de Mayor (and wished I had time to go to the Royal Palace- "Palacio Real de Madrid" which is where I had REALLY wanted to go the day before but didn't have a chance to. Booo. I guess that just means I'll have to come back to Madrid some time in my life!). There was no one on the street because people in Madrid stay out SO LATE. It was nice. Sunny and a good temperature. I got to the Plaza as the sun was still rising. There were people setting up tables, mostly older people. There were lots of old men trading stamps and coins and I loved watching it. They all had these old scrapbooks fulllll of stamps and coins. Some had tables where they sold and traded their collections, some walked around with their books looking to add to their collections, and other stood around together comparing collections. It was a nice, relaxing Sunday morning. I took some pictures and just sat in the Square for a while, watching the tourists start to file in. On my way back to the hotel, I stopped and ordered some Churros. Which I wanted to do the night before, but all the places were closed. I FORGOT to order chocolate to dip them in, so they weren't that good, but oh well. Now I know for next time.

Flew back to Rome and it took a super long time to get home. Running on only two hours of sleep and all that travel is EXHAUSTING. I went to bed super early on Sunday.

I haven't really done much this week. We went out Tuesday night, which was fun until the end of the night when all my roommates and I got separated and getting home was just a giant disaster. I found a cab though and got home safely, so everything was fine.


In other news, Italians need to learn how to deal with cold temperatures. It has been soooooo cold here lately and even COLDER in my apartment. First of all, their windows and doors are paper thin with no sealant. Wind just goes right through them. Second, they don't use heat! They literally just don't turn on the heat. And it's been like 30degrees all week! When I go to bed, I put on like three layers and when I wake up, my nose is so cold that you'd think I had been sleeping outside in the snow! As I type this, my fingers feel like ice and my computer is freezing. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I have to take a shower right now, but I'm soooooo cold!

Ummm, that's about it. Sorry it took so long for an update! I've been planning lots of trips this week (two with Savannah! One to Vienna and one to Greece!) so that's been keeping me kind of busy. I have to finish booking everything later today and then I'm going to start planning some daytrips. Sooooo hopefully this blog will get a little more interesting.

Oh, and the sun's been out for almost a week now! Impressive! It's just freeeeeezing instead... and occasionally it hails.

Ciao!