Ciao! It is Monday at 2 pm in Galway; I am back from my extravaganza in Rome for the weekend! What a fun trip, I did more in 48 hours than I could have possibly imagined.

 

The Details: We (I, and 4 other girls) left Friday from Galway at 1:45 am on a bus to Dublin (3 hours) and left at 7am from Dublin airport direct to Rome, Leonardo Da Vinci Airport. The weather this past weekend was 60 degrees on Friday and 55 degrees on Saturday. What a treat from the monsoon weather we have been having in Ireland! Flying AerLingus, the flight was smooth and even though the night seems like it would have been long, I slept on the bus and plane and we got to Rome in no time.

 

I was extremely excited to see my friends, Luis, Gianni, and Will from Penn State which was my motivation for the trip. Luis, Gianni, and Will are architecture students and living in Rome for a semester is a required part of their program. The timing was perfect for me to come and visit, they are great guys and I would not have traveled for anyone else. We were all excited to see each other as a “breath of fresh air” from being away from home for 5 weeks now. Their apartment is in Trastevere, Rome, right on the south side of the city. Living in what is a half retirement home, they have a beautiful spacious apartment (or I thought so) that seemed very accommodating. I was expecting to stay in the very worst…comparing it to a fraternity house in my mind. But I was wrong! And it was a nice surprise. The entire Penn State program is staying in their complex. There were Penn State faces everywhere!

 

Friday we took a bus from the airport to the Termini main train station where I found Luis. He was a great help, originally born in the Dominican Republic Luis is fluent in Spanish and currently taking Italian. My girlfriends who have never been to Italy realized quickly how much they appreciated Ireland when it was difficult to communicate with the local people with where to go in the train station. Having someone with you who is fluent is a huge luxury and therefore enhanced my reasons for traveling to Rome.

 

My group of girlfriends seemed to split up for the weekend seeing that everyone had different interests and different friends they were staying at. Katie, my really good friend if you have not noticed from all my facebook pictures, stayed with me which was perfect because they had 2 extra couches in the apartment. Friday we began our trip with homemade panini sandwiches and GELATO! The rule is, whenever you are in Italy you have to eat gelato every time you pass by a shop. We walked EVERYWHERE that afternoon with our map. It felt like we walked 8 miles just the first day, but that is what you do in Europe! Katie had never been to Rome, so we walked from Trastevere to the pantheon, trevi fountain, Spanish steps, and coliseum.

 

Friday night the two of us returned to the boys’ apartment, changed and went to a cute restaurant for nice cocktail and free appetizers on weekends. I had forgotten how late everyone eats in Italy, so we waited until 9 to order some margarita pizzas from the local restaurant in Trastevere. Finally after getting our food, we went back to the apartment to begin a fun night out in Rome, Penn State style!

 

 

After a long night on Friday, Saturday we slept in and woke up to plan the day. Katie and I went off to see the Vatican and museum because she had never seen it before. It was a 35 minute walk, so we put our sneakers on and stopped for lunch on the way. Our caf�, “Mirror” served us DELICIOUS brochette and calzones, which were also HUGE! The food is so fresh in Italy, my calzone was stuffed with cheese mushrooms and broccoli, and the bread in which it was filled was so fresh and light that I was able to eat the whole thing! We needed our energy for all the walking.

 

Bridge that connects the City of Travestere

 

Calzone!!!

 

Katie, Gianni, Stephanie, Luis, Will

 

Around 4, Katie went to the museum and I walked about 20 minutes back to find Luis to do some shopping and to buy some food to cook a good dinner. Luis and I walked around the area of the Spanish steps which had a lot of shopping. I bought a new teal scarf, nothing crazy! Luis is always an excellent chef at Penn State and in Italy he is in heaven surrounded by all the fresh food. He in a sweetheart and insisted on cooking for me and Katie, which also showed me a new recipe to make with the pasta and pesto I brought back to my apartment in Galway. He cooked us fresh pasta with pesto, olive oil, garlic and butter, topped with a sausage, bacon and tomato sauce with fresh spices. Simple, delicious, Italian! I bought some fresh bread and olive oil for the table. How fun to sit around and talk about Penn State and how much we miss our friends. We even skyped back home to say hello to all of Luis’s roommates which are Reilly’s friends. They could not believe we were all together!

 

After another fun and long night out in Rome, we woke up tired on Sunday morning and headed back to Ireland. Our flight was a 12 and we got back to Galway around 7 a night. Long day, but fun and busy weekend.

 

 

After sleeping for 13 hours last night, today I am typing my blog now so I can focus on studying later. Tomorrow I have an “assessment” or one hour writing exam for my Buddhism class, which will be like no other exam I have ever taken. The class is 2 hours and for the first hour, the class has to collectively agree on a question in which will be our exam. After we decide on a question, then we have the second hour to write as much as we can, answering that question the class has chosen out of nothing. How unique! This makes me think that answering this question about Buddhism will be more of a “reflection”, or I am just telling myself that because I am procrastinating and do not want to prepare! I have until 11 tomorrow. I will catch up on some reading at some point.

 

I just have one class today from 4-6, so now I am relaxing and reading Buddhism until then. I am getting back my first paper and presentation grade which I gave last week in class, I hope I did well! Once again, I constantly say I have no idea how to gage any type of progress yet as far as my studies. Just now, I have purchased a ticket to see Ellie Goulding (British pop star) in Copenhagen, Denmark on April 10^th. 220,000 DDK is 39.99 US dollars! Cheap tickets. It looks like for Spring break I will be traveling from April 5^th-April 12^th, which will include Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Paris. Happy 21^st Birthday to me!!!

 

Before Spring break though, as you can tell from my last blog, I have many plans coming up. Now it is time for me to work hard the next three days before my Mom and Yiayia come on Friday! I cannot believe the time is here already for them to come. We are going to take trips to Connemara, Cong, and hopefully the Aran Islands this weekend, followed by dinners at restaurants I have been collecting recommendations for. We also have to go shopping because I need a dress for the Arts Ball on February 13^th! They are the right people for that job. I am very excited to see them.

 

Congratulations (or who cares) to the Ravens for winning the Super Bowl. 11:30 kick off in Ireland was too late for me to care about, especially after a long weekend. I did miss all of the pizza and chicken wing dip that was being consumed back at home for it though! Another NFL season bites the dust, now it is time for basketball. Not that I am in the sports loop….

 

I hope I can focus to be productive these next week days; it has been hard to contain my excitement. Every day I walk around glowing with all these 5 months has offered and will continue to offer me. Can’t wait to see mom and Yiayia just as I was so excited to see my friends from Penn State. The world can’t even separate best friends or family.

 

I forgot to mention that when we landed from Rome in Dublin on the plan yesterday, all of the people started clapping and cheering. The lady next to me said it only happens in Ireland, because everyone is Catholic and is afraid they are going to die on the airplane. HAVE NO FEAR THOUGH! She let me know there was a priest on the plane with us…. I told her that was a good thing; there must have been a lot of prayers on that plane yesterday. Only in Ireland!

Location: Rome, Italy