Thirsty, anyone?

Piazza/Basilica di San Pietro by night

Ho trovato casa!

I am not going with the apartment I had originally had in mind. As of Friday Sept.30^th I will be living in an area called Parioli with a woman and her 15-year-old son. She had invited me over for dinner this past Saturday night, and from the moment I met her and walked into her house I felt completely at home. She is such a warm, vibrant, and funny woman. That was the best night I have had here yet. She had three of her girlfriends over and the five of us had so much fun together (the rigatoni alla carbonara was delicious). At the end of the night she drove me back to my hotel and we ended up getting lost. We turned down Via della Conciliazione and there it was…the Basilica San Pietro by night. I was completely consumed by the sight and had no power to take my eyes off of it. It is 100x more beautiful at night than during the day. Actually, Rome itself is amazing by night.

Cultural Note: At the post office, you don’t just walk up to the counter for service. There is a ticket machine that gives you a number and when your number is announced you can go up to the counter.

Ultimate Sight: As I was standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive for the past 30 minutes, I thoroughly enjoyed watching men in tailored suits and women in high heels and skirts driving on their scooters to work.       

A bit stressed

I haven’t really had the chance to enjoy the beauty of the city yet because my first priority is finding an apartment. I’ve stopped going to real estate agencies because their offers are too out of my price range on top of agency fees. I found a cute place in a part of the city called Gianicolo that I really like, although the landlord was a bit too particular about things. Finding housing has been quite stressful. I spent most of my day yesterday walking around that area to get acquainted and see if it’s a place I would like to live. The area is very quite and it definitely has more of a residential feel to it. I would prefer to have a place in a more exciting part of town like Trastevere (which is where I would ideally like to be), but Trastevere is only a short bus ride away. Today I walked from the school I will be teaching at to the apartment in Gianicolo and it is only a 10-15 minute walk. I feel like I’m on that HGTV show House Hunters International only with a lot less options.

In the midst of being totally confused by different directions people were telling me (I took three different buses and two trams) I stumbled across the Basilica di San Pietro/Piazza di San Pietro, the Vittoriano, a really beautiful fountain in Piazza della Repubblica, and great shopping on Via Nazionale. If I hadn’t taken the wrong bus I wouldn’t have seen most of it. I take for granted the ingenuity of the way Manhattan was designed. It is so easy to navigate; it’s a literal grid. Rome is so complicated with tiny side streets and piazzas all intertwining…it doesn’t even make sense on a map. I guess that’s how it maintains its charm while still being so vast.  

Cultural Note: A ticket to use public transportation (bus, tram, and metro) costs 1€. When you get on the bus you have to validate the ticket in a little yellow box. The ticket is valid for 75 minutes from the time you activate it, and you can use it as many times as you need to within that time frame. If the carabinieri (police) come onto the bus to check tickets and your ticket has either timed out or was never activated, you must pay a fine.

Highlight of my Day: As I was exploring Trastevere I passed by a store that said alimenti biologici (organic food). One of the places I knew I was going to miss while being in Italy is Whole Foods, but now I found a shop where I can buy my almond milk, sheep’s milk yogurt, and quinoa! I was so excited.  

Ultimate Sight: I passed by a middle school yesterday that had all its windows open with no screens. On the top floor there were three girls sitting on the windowsill practically halfway out of the window. In the front of the classroom the teacher was ruthlessly banging on the desk as the students’ screams were flooding into the street. My best guess is that she was either trying to kill a bee or quite down a group of unruly kids.    

Sono arrivata!!!!

I’m in Rome!!! I’m so excited over the fact that wherever I go I will be speaking Italian. I haven’t used English once yet for the entire 11 hours I’ve been here…I love it!!!!! Even hearing Italian being spoken on the street as I lugged my baggage into the hotel made me realize how much I missed hearing it on a regular basis. Another sound I had missed were sirens. The sirens in Italy sound so cool. I’m ready to wake up and attack the day tomorrow. I have a feeling I’m going to get so lost in the midst of my errands.   

 Check out what an Italian siren sound like:Italian Siren

Introduction

It’s interesting how life pans out. Italian started off as an interest, and furthermore, as a quest to gain back a language that had been lost in my family. It ended up becoming a passion that kept me wanting to learn more and made me want to push myself to see how far I could go. I was recently looking back at my agenda from last year. On September 8, 2010 I had written Organize plans for moving to Italy in Sept. 2011. Although I had already applied for the Fulbright grant at that time, a large part of me didn’t think I would actually get it due to its competitive criteria. I was mentally set on moving to Rome regardless of receiving the award. When I looked back at that day in my agenda I said out loud in utter disbelief, “What is my life? I can’t believe this happened.” God has blessed me even down to the details of the Fulbright Commission placing me in Rome. I could have been placed anywhere throughout Italy, but I was placed in the exact city I wanted to be. Being accepted as a Fulbright scholar has further proven to me how a certain aspect of our outcome in life is determined by our own actions and daily decisions, but the rest is pure destiny. Through my university studies I have gained a deep appreciation of academia and the opportunity Fulbright has given me will be more encompassing in experience than what I could have done on my own. I feel honored to call myself a “Fulbrighter” and I am excited to see what this next chapter in my life has in store for me. 

Purpose of Blog

The Fulbright mission is to foster a deeper cultural understanding between the people of the US and that of the host country (in my case Italy). I want to be able to share my unique experiences of living and teaching in Rome along with the quotidian occurrences during my stay. With this, I hope to deepen my readers’ understanding of the Italian culture while I further deepen my own.

Please note that this blog is not an official Department of State website. The views and information presented are my own and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the Department of State.