What have I even been doing?

Clockwise from top (roommates): me, Kate from Wisconsin, Emily from Boston, and Chelsea from California

Just some things I've done while in Rome.

One night we went to a special club event at this place called Gilda. It happened to be Stephanie's (my apartment-mate) birthday so all the girls got made up nice and went out with the boys from our program to dance the night away.
The special DJ for the night was DJ AM who is actually from PA and is quite famous apparently in the US for DJing obviously but also collaborating with musical artists and dating Nicole Richie. So a lot of people were excited to see him but I had never heard of him before. Regardless we had a great night of dancing and partying only to find about a week and a half later DJ AM was flying out of Atlanta with Travis Barker the drummer from Blink-182 and their plane crashed due to problems at takeoff. Four of the six passengers died leaving just DJ AM and Travis to survive with 2 and 3 degree burns all over their chests, arms and heads. So crazy that something like that happened right after we saw him in ROME. Weird.


Friday of that same week we left Rome for an API excursion weekend. First stopping at Mt. Vesuvius after the tightest squeeze I've yet to see a bus get through on the road we let out our breaths and got off the bus and began the hike up to the crater top.
These pictures don't even give you a good idea as to how deep it was.

After that we got back on the bus, checked into our hotel in Sorrento and went out for dinner on API's tab. For starters we had lobster and seaweed fried dough balls which were delicious and oily. Tomato and basil sauce potato gnocchi for dinner and some kind of lemon layer cake with whipped cream for dessert. At night we got some champagne wandered around the city and went to karaoke.

Saturday morning was so overcast and rainy while we were eagerly awaiting the hydrofoil boat to take us to Capri. The weather was such a downer and we were just outside getting wet for about 25 minutes. Once we got on the boat and over to Capri it was like a whole new day. The sky cleared up and the sun burst through. Luckily by lunch time, where we stopped for the best pizza in town, it was so hot out we wanted to find the beach after eating. So we did a self guided walking tour on Via Tragara that led us across the coast of the island and down to the beach where we got pina coladas and hung around by the water.

Next the group split up and I took a bus with Josh, Alec and Adriano to the other side of the island called Anacapri which held the mountain with the chairlift to the highest point on the island. We found the chairlift station and I had assumed that it would be like a car that held 4-5 people at a time and took you up but I was very wrong. Instead it was a single chair per person much like those swings at a carnival with the small metal bar that comes down across your lap and your legs dangle down so I had to take off my flip flops to make sure I didn't lose them. It was so awkward for me to get on and off the chair lift because its just like a ski lift so it's constantly moving, which is also a little intimidating to me because it's all about timing and grace getting on and I have a hard time with that haha. So up we went a 12 minute ride each way. My ride up was the absolute most peaceful moment I've ever had in my life.


I think it allowed me to reflect on my time here thus far and to realize how lucky I am. It was probably one of the first times I've gotten a chance to just sit down and pinch myself to realize this is all real and I'm having the greatest opportunity ever, this 12 minute ride lasted longer for me, and only concluded to allow me to be one of the most complete forms of happiness I've ever had. Once reaching the top we regrouped and soaked in some more great views. On the ride down I called Winston to share the moment with him after calling my parents to wish my momma a very happy birthday and see how everyone was doing as well as talk about my trip so far.

After the chairlift we headed back to dock for the boat back to Sorrento to spend another night there. After a little shopping we went out for dinner which was mildly disastrous because I made the mistake of inviting about 30 ppl to meet in the lobby at 8 and thinking some people would go off and do their own thing i expected 10 at the most. But when all 30 showed up I began to panic because we didn't have reservations or anything and we were walking across town to a restaurant that I read about in a book. So we got there, and obviously they didn't have room for us and we split into three smaller groups and went separate ways. I got sort of upset that the night or dinner rather didn't go the way I had planned it to and it made me feel like my mom. Mainly I think because especially when it comes to organizing some kind of event or group of people she always makes sure everyone is put ahead of herself and it's all planned out to run smoothly, but when it doesn't for me I panic and get upset because it didn't execute the way I thought it should've therefore my expectations are set too high sometimes I think.

Anyway dinner ended up just fine with a nice mix of most of my roommates and some boys that don't live across the hall and therefore we don't see as much. Afterwards we met up with some more people and got warm cider/beer at a pub and kept the night pretty low key just talking around the table.


Sunday was Pompei! Which I enjoyed way more than I expected to. The API group split into three smaller groups and had about a two hour walking tour of the ruins with an extremely informative guide. There were stray dogs everywhere playing and following us around. I learned a lot about their architecture and building methods as well. Afterwards we had an hour or so of free time to eat and get souvenirs. This is my roommates Lindsay (NJ) me and Emily (MA)
Sooo I guess thats a pretty substantial update for now. Next up for post is the AS Roma soccer game!