Monday, November 5, 2012

Meet Me in Rome

Hello all,
Rome Rome Rome. The most beautiful city on earth. It holds so much history, I love it. I am so sorry by the way, something is going on with my camera and won't load the pictures to my computer. I'll figure it out soon.

The reason we decided to go to Rome was to visit my host sister.

Wednesday (also Halloween)
We left at 4, yes 4AM Wednesday morning to drive to Cagliari. (I have the HARDEST time pronouncing this the Italian way, because it has a sound in it that English doesn't use. the 'agliar' part of it is weird) We arrived in Rome and it was raining :(, and we went to a cafe near my host sister's house and then to a museum. I'm really sorry, I don't remember the name. We spent 10ish hours there. I loved every second of it. I have always been so intrigued with Roman history, and I just couldn't get enough of the art and stories that belongs to each and every piece. And it is all right there in front of you. That's what is so amazing, that it has been preserved for so long, and I had the opportunity to stand RIGHT THERE next to it. I feel honored that I had a chance to see it. That night I was exhausted, and despite the fact the it was Halloween, I passed out around 10:30.

Thursday:
Shopping. Lot's and lots of shopping. I can't even remember all of the stores that we went into. I ended up buying a sweater, a scarf, a cardigan, and shoes. From H&M and The Vans Store. I guess there isn't much to say about Thursday, because all we did was shop. That's it.

Friday::
Hadrian's Villa. I'm not sure if I spelled that right. Oh my gosh, it was beautiful. And again with the history, I can't tell you how much I love history. So, I'll tell you a little about Hadrian.

Hadrian was a Roman Emperor in the 2nd and 3rd decades of 2nd century AC. The villa is located in Tivoli, as a retreat from Rome, because the emperor is said to not have liked the palace on Palantine Hill in Rome. Hadrian's successors used the villa after his death During the fall of the Roman empire, the villa fell to disuse, and crumbled. Parts are still standing today however. Anyhow, Hadrian is best known for building Hadrian's wall, which marked the northern border of Roman Britain. He also rebuilt the Pantheon. He was the third of the so-called 5 good emperors. 
If you want to know more about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian

It was magnificent. Here are some pictures that Wikipedia provided:


The villa's recreation of Canopus, a resort near Alexandria, as seen from the temple of Serapis






Saturday:
The Pantheon. Last time I was in Rome, the Pantheon was under construction, and this time, as far as I can tell it wasn't. Gosh it is so large and extravagant. I can't even imagine building it in times without our modern technology. How did they do it? Well, they tell you how they do it, but it's truly incredible.

Saturday night we flew home, an unfortunate end to our time in Roma.

Random thought:
I never knew how much I loved eggplant until I came here. 
I really can't think about going back to not eating Italian food everyday. What am I going to do!

Arrivederci
Rachael

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Long Time, No Blog

Hi!
Oh gosh... I haven't posted for a while. I never thought I'd be one of THOSE people, I have never been someone to start something and not finish it. But here I go. I PROMISE that I will update once every two weeks from here on out. It's just been like "Oh I'll do it tomorrow" then, it gets to be 9:00 the next day, and I do the same thing. Well, it's 11:13pm, but I'll start now.

So since camp...

School:
school has gotten no easier, and I still don't understand anything that goes on during those 5 horrid hours of school. Like don't get me wrong, if I understood what went on in class it probably wouldn't be so bad, just like American school, but I don't. So, school pretty much consists of me trying to focus on what the teacher is saying, me dazing off, then 40 minutes later realizing that I missed half of the lesson that I probably wouldn't have understood anyways, but I am still frustrated with myself anyhow.
My goal by the end of the year is to be Just Another Student, not "OH MY GOD THAT'S THE AMERICAN!"

Language:
No one knows how truly hard it is to not understand anything of what anyone is saying to you, until it happens. I feel like a child. No, not a child, a toddler.
Don't get me wrong, my Italian is improving at an incredible pace, I already know more Italian than I did french after taking two years! And I can have a pretty decent conversation with only a couple "cose??" ("what??")'s here and there, but it's still so hard. Sometimes I want to skip ahead to January where I might actually be able to understand school, and talk with people normally.

Life here has gotten to be pretty routine, so it's difficult to remember things to write about. It's just life now.

But I did go to Rome, and it was beautiful. I was there from Wednesday until last night late, and I love love love Rome. I got to see Rome as an Italian, rather than a tourist this time, because my host sister lives there and showed us around like a local. We went to monuments, cute little restaurants, and did tons of shopping! (Spent a little over what I should have probably though)..

I'll do a post about Rome TOMORROW. I promise that. (Pictures too)

But here are some pictures of camp:
"Stargazers"

We got to go to the ocean:) Be jealous

Ocean ocean ocean<3

All my lovely Sardinian AFSers

In the ocean again!

The AFSers from my chapter (Ogliastra! Heck yes!)


Ahhh I'm tired, and honestly can't remember the rest of what I was going to post about. So I'll write tomorrow. I pinky promise. 

Arrivederci,
Rachael