I\u2019ve been in Rome a few days now and it\u2019s unlike other places I\u2019ve ever been. It\u2019s definitely unlike America. Don\u2019t come here expecting to find everything you would at home. Because, except for a few things, you\u2019ll essentially find nothing. Here are some of my impressions:<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The people here drive like crazy. I\u2019ve never seen anything quite like it. There seem to be no rules of the road except to speed and have no fear. Cars park in different directions, sideways and backwards. I\u2019m sure they would park upside down if it was possible. As long as there\u2019s an open space, they\u2019re going to park there. Motorcycles have a completely different system. They weave in and out of traffic like super crazy people. They seem to be paying attention, but we say someone with a helmet that had a slot for a phone. The driver could be talking on her cell phone while driving! I will say this, they do stop for pedestrians. Unlike Americans who never stop for anything, Italians are very quick with the brake.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 People here are very friendly. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve met a mean Italian yet. I\u2019m sure they\u2019re here, but most of them seem pretty nice. They don\u2019t seem to care that our Italian is horrible and we have no idea what we\u2019re doing half the time.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The weather is beautiful. All the Italians are walking around in like heavy duty winter coats that you would see back in Michigan this time of the year. I, on the other hand, am walking around in a fleece at the most. That is my \u201cwinter coat\u201d. The nighttime is about the same temperature as some of the warmer days back home. The day is absolutely gorgeous. Also, there is this clean, crisp smell that I can\u2019t get enough of. I like to open the door to my balcony and let in the fresh air during the day.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everything is super old. Like, you think things in the States are old. They\u2019re only babies compared to Rome. We visited the Forum and the Colosseum today. I can\u2019t believe how old it all is. It amazes me that people were able to build such structures back then with the technology they had. We could never do anything like that today. Also, the fact that everything is still standing is completely amazing. After everything Rome has been through, for there to still be things standing is incredible.<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m in love. Even though I\u2019ve only been here a short time, I can honestly see myself calling this place another home. Once I get to know the language better and really experience being a Roman, I can say that I will always consider this place to be a home.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I think of everything so far and it\u2019s only been a few days! Once I get through orientation and have some more time to get out and explore, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll have even more to tell. Also, classes start soon and I\u2019ll be back with my impression on them as well. For now, ciao!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rome is pretty crazy. Crazy awesome. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}