Rome: First Impressions

The start to the first day in Rome was way too early. Again, none of us really slept through the night, as we had taxis pick us up from the hostel at 4am, and headed to the airport. Luckily, this time I was able to fall asleep for at least a while on the flight (and for most of the bus ride to Termini Station).

It's definitely much hotter here in Rome than I am used to, and I kind of wish I had more loose clothing that would be appropriate for weather like this. Oh well, guess that would be an excuse to get some new stuff? (Although that doesn't really sound too appealing based on how much I had to spend to day checking into housing and for taxis.. ugh.)

The apartment is really nice.. A lot bigger than I was expecting it to be! So many large windows, balconies, too, if we can figure out how to unlock the gates.. plenty of IKEA furniture, and way more closet space than I could possibly fill up on only 42 pounds of luggage.

Definitely had a good couple hour nap after we got here, too, definitely needed it.

The biggest disappointment so far is KEY FAIL.  Not a single one out of seven of our building keys work, so we are having to go get dinner/food in shifts, which is super disappointing. My key also doesn't work to get into the apartment, so I can't go out alone, or at least not with my keys. Hopefully that'll get fixed at housing orientation tomorrow...?

I'm excited to go out and see others' apartments.. Huy seems to really enjoy his, and there are a couple more that are supposed to be really close to ours.

There's graffiti EVERYWHERE.

Tomorrow morning, adventure to try to find Studio, hopefully we leave early enough and don't get lost!

Also, Andrew was supposed to meet us over here at 6 this evening, but a couple hours later, still hasn't showed. I'm hoping it just means he had trouble finding us, but went to Huy instead, or fell asleep at his hostel and stayed there, or something of the sort. I'm a little worried since the only way I really have to contact him is the internet, but I'm banking on the fact that he is a big boy and can hopefully take care of himself, at least enough to find his way back to his hostel... hopefully news from him soon?

One of the first orders of business was GELATO. Pistaccio e Stracciatella. Yum.

Dinner was mystery pizza. Still don't know what it was. Very garlicky, maybe had some pesto on it... also... something else green?

More pics and everything else to come?