City
Ok, I've been in Rome over a week now and I still haven't posted. Part of the reason is because I've been mostly just too busy to post until the last few days and to make a proper update would take far more time than I have. However, I can plagerize myself with this letter I sent my parents. Enjoy:
Hello everybody! It's me Andrew and I'm in Rome. Classes start tomorrow. I haven't been able to contact you as much as I'd like because this hotel's Internet server is a little iffy. I doing well though.
Rome is like a combination of NYC and DC. It's got the crime, violence and graffiti of both cities, the living arrangements and denseness of NYC, and the ubiquitous monuments of DC.
Food here s really cheap if you stay away from the tourist traps. You can a dozen eggs for 2 Euro's and several kilos of pasta for about 15 centos. This is good because even though we have dinner as a class seven meals of the week, that still leaves seven where we're on our own (breakfast doesn't really count because the Romani have cappuccino or espresso for for breakfast. ) They give us enough money to buy food for ourselves so I haven't had to visit a bancomatic yet. I've learned enough Italian to go shopping and to use the metro.
The University of Southern California is taking up residence in the same hotel we are. Between the two school's, we take up most of the residence. Most of the Californians seem friendly but, they're well, Californians. The faculty has arranged a party so that the two schools can get acquainted. We'll see what happens.
I think that it's funny that the Christendom students are permitted to drink whatever they want, whenever they want (within reason,) so long as it's not in the apartments themselves. This is extremely lenient especially since the terrace and top of building which we pretty much have to ourselves doesn't count as an apartment. The Californians are under strict orders to remain sober.
I've been able to make it to daily mass so far. Confession is offered nearly 24/7 depending on the chapel/church/basilica you visit. San Pietro is enormous and can have several masses going on at once it seems. The church just down the street (There's one on every street,) I heard offers mass every hour, on the hour, several day's a week. Everywhere we go we discover another chapel or monestary or something similar. We found what must be the only protestant church in the whole city. We looked inside, it was ugly.
We can't drink the water out of the taps here but this is fine because we can always go to one of the fountains which are filled using the old Roman aqueducts. They're clean though the city's modern plumbing apparently isn't.
A well, that's what I have to say. Goodbye for now. It's getting late and I have classes in the morning.
Hello everybody! It's me Andrew and I'm in Rome. Classes start tomorrow. I haven't been able to contact you as much as I'd like because this hotel's Internet server is a little iffy. I doing well though.
Rome is like a combination of NYC and DC. It's got the crime, violence and graffiti of both cities, the living arrangements and denseness of NYC, and the ubiquitous monuments of DC.
Food here s really cheap if you stay away from the tourist traps. You can a dozen eggs for 2 Euro's and several kilos of pasta for about 15 centos. This is good because even though we have dinner as a class seven meals of the week, that still leaves seven where we're on our own (breakfast doesn't really count because the Romani have cappuccino or espresso for for breakfast. ) They give us enough money to buy food for ourselves so I haven't had to visit a bancomatic yet. I've learned enough Italian to go shopping and to use the metro.
The University of Southern California is taking up residence in the same hotel we are. Between the two school's, we take up most of the residence. Most of the Californians seem friendly but, they're well, Californians. The faculty has arranged a party so that the two schools can get acquainted. We'll see what happens.
I think that it's funny that the Christendom students are permitted to drink whatever they want, whenever they want (within reason,) so long as it's not in the apartments themselves. This is extremely lenient especially since the terrace and top of building which we pretty much have to ourselves doesn't count as an apartment. The Californians are under strict orders to remain sober.
I've been able to make it to daily mass so far. Confession is offered nearly 24/7 depending on the chapel/church/basilica you visit. San Pietro is enormous and can have several masses going on at once it seems. The church just down the street (There's one on every street,) I heard offers mass every hour, on the hour, several day's a week. Everywhere we go we discover another chapel or monestary or something similar. We found what must be the only protestant church in the whole city. We looked inside, it was ugly.
We can't drink the water out of the taps here but this is fine because we can always go to one of the fountains which are filled using the old Roman aqueducts. They're clean though the city's modern plumbing apparently isn't.
A well, that's what I have to say. Goodbye for now. It's getting late and I have classes in the morning.
posted by Andrew Stine at 8:43 AM
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