Days 12 and 13

These past few days have been full of mostly classes and homework (had to happen sometime I guess...)  I had a three hour class at 9 am which was brutal especially because we had no time of coffee beforehand. We had to wake up around 7:30 which already just isn't my time of day, and we were out the door by 8, which unfortunately is prime commuting hour so Marie and I had to wait until the third metro to even be able to squish our way on. Thank god this is the only morning we have to commute this early. That being said, the class we had to go to was Art and Architecture of ancient Rome. This first class covered a lot of ground, but it looks like it's going to be a very interesting class, and a lot of the classes meet on site out in the city which is awesome. It's so cool to actually be able to see these things and understand the history behind them.
As soon as we got out of class Marie and I got a cafe AND a cappuccino which was much needed and I felt so much better afterwards. We also found yet ANOTHER lunch place right on the same block as our school. It's called Pizza Colonna. From the outside it doesn't look like anything special at all, but some of our friends told us the pizza was incredible so we decided to give it a try, and it was insanely good. They make their pizza in huge rectangles and then cut them as big or as small as you want them. It might be a new favorite spot.
We did homework in between Italian, we had to read more for business ethics in The Pope and the CEO which is a really good read, I would recommend it for sure, if nothing else this man's anecdote's about his time as a Swiss Guard for Pope John Paul II are fascinating. I got a gelato on the way to Italian, which went by pretty fast for it being three hours, and we had Maria Grazia's dinner to look forward to! Last night she made a potato fritatta (with lots of garlic as per usual. so good), a salad, and this incredible pasta in a red sauce with calamari! As always, it was out of this world.
We went to Scholars, an Irish pub we went to the week before for karaoke night which like last week was so fun. I didn't sing but who knows, maybe one of these days I'll go for it! It's so nice when we all go out together, I still feel lucky we ended up with such a great group because I really didn't know what it would be like before I came here. Everyone really looks out for one another, it's really nice.

Today we just had business ethics and Italian. It wasn't a super exciting day, and it rained but I got a lot of work done. We went to the new pizza place again and this time I got a white pizza with thinly sliced zucchini on top, which was fantastic. It's also super cheap there which is always a plus. Italian class dragged on today so Maire and I ran down to grab a cafe during our break. We've now made friends with the woman in the gelato/coffee shop...I think that can only work in our favor.
Tonight Maria made pasta with peas in a béchamel sauce which naturally, was fantastic. Now Marie and I are watching Roman Holiday in my bed (I can't believe I've never seen it!) A perfect way to end our day. Even the "boring" days here just seem better. Every time I'm sitting in the classroom or doing homework and I get bored I just think "hey wait a minute, I'm in ROME" and my day instantly gets better. I know I say it a lot, but it's true, I love this city more and more every day.

More to come tomorrow!

Ciao!

xoxo