Veni, Part 1

After a delay in Philadelphia, a long wait at baggage claim, and an even longer wait for the American University of Rome (AUR from here on out) shuttle to take me to my apartment, I finally made it.

The ride from the airport to my apartment took some time but was a blur.  It was nothing like I remembered from my visit to Rome three years ago.  I thought I would start to see familiar sights as we drew closer to the city.  I partly expected to be dropped off on a curb in Trastevere, the neighborhood I am mildly familiar with as it is where my sister lived when she studied abroad. Instead, I am in an area full of 6-8 floor apartment buildings, mostly orange in color.  My apartment is in what is called "Monte Verde", a largely residential area.

There are six girls in my apartment, including myself.  Two are friends from the University of Maryland and the remaining three go to Michigan State. Coincidentally, two of them are also members of Kappa Alpha Theta.

After I threw my belongings into my room, the six of us headed out for our first taste of Italian culture.  After some aimless walking on Via dei Colli Portuensi we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some things.  Grocery shopping is very different in Italy. We left with brie, bread, water, a few other things and lots of vino. Surprisingly we only wracked up a bill of 77 euro.  We had worked up an appetite while grocery shopping and stopped at Potter Pizza on Colli Portuensi.

I had this misconception that most Italians could understand English, if not speak it. How very wrong I was.  I've learned from experience that pizza is generally cold and you have to ask them to heat it up.  Based on its seemingly less-than-Italian name, I thought the workers at Potter Pizza were frequently visited by Americans, especially students, and would understand my request to heat the pizza up.  Instead one of the attendants pointed me in the direction of the refrigerator to show me where the 'aqua' was.  The pizza was delicious but I only have room for one pizza place in my heart...Roscioli.

The word for heat is 'scalda', by the way.