Hello from another train! This time we are on our way to Florence!
Yesterday was a crazy day! We woke up, got breakfast, and had to say goodbye to Prins. It was time for him to return to Sri Lanka and his cousin has returned to Rome to take his place with our family. It was sad to say goodbye! Next, we headed to class, and proceeded to watch a video that claimed that Mother Theresa, Gandhi, and the Dali Llama are all just terrible people. It was really frustrating. Yet another day hating my class.
After class we all went and grabbed pizza really quick. They have huge sheets of pizza on their counters and they cut your slice with a scissors to the desired size you want. It was pretty good.
We then proceeded to catch a bus to a market that may or may not be considered the black market of Rome. Our friends in the art history class went to it with their professor so we had them bring us there in order to get some good deals! I got a new wallet for 5 euros and a pretty scarf for 3 euros. Bartering at its finest.
After we shopped for a bit we got gelato, and then headed back to school for our 3:00 tour. We met Lavina (our favorite guide!) and had a tour of the Jewish Ghetto and Tiberina Island. The Jewish Ghetto is a section of Rome where the pope made all of the Jews live in year 1600ish. It is literally like 3 blocks and there were thousands of people forced to live there. It is also right across the road from the Tiber River, so to make conditions even worse, it flooded every spring for a few hundred years. In 1943 that is where the Nazi’s invaded to murder and send many of the Jews into concentration camps. Even today, despite its sad history, it remains a Jewish neighborhood of Rome. There were some cool restaurants and bakeries.
After we finished walking around the Jewish Ghetto we went to Tiberina Island. It is an island in the middle of the river that the Romans have proceeded to build upon. It was really beautiful! Next, Lavinia took us to a restaurant to meet the rest of our class for drinks and appetizers (on the school). It was a lot of fun!
We stayed at the restaurant for a few hours, and then decided to go get some dinner. I had a delicious pizza! FINALLY!
After dinner Nat and I headed home. When we got there our family was eating dinner, and their grandparents were there. It was fun to meet them! We also found out that our family will be visiting Florence this weekend as well! Arti took a picture of our itinerary so maybe we will meet up with them there! Crazy! After packing for our weekend trip, we headed to bed. We were exhausted.
Today we got up early to finish packing and headed to school. We road the #62, which was actually not too packed today, which was good. Bringing our weekend bags on the packed bus would not have been fun!
Class today was maddening. Our professor was 40 minutes late and when he did get there he jumped right into teaching, offering no apology, and was super crabby with us. After a break he came back and apologized at least, but then he proceeded to tell us that he wished he could’ve just cancelled class, since lots of us were gone, and he said he regretted coming to class. What a rude man. We were beyond frustrated with him. He did let us out early, which was nice, but we are all just so angry with him.
We went to grab a quick lunch, and then it was time to go to the train station. Olivia didn’t sign up for this trip and she was feeling very badly about us leaving her. She cried when we said goodbye. I felt so bad! She is going to Venice with 3 other girls, so pray that goes well for them.
The bus ride to the train station was brutal. It was so packed and we all had our bags. It was terrible. Once at the train station we waited for our platform to be announced and then boarded the train. We are currently Florence bound, with a good majority of our friends along for the ride. And my ears keep popping as we go through tunnel after tunnel! This is worse than the plane! Ouch!
I am excited to be in a nice hotel, with my friends, and to see another beautiful city! It should be a very enjoyable weekend! I am looking forward to doing some shopping and hanging out with our friends. I am also glad that I did so much of my paper beforehand.
Time continues to fly here. And the to do list doesn’t seem to get any shorter. But I will just keep enjoying every moment!
