Wow! How fast the week has flown by!
On Tuesday we had class at 10:00, a little later than usual. We went at the regular time and got some muffins and coffee. Then we turned in our papers (finally!) and had our final day of lecture.
After lecture we went to a restaurant in Trastevere for lunch. It had a drink, bruschetta, and pasta for 9 euros. The idea was good, but the food wasn’t my favorite. I just can’t seem to win here, food wise. After lunch, the group split separate ways. Natalie and I decided to go shopping quickly and cross a few mores sites off of our site seeing list. We ended up finding Natalie a pair of rain boots, finally! The poor thing could wring her socks out. This rainy weather and her taped boots had had enough. After shopping we visited Piazza Popolo, took a few pictures, and took a mini electric bus back towards school. Then we met our friends for a snack and drink before heading to cooking class.
Cooking class was pretty fun! We made Roman Dumplings. It was basically cream of wheat made into patties and broiled with cheese and salt. Not my favorite but not the worst either! We had a delicious chocolate dessert and wine as well. I just love the guys that run cooking class. They are so funny! After class we headed home and went to bed! We were tired and cold from the rain all day.
Yesterday we met at class early, and headed to the Vatican with our class. We had tours of the Vatican Museums, St Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Square, and the Sistine Chapel. Words cannot describe how beautiful all of it was! I could have stayed there for days and still not have seen everything! There were maps painted the size of the wall, rooms painted from head to toe, sculptures that stood 26 feet high, the list goes on and on! The tour ended at 2:00, and we were STARVING! Natalie, Olivia, Tori, and I all headed back to school and went to “The Perfect Bun” for lunch. We had a burger and fries, for 5 euros. The best, and tastiest, deal all day!
After lunch Natalie and I bought a few more gifts, and took the #160 to a new part of town and wandered through the central park of Rome, Villa Borghese. It was beautiful! And so green! Afterwards, we made our way back to school, popped our head into a few churches, and met our friends for dinner.
There were 12 of us that went out to dinner together, I had vegetable soup. It was so good! Then we got gelato, and a nutella crepe for me! It was so good! I was stuffed!
Afterwards we wandered a few blocks over to a street full of restaurants. One thing that is strange about Rome is that the restaurants all have a staff person that stands outside the restaurant and tries to convince you to eat at their restaurant. It can be quite annoying. The one that we did end up at offered us free champagne. So after a glass of free champagne, we each got one more drink and just chatted. We then when to the Irish pub, Scholars, to meet some other friends. We only stayed for a bit but it got pretty late. Oh well, it was fun to just hang out with our classmates.
This morning we had our last day of lecture. It was technically a review day. He gave us 20 minutes to do a review exercise, we discussed the exercise and then we talked about the exam. It is 2 essay questions and 5 short answer questions. After explaining it, I felt a little better, but knew I would have a lot of studying to do. Then Olivia raised her hand and convinced our professor to let us use our notes for the test! He said yes! We were so excited!
After class we had one of the Richmond staff call the car service to schedule our pick up this Saturday morning. Then we went to lunch. And it was awful. The service was bad, they ran out of the pesto Emily wanted, the gnocchi was overcooked, and we were all just really crabby. But they gave us free dessert, so that made it a little better. After lunch we did a bit more shopping, stopped at a pretty fountain to take some pictures, and came home.
This afternoon I am feeling rather overwhelmed with everything. We are doing laundry, packing, blogging, emailing, and we need to study. It feels like a lot to do tonight. But we will get it all accomplished! Plus, we will eat with our family tonight! Minus Arti, he went back to school today.
Tomorrow we will take our test, run around all afternoon, and go to our group dinner. They all want to go out for a bit after the dinner to celebrate my birthday. We won’t stay too long, that cab at 5:00 am on Saturday is not going to be friendly.
Hope everyone is doing well!
