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My first weekend in Rome was not all that I hoped for. The airport was frustrating and unairconditioned, which led to a lot of smelly tourists. I couldn't figure out how to work a payphone (still not sure I could) and didn't have any other way of contacting the outside world. Luckily when I was still fumbling with the documents I had someone noticed the bright red St. Johns folder I had and came up to me. A whole group of St Johns kids were gathered on the floor of the airport waiting for the shuttle to come. I was the only Wagner kid, so I didn't recognize anyone. The shuttle was late coming to get us, so everyone thought they forgot or just didn't see us. Not so: turns out, everyone is late in Italy. Lesson one.

The whole first weekend was not good. I got sick from something and spent most of my time in bed or in the bathroom. I did get a chance to walk around a bit before that though, and saw some of the sights. Rome is beautiful, and complex. And very, very, hot.

Monday was better, and class was fine. My classes here are okay, not spectacular. I've only had one or two of each though, so we'll see as the semester wears on. Everyday after class I have a lot of spare time, so last week I napped through my afternoon, along with the rest of Italy. They follow the siesta tradition, or "pausa" which means a lot of stores close between one and four pm. Sometimes its inconvenient, but I understand. If I could get away with not working for three hours a day, I would too.

Tuesday I became myself again and explored around the Piazza della Repubblica, which is a big building that has a history I don't know about, like most of Rome. It's pretty, and there are a lot of shops. I'm on a never-ending quest for an Italian book that I'm not sure exists. My professor claims to have one, and demands that we do too, except no one has found it yet. I've checked two cities so far. That was my first experience with the Metro, which probably has about twenty stops total, between the two lines. It's only worth it if you're going more than three stops away, because they're so close together that you could walk between stops in five-ten minutes. The bus systems is supposed to be more comprehensive, but I haven't braved that yet. I'm still walking most places (which means I have developed leather feet. It took a week of pain, but I think I'm golden now).

My school is about a ten minute walk from the Spanish steps, which are cool but not my favorite part of Rome yet. The Trevi fountain beats that because its huge and intricate and beautiful. I have pictures, but as my laptop is still out of commission I'm in a computer lab and unable to upload.

The weather was unbearably hot last week. I would try to start out the day in pants but I'd change to my only pair of shorts halfway through the day. I really need to do laundry. It's finally cooling down (wearing pants! woo!) but only because it rained.

I forgot to mention my dorms. They're pretty cool, for dorms. They're in the same building as everything else, which means I can roll out of bed and into class in less than five minutes. They're up the tallest staircase I've ever seen. That staircase rules my life. Most decisions in the morning are made around how many trips up the stairs I'm willing to make that day. The elevators don't work here yet, like the WiFi. They have made us no promises on when they will function, which makes me think their ballpark is next spring. My room is huge, and has an archway. It's actually kind of awkward, but I like it. Everyone in my program lives on the same floor, which makes it easy to plan trips and dinner. The first couple nights were hard because all 30 of us would try to go out together. I heard someone say, "We need to start getting cliquey. This is ridiculous." We have now, and everyone has kind of found a group of people. I really like the people from the University of Florida. We all went to Florence this weekend.

I'll have more on that because it was insane, but I'm going to look up flights to Barcelona and then go the Festival of White Lights thats happening in Rome tonight. I'm not sure what its about, but it should be fun.