Well, I made it!! After not really sleeping on the plane because of the awesome movie and TV selections and the fact that I haven't really watched TV for the last month... I was able to sleep for a little bit and woke up to this beautiful scene of the Italian Alps. I intently studied the GPS while looking out the window as we got closer to Rome, hoping I'd have time and figure out the resources to see some of these magnificent places I was flying over during my visit.

When we got off the plane in Rome I patted myself on the back for not falling for the money exchange booths right off the plane. They really screw you over! I was also in a bit of a rush as the housekeeper would only be at the apartment until noon to welcome me. As the luggage coming out of the baggage claim stopped coming, a small group of us looked at each other in terror realizing none of our bags had shown up. But the fact that there were so many of us provided a little bit of comfort. Safety in numbers, I guess. Turns out those 20 bags were just taking their time and eventually got there.

My last time at the Rome FCO airport, I was instructed by Max to "just look for the bus or train". This ended up taking me over an hour to find as everyone I asked didn't speak a word of English and brushed me off in some direction. This time I made sure to pay better attention to the signs and found it immediately, purchased my ticket, and hopped on my train. Having done this before makes things a lot easier! I arrived to Termini station with tons of time to spare so I decided to purchase a SIM card and exchange the little bit of US money I still had. Turns out they really screw you at the train station too - duh! Oh well, at least I checked that off of my to-do list. Next was to find an ATM along the way so I could pay my rent.

Holding my little printed out map of the route to my apartment, I decided to walk rather than take a taxi. I'll almost always try to walk if I can. This was not a pretty picture. I was sweaty and wrinkled after my long flight and wheeling two suitcases down the cobblestone streets was more of a struggle than I imagined. I had to take breaks along the way to rest my arms. Once I got to the building, I took in the historic beauty of the building and thought about how interesting it was that I could randomly find this apartment and will be living with two people I've never even spoken with. The world has become a very small place!

I was relieved to see we had a lift and assumed from the pictures that we were on the top floor. I struggled with trying to open and close the multiple lift doors and barely fit my luggage in with me when a friendly neighbor, Fabrizio, popped in to help me operate the contraption. I knocked on the door to one of the apartments and found a cleaning woman who spoke no English and was apparently not the one I was looking for. My apartment was up just one more level that the lift didn't go to. Finally the right apartment. The cleaning woman helped me in and got me settled and explained a ton of things that I will never know. My Italian is worse than I thought. We tried very painfully to converse but quickly realized we should both just smile and nod for now.

Rafaella, the woman whose room I'm occupying stopped by to drop off the keys for me and once again, I'm clear how bad my Italian is. She asks if I speak French? No. Dutch? No. Solo parlo l'inglese. How lame! This woman speaks 3 languages and I can't speak one of them... I'll get there. Again, lots of explanations and I'm sure very helpful tips that I pretended to understand just catching hand motions and occasional words here and there.

I decided to go out and explore just a little bit now that I had a key and I am so excited to get to know this neighborhood!! There are so many lovely restaurants and shops. I'm excited to be living in an area that is more Italian and less American/full of tourists, but I'm quickly realizing a lot of people in this area simply do not know much English. I guess that's a good thing and I better get my language cap on!

I took a long nap in my perfectly-sized little room and woke up refreshed but starving. My roommate, Cho, is at her German lessons and we're going to have dinner a little later. I thought I'd update the blog while I have some time and am writing from this insanely beautiful terrace in the heart of Rome.

There are so many little questions I don't yet know the answers to. Like which of the 10 pizzarias surrounding us is the best? Is the water from the faucet okay to drink? How the hell does this SIM card work? Where is it safe/not safe to run? Where do we grocery shop? Where is the closest wine shop? So much to learn!