Two Months

Today I have officially been living in Italy for 2 months! Crazy huh? I realize I haven't been blogging a lot lately so here is what I have been up to the last few weeks....

Feburary 27th:
This day I had a field trip to Rome for my survey of art class, we visited 2 baroque style churches and the Borgese Gallery. Sidenote if you know where this quote is from you are my favorite: "I always say if it's not baroque, don't fix it!" Anyways this was the longest day of my life! We had to meet at the Porta Romana train station at 7:45 a.m. and that is the train station that is the furthest away from where I live! Then we get to Rome meet our teacher and proceed to the two churches we are going to visit, however we were only told we would be going to the Borgese Gallery, gotta love the Italians...We are at these churches until about noon and are given a 2 hour break for lunch! We are all thinking 2 hours seriously is that really necessary? So we meet at the spanish steps around 2 p.m. and go to the Borgese Gallery where our teacher proceeds to tell us every little minor detail about the outside of the building and the gardens surrounding it and then we go inside and she continues the detailed description of everything which would have been great if I were not so tired already! By the time our field trip was over it was 5 p.m., the longest field trip I have ever taken! Moving on.....

March 1st:
I am skipping that saturday because I honestly just sat in my room all day and did nothing! This day was a sunday, I had decided earlier in the week I was going to attempt to go to Rome to go to church. So I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning and get on the first train that leaves Viterbo on sundays which is at 6:54 and doesn't get to Roma Termini until 9:20 from there I had to take a bus down to a piazza called Sempione and then walk about 2 blocks up this street to the church building. When I found the church building I saw the sign The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Italian of course and I wanted to cry! I didn't exactly know where to go when I walked in but an Italian lady was walking in behind me and directed the way. There were 2 missionaries in the back that I spotted so I sat on the same row as them and realized one of them was translating into a little like walky talky thing. This lady in front of me asked if I spoke english and I nodded and she handed me another walky talky thing with headphones so I was able to listen to the whole thing in english! It was great finally being in church and having something that felt almost like home. After church the lady that handed me the headphones introduced herself to me and invited me over for lunch the following sunday.

March 6:
During the week I just go to school not that exciting so I am not really gonna write about it! So this friday I had another Rome field trip for my survey of art class. This time it was to the Vatican! We were able to go inside the St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum, which is where the Sistine Chapel is and the Rapahel's Rooms are as well! Well this field trip did was not as long as last week's thank goodness! And we didn't have to walk all over town either which was a plus! The Basilica was amazing and on such a large scale you feel so insignificant when you are inside of it! And the Sistine Chapel was amazing as well! It was darker in there than I thought it would be but still absolutely incredible to see in person! I highly recommend it! So after our field trip a group of us decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for an early dinner! When we sat down at the table and started looking through the menus all of us were like I feel like I am in America right now! It was a crazy feeling! I got a bacon cheeseburger something I have not had in a very long time! And got water for FREE in Italy! Incredible I know and you get free refills on drinks which is unheard of in Europe! It was such a good dinner and I will definitely be going back more than once!

March 8th:
Once again I am skipping saturday because once again I was a lazy bum that day and did nothing! This sunday I went to church in Rome again and was able to listen to the meetings in english besides sacrament meeting because they switched the chanel on the walky talky things and I had no idea how to fix them to the right chanel. After church this girl named Misha introduced herself to me and we had both been invited to lunch at the mission presidents and his wife's house (the lady from the previous week). When we got there we were informed that some of the missionaries and some African refugees that are taking the discussions would be joining us for lunch. It was a great sunday lunch with a ton of people around and a ton of good food, it felt like a sunday I would have at home! Well I exchanged e-mails with Misha and thanked everyone for the great meal and went to the bus stop to return back to Viterbo. I didn't get back until almost 9 because the trains don't run as often on Sundays so I had to take the 6:52 train home. When I got back I decided to sleep for a little bit before my parents called so the phone woke me up before my alarm did and sure enough it was my mom! I got to talk to Ava, it was her birthday and she turned 4 and I got to talk to Morgan, Lilly, and Roman as well! Roman and Lilly were both speaking so good! I was amazed! And I also got to talk to 2 of my brothers and their wives, my sister Carrie and my parents! It was great to be able to speak to everyone and we are planning on doing it again next week!