A Week Has Passed

It hasn't quite hit me yet that I'll be spending an entire term here in Rome, a month maybe, but not over that. I'm finally getting the hang of things like navigating the streets, finding a real supermarket, and never understanding a single word anyone says to me when I'm on my own. I've studied the vast history of Rome through so many classes and perspectives that it's weird to be here finally. It's like it never really existed in real life, only in a book or on a slide, something that might have been real once, but has been lost to time, like the fabled Atlantis. So naturally the first few days here were spent convincing myself that the building out my window wasn't a fake model or a CGI still from a movie, but the insanely huge, insanely real Basilica di San Giovanni: the mother church of the whole catholic world, technically ranking higher than even St. Peters. And it is right there, outside my window, across the street.

My first week has been a blur, and it's weird to think about how much I've done. I've seen St. Peters and the Sistine Chapel, I've seen one of my favorite statues of all time, the Ecstasy of St Theresa (conveniently located a block from my school), been to countless landmarks, went to classes, and started sorting out my new life in this apartment. More than once I've found myself literally jumping up and down with delight as I stumble across something I learned about in AP Art History that no one else around me has ever heard of. Seeing as I'm still giddy whenever it snows, even after 3 years in Vermont, I don't think I'll ever calm down when I see something I know in Rome.