A Drowsy Arrival

Ciao! My flight from Philadelphia to Rome was delightful. Well, that's a stretch. However, I am a huge fan of personal televisions, a four-person row occupied by only two people, and direct flights across the world. I flew overnight and arrived at 9am Rome time on Monday morning. I only slept for an hour on the plane, which left me completely exhausted all day Monday. We arrived to our student housing facility, called the Santa Maria in Cappella. The facility borders the Tiber River and contains the oldest privately owned garden in Rome. Elderly people share the facility with students of the Pantheon Institute and wander the garden during the day.  A little weird, but also charming!  Here are pictures of the view of the Tiber (from our room) and the view of the garden (from a different bedroom in the apartment):

After a yummy lunch at the apartment provided by our professor, Dr. Cheek, we walked to our classroom building. Our classroom is steps away from the entrance to the Pantheon. How can that be real? I don't really know, but I will never take for granted walking past that beautiful piece of history every day. We took a delusional walk to the grocery store. Emily, Lane, Lee and I bought groceries together. It was difficult to function properly with 1 hour of sleep in 36 hours, but we managed to make it out of the market with the necessities. We wandered back to the apartment and I fell asleep at 5pm and woke up at 7am this morning. I'm glad I slept for that long because I feel 100% better today.

There are fifteen girls (fourteen students and our teaching assistant) living in one 'apartment' at the Santa Maria in Cappella. We basically live on the third floor of one of the housing complexes, with six bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, and a common room. It's plenty of space and we have everything we need, including many tour books on our book shelves! I'm sharing one of the bedrooms with Emily, my friend from school.

This morning was our orientation at the Pantheon Institute. The president of the school gave an excellent welcome speech that reminded us of the importance of this journey. He told us to consider the nature of perception and appreciate the distinctions of an unfamiliar culture. It was the perfect speech to start off the rest of the morning. We then met at our classroom and received syllabi for the 3 courses of the program (Italian Relationships, Early Childhood in Italy, and Historical Roots of the Italian Family). I have a lot of work ahead of me, nine credits in six weeks is intense! I will be writing papers, leading discussions, doing projects, posting blogs, keeping a journal, and reading many books and articles for class. I won't let myself think of my homework as a burden, though, because when else in my Penn State education will I be able to take a field trip to the Forum after a morning of learning about Italian commerce? Never. That's the most exciting aspect of this trip; I will learn about Italian culture as I experience it on a daily basis! Once our syllabi were reviewed, we had a lunch break, a brief introduction to our resources at the Pantheon Institute, and then headed back to the apartment.

I would love to write more, but I have a lot of reading to accomplish. I will post again when I feel I have stories to share, which I am sure will be soon enough! Next week, we head to Venice and Florence. Emily, Lane, Lee and I bought tickets for the Uffizi in Florence, which I remember was one of the best parts of my trip to Florence in high school. I'm so excited!