Sing to me, Paulo

I love the cappuccinos here. We had a crash course in Italian early in the morning yesterday, and decided to wake up and grab a quick breakfast. Anna, the CEA director, told us there was a small bar behind the Global Campus/Villa Ferretti. Note: "bars" in Italy are coffee shops, and pubs are where you go out at night.

When people tell you that everyone speaks English here, it is not true. Maybe in the more touristy spots, like the city center and such, but not everywhere. We walked in and the women greeted us nicely (and we happened to run into Anna!), but from there we had a little trouble communicating. It's not like a Starbucks where you can just choose something based off of the menu on the wall- there are never menus in the small bars. I knew what I wanted, but got a little frazzled when I didn't have a crutch, like a menu, to read off of. She just kind of looked at us and said "cappuccino?" Since that was familiar, we were all happy to simply say, "Si."

There also aren't any seats in these little bars. It is just a long counter where you order, stand and drink/eat, and then pay all in the same place. We also got croissants, which were delicious and had some kind of lemony frosting that seems to be popular here. Even though we didn't speak Italian very well and they didn't speak English, they were extremely friendly. When it came time to pay, the cappuccinos were only 1 euro!

Villa Ferretti

We walked around the corner to the Villa Ferretti, where the CEA campus is. We have all of our classes here and all of the staff's offices are located in the building, but the Villa is still owned and lived in by the Ferretti family. They have beautiful gardens on the property, but we aren't allowed to simply wander them because they're the private property of the family still. Even so, the family loves having American students around, and their children do even more.

We had a crash course in Italian which was really helpful, but I still need to learn a lot more. After the crash course and tour of the Villa, we went over to the market and picked up fresh bread, tomatoes and mozzarella for lunch.

Katherine put the olive oil on the bread and toasted it in the oven, and I sliced everything and finished making the bruschetta and we all sat around the table until Andrea (our CEA director of housing) came by at 2:30 to show us around the neighborhood some more.

He showed us where the nearest "Tabacci" shop was, where we could buy magazines and another bus pass when ours expire after a month. Then he took us to the supermarket and showed us everything we would need and how to cook it. I honestly thought it was going to be a waste of time, but then I realized we didn't even know the difference between the laundry detergent, fabric softener and bleach. He helped us pick out a pesto for our dinner and showed us the parmesan cheese and which kind was the best.

When we walked through the wine aisle, he gave us some interesting advice. He joked that we would be drinking a lot of wine in Rome (and that we probably already had.. true), but in order to avoid the drunk American stereotype, we should buy it when we bought food. Italians usually don't make trips to the grocery store for just alcohol.

After he left, the girls all took naps, and I kind of didn't know what to do with myself. Inspired by an earlier conversation about the Lizzie McGuire movie, I turned it on. It was just as cheesy as I remembered. Annddddd she broke pretty much all of the tips that our Florence cop had given us:
1. Don't get on a motorcycle with an Italian man you don't know (obviously).
2. Don't trust anyone until you know them well ("well" constitutes real name, address, phone number, and real nationality).
3. Don't go anywhere alone (Katherine: "heeelloooo you idiot, bring Gordo.")
4. and probably a billion more.

Aaannnddd we realized that the movie was supposed to be right after her junior high graduation. So she was playing a 14 year old?! That movie gives false hope to 14 year olds everywhere. I'm almost 21 and my life in Rome will NEVER be like that.

After I wasted almost an hour and a half, I started cooking dinner for the girls. The pasta we had chosen was long and curly; we had never seen a kind like it in the states. It took forever to boil, but it was worth it. I set out plates of olive oil and sliced the bread for everyone, and then mixed in the pesto. At first I thought it was going to be too creamy, but it actually ended up being delicious. The freshly grated parmesan cheese topped it off.

After dinner, we got ready to go out. We were going to meet the boys at their apartment and then go to an American bar in Campo de Fiore. Unfortunately, we got lost again. Apparently on Viale Regina Margherita, there are two buildings with the same number, and of course our map led us to the furthest one. I think I almost threw my iPhone when we looked up and realized that we were standing outside of a store. We still haven't gotten our Italian phones yet, so Danielle was really the only one that could communicate with the boys. Through a lot of confusion we figured out where they were and met them at the bus stop.



We got to the area where the bar was, and it was so pretty. It was all cobblestone and string lights. As we came up to the bar, we realized just how tailored it was to American students. 'The Drunken Ship' had all American bartenders and it was packed with students studying abroad. People were even playing beer pong (do Italian students play that?) While we were standing around, we were told that we got free shots if we told them it was our first time there. So of course we did. These Italian girls came up to us and introduced themselves, and ended up hanging out with us the entire time in the bar. They were hysterical, and simply trying to communicate them seemed like a game. At about 1:30 am, I was feeling a little tired, so we hopped in a cab and left.

Roomates

The cab driver was young and funny, though he spoke barely any English. When we told him that Italians were terrible drivers he swerved all over the road as a joke (though it was a little scary...). I swear, the painted lanes on the street are invisible to Italian drivers. It's ridiculous. Also, there are no parking rules. Cars can be literally half on the sidewalk and it doesn't matter. Romans make RI drivers look stellar.