Posso Avere Un Altro...

Well. This was quite the crazy weekend! :)

Friday, me and four of my friends spent the majority of the day visiting

the Vatican Museum. It was incredible! There was so much to see! I could spend the entire day just looking up and still not see like 2% of the artwork in the Vatican. We mazed in and out of little chapel rooms, corridors lined with tapestries done by Bernini, and sculptures of castrated men (poor guys). I was most excited about seeing the Sistine Chapel and truly it is as extraordinary as you think. It's not as big as I thought it was going to be. However, standing in that chapel and actually seeing Michelangelo's creation was beyond captivating. I felt moved to tears and exhaustion looking at his creation scene and the scene of judgement. It was confusing to decipher between what was painted versus what was actually part of the building. Breathtaking.

After the Sistine Chapel, we decided to wait on going into St. Peter's because the line was long and we were all tired. We met up with my friend Jeremiah that I met at the hostel I was staying in before I moved into my apartment. Hung out with him for the afternoon and then we all got together to go to a beach party! We were supposed to meet up with a friend of Jeremiah's at the Yellow Hostel/Bar.

Well...we left around 7:30ish and needed to catch the 75 bus. We waited at the bus stop for ab

out 30 minutes, saw about 40 bus 3's go by, and no 75's. Welcome to Italian public transportation (this is one thing DU orientation people got right!). Well we finally got a 75 and were able to make it to the hostel in time. Th

e drive to the beach took about 45 minutes. When we finally got there, we all got some drinks (I made friends with the bartender. ha) and then sat in the sand and listened to a live band. It was great! We had a great night laughing, drinking a little vino, wading in the Mediterranean, and....losing my AUR student id card, my monthly bus pass, and getting sand in my camera. Yeah it was bad. But it was a fun night! I successfully learned how to order a drink in Italian and how to pro

perly greet people with the cheek kiss and I had a very elementary conversation with an Italian!

Saturday I slept for a good portion of they day. In the afternoon, my roommates Emily, Gena, and I went to the Villa Borghese, a beautiful park in Roma. It was very relaxing to wander around, get some gelato, sit and read, and people watch.

Today (Sunday) I wasn't feeling well again (still pretty sick) and Emily, Corey, Jeff, and Madeleine had plans to go to the beach. However, it was raining so that plan was scratched. Instead we all decided to get some lunch near the Tiber River. It was a great little place! We had a yummy lunch and then found an english bookstore and I found a toy shop with all handmade toys! Afterwards we went to the Basilica di Santa Maria. Apparently this church is the first church where they had Catholic mass. It was beautiful and I'm definitely going back to do some drawing!

Well it was an eventful weekend and I'm looking forward to a relaxing week of classes!

I hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all!

Much love,

~K