More tours of Rome.

In the last two days i've spent around 11 hours walking around Rome and all its piazzi. Firstly yesterday after school we all caught the bus in so they could show me the main shopping strip of Rome, though we also visited the Pantheon and about 5 other squares around the city. Today Maria, Massimo and Caterina spent 7 hours showing me everywhere from the Colluseum to the ancient ruins and all the different piazzi in between. One of my favourite places was a sort of park thing that has ruins of ancient buildings and is sectioned off from the rest of the city, but the main attraction were all the stray cats that live there, which is apparently over 350 all up. What's even more awesome is that cats are so protected here and part of this place was called the Cat Sanctuary.

Also, last night Martina, Caterina's friend, invited us all over for dinner and to teach me how to make traditional Italian pizza. Dinner consisted of us comparing the Italian Harry Potter with the English one and most of the girls laughing histerically at all the british names. Afterwards they insisted that we watched Harry Potter in english so they could hear what it was like first-hand. The thing that always catches me off-guard and that i can't help but laugh at is when they sing American songs, like last night at dinner Federica repeated 'i kissed a girl and i liked it' over and over again and Caterina and Julia were both singing American Boy non-stop... but don't even get me started about High school Musical.

San Pietro.

Went to the city centre yesterday afternoon, and it made me realise how weird it is to visit places that should seem amzing to you but are just everyday places to those who live there. Saint Peters Square is truely amazing.. but its hard to take in and even harder when you're not with anybody else who will find it as amazing as you do.

All i thought about when i was there was how much effort would have gone in to building all the monuments in Rome... along with thinking about how much Nana would love to see the church.. so i took lots of photos especially for her. Can't say they're very good and they can't possibly give you any idea of just how huge the place is but some of them get close to showing how beautiful it is.

Oh yeah and i remembered a few months ago in an Italian lesson my teacher was telling us how great the roasted chestnuts (la castagna) were and how i might be lucky enough to try some. Well they were my first impression of the city centre.. as soon as i got out of the car i could smell something amazing, it was like a mixture of maple syrup and well.. roasted nuts. Can't say they tasted amazing, but apparently these ones weren't cooked enough, but the smell was enough for me to love them.

As for the other food i've had pasta 9 times in the last 4 or 5 days, all with tomato sauce except once. All Caterina's friends mothers are inviting me over for lunch and dinner and are all shocked when i say im full after the first serving.

Don't think i'll want to travel like this again any time soon.. some parts are good but it's so hard because you don't get to choose what you do and going to school over seas for more than 2 days is a waste of time unless you speak the language well. Sounds silly but i've found i've been getting worse headaches because the language here is so intense and everyone is so loud with everything they say and do. I've also found, through talking to people in Australia, that even from just being here 5 days my english has changed so much and i'm saying things the long way around just to make sure my point gets through.

Anyway photo's will be up soon, as soon as i work out how to do it.

Ciao!!

Just arrived in Roma last night and met my host family. I have two host sisters Caterina, 14, and Margherita, 17. They all speak english really well, Maria(thier mum) especially, and so do all Caterina's friends at school. They live in a large apartment 5km from the centre of Rome and from the balcony other than the large park all you can see are apartment buildings everywhere. Because everyone lives in apartments there are parked cars everywhere and everywhere is always really busy no matter what time it is. There is also graffiti everywhere, which i love.

We went to school today, which was really weird because it's a lot more different than i thought it would be. All Caterina's friends were really eager to meet me, and to try out their english on me which was really good because it turns out im the only Australian student going there which sort of sucks. The school is an eight story building with really small classrooms and like the rest of the city is covered with graffiti. The grounds of the school is pretty much an empty car park, which is really awesome but the thing i found weirdest is that there are no teachers anywhere and everyone smokes in school.

Really missing everyone and surprisingly i'm actually missing school quite a bit. I have to keep reminding myself that it's only four weeks.. and hopefully soon enough i'll be able to have better conversations with everyone. One thing that did make me feel at home was when i went to bed last night i looked up at the wall and it was covered with Jonny Depp posters, all the people at school are also asking me about different movies and books that i know.. they all love Harry Potter and were upset when they found out i didn't read Twilight.

For the next three weeks i'll be staying here and going to school with Caterina, so hopefully i'll learn a lot more italian. Then after that i'll be going to Venezia where i'll visit the islands of Murano and Burano and then onto Firenze before i go back to Roma so i can catch the plane home.

Anyway we're about to go out for the afternoon so i can get to know the area a bit better, because i just looked at a map and realised i though i was on the opposite side of the city from where i actually am.

I'll have photos up soon. Miss everyone so much!!
x.