Orientation

This whole week consisted of me being a “mega tourist”. I ate gelato, took pictures outside of ancient buildings, wandered the streets of Rome, and adjusted to my new life in Trastevere. I met my six other roommates (Helene, Hayden, Beri, Rose, Natalie, and Erin) and we all sat around talking every night until at least 2 am. We all come from very different backgrounds but the dynamic of our apartment flows extraordinarily well. We also started decorating our apartment and because of our jubilant, inviting personalities, our apartment quickly became the go to hang out for many other people.

My friends and I began to explore Rome, going to historical sites like the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and we even got lost and ended up outside of Vatican City. We took an Ancient Rome tour where we saw the forum and learned that Julius Caesar was killed less than a mile away from our apartment. I, of course, had to take a selfie in front of Caesar’s death location and send it to my latin teacher.

During the orientation, our Northeastern coordinators also organized a day trip to Ostia, where we spent the morning exploring the ruins of Ostia Antiqua, the old port city, and then in the afternoon we relaxed on a black sand beach resort. The last time I jumped in the ocean, I was in Maine, so the water definitely was a lot warmer compared to my last swim in the ocean.

The adjustment has so far been easy, aside from my computer language automatically changing to Italian, and that is probably because I am so excited to be here and I have also made friends so fast. The area is picturesque and every morning I have to pinch myself a little because the beauty does not even seem real. I am taking lots of pictures but they don’t do the scenery justice!!