Resident Travestere and Orientation day

I apologize for lagging on my blogs the past two days. I've just been a bit busy adjusting to this city...and I was trying to figure out how to use Erin's portable keyboard thing for the iPad because typing on this little screen isn't the easiest thing in the world. A keyboard would have also been useful to take notes in class. Whelp, guess it's back to old fashion paper and pen for class! (I still need to buy a notebook haha)

~Resident Trastevere~
So, we stayed at a hostel the first night since we couldn't move into our apartment until the 25th. But, Ya know... Hostels aren't that bad for the most part. But, it's probably because we we're upgraded to a private one. Due to jet lag, we all woke up around 5:30am. Ridiculous. It sucked because I wanted to sleep more but couldn't. My body wasn't agreeing with me whatsoever. Our window led to this balcony area that had a very eerie yet calming vibe to it (Images featured below).

 

Getting a taxi from the hostel to the trastevere was a damn struggle. The girl at the front desk told us it would take an hour to catch a cab there because of the heavy rain so our best bet would be to walk to the nearest plaza and flag one down there. THIS. EFFIN. SUCKED. Mitch (another friend of mine that just happened to be staying at the same hostel) and I were so aggressive. At this point, I was ready to give up. I just felt very frustrated and flustered. It was a combination of the rain pouring down on us and not being able to as for help. I immediately knew that the language barrier was going to be the MAIN problem. Wasn't the best way to start out the trip. But, We eventually got one and made it to Resident Trastevere.

The apartment itself is more spacious than I imagined it would be. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms for 8 girls. Yeaup. You read right, 8 girls. It may sound spacious but I feel like it's only spacious because everything (tables, beds, couches, tv, fridge, stove, sink, etc) is small. *note: I filmed a video but I want to edit it so you guys aren't watching a 3 minute long video of me walking around lol)

I'm in a triple with Erin and my homegirl Melody. Aren't we cute? Haha The three of us are convined they don't wash the comforters, which is really nasty but... Check this. We made an Oreo with the comforter and 2 bed sheets. Whoooo, instant "wash" (You might be wondering why we didn't just wash the comforters. Well, we  cant cos they don't use dryer machines here... There is no way a comforter will dry in time for us to use it at night. I was saying to use a blow dryer but ehh)

We used this day to catch up on sleep, go to the local market, and just chill. We bought a couple bottles of wine buuuuut no bottle opener. So, we were googling ways to pull out the screw and My found this video of a dude opening it up using a shoe lol Lets just say we were still u successful. 

~Orientation Day~

edit: Orientation Day started at 12:30pm and it's located at the ACCENT center. ACCENT is where I'll be having classes and... it's a 25 minute commute. No biggie. I've never been there so the plan was to leave at 11:15pm with a couple of my roommates so we didn't get lost. We follow the directions, take the tram, and get off at the last stop (at least we think we're following the directions correctly). In front of you when you get off the tram was Piazza Venezia! The very first big touristy site I set my eyes on. So, of course we decided to be typical, basic girls and take a gazillion pictures. Here's a cute one of all of us (btw, shout out to mymy for letting me steal his gopro)

So, it hits close to 12 and we figure we should head towards orientation. After wondering around for what seemed like forever, me and Erin finally made it to orientation. Yeah, we were late by 20 minutes but that's ok. We got there and it's all thank to this old Italian lady who couldn't find her glasses. Lol Getting lost in general sucks. But, getting lost in Rome is beautiful. We passed through this gorgeous alleyway that had little shops, restaurants and gelato that eventually led us to a farmers/flea market (pics below)

 

If you know me at all, you know I don't like being helpless and feeling vulnerable. To some degree, Rome makes me feel this way. One of the worse things about being in a different country is the language barrier. Not being able to understand or speak Italian is so frustrating. So, when we got lost, I immediately started to feel defeated. Hate that. So, asking around for directions to ACCENT sucked. Erin and I don't speak or understand Italian at all. Hand gestures was our only communication. I mean, waving your had left and right and shit can only get you so far.

There are just so many major difference between here and the states.