Family Times in Roma

On July 16th my mom and Kelly arrived in Rome ready for an Italian tour! We met at the hotel at 10am and then started a tour on foot. While walking around I left them to get my hair done and then met them at the Column of Trajan, which happens to be right next to this restaurant which is where they had their first Italian meal.

This is the Column of Trajan.

Here I am with the lovely ladies. The view behind us is the view we had during lunch. Our restaurant was directly to the left. It is amazing the views and places that you can go to while in Italy.

These are the ruins of Caesar's Forum.

More ruins at The Forum.

Me tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain.

As seems to be usual in Italy in general, we happened upon a wonderful surprise. While walking around after dinner we heard music and started walking in the direction of the music. When we rounded a corner this is what we saw.

What was most entertaining is that while looking around I saw one of the speakers that came to speak at the Conference that my program held. (He is the Carabinieri in the pictures from the Conference dinner night.) He came over to meet my family and informed us that this is the Carabinieri Orchestra.

He is a fan of pictures, so we were told to wait while he went and got his "two favorite officers" to take a picture with me. I am laughing because of something Kelly said or did, but I don't quite remember it. :-) 

And that, my dear friends, is the Ogden Girl's first day in Rome.

That is a very abridged version of Rome. :-) Many more days to catch up on!

Ciao Ciao!

Il mio Amelia

My goodness. I just started looking at my calendar for August and was faced with the absolute horror that my time in Amelia will be over in a little over a month. I have come to love this town very much and it feels more like home everyday. I certainly hope that one day I can set up some kind of situation that allows me to come back here frequently.

Some of the things I love about Amelia:

1) Tropicana - the amazing Gelateria around the corner from my apartment. 

2) The cobblestone streets. I mean, they can be annoying if you are in heels, but they are so much more beautiful than our asphalt mazes.

3) The views from the Terrace. 

4) The views from the Duomo.

5) Let's be honest, the views from anywhere are breathtaking.

6) The fields of sunflowers in bloom.

7) The cheese shop where each morning they make fresh mozzarella and ricotta. 

8) Truffles

9) Pizza

10) Ok, the food :-) 

11) The wine. Oh the wine. I need to find out how to get this back home. It is so nice here because you just order red or white, and whatever they bring you is absolutely amazing.

12) The random little festivals that require medieval dress.

13) The people. I have not had the opportunity to stay anywhere else in the world like I have here, but I have found Amelians to be among the most warm and welcoming people I have ever met. They encourage us when we use horrific Italian to try to order, and they are all round wonderful.

Ok... that's enough of me going on and on about why I love Amelia. I know that when the summer ends it will be bittersweet. I will be happy to return to my friends and family, but I will be so sad to leave the friends and family I have made here.

Ciao ciao!

Video Fun: Parte Due

I will blog more about this later. This is another one of those amazing things that we stumbled upon while walking around Rome.

Video Fun

This is a video from when Lindsey, Lauren, Patrick, Allan and I trekked up to the top of town. We decided that the day that a HUGE storm was coming was the best day to get up to the Duomo. When we got up there it was so windy I was afraid my camera was going to blow away. Funny enough the Duomo was NOT open.

We have realized that in Amelia if a store is open, go in. I have yet to learn hours for stores, and don't assume the posted hours are the real hours, maybe one day those were the hours they were open, but not anymore.

Ciao, ciao!

Roma

I am sorry for having neglected my blog for such a long period of time!  My mom, sister and a friend of my sister's arrived July 16th, and things have been pretty nonstop since then. So I am going to try to catch you up in a few posts and then I am going to try to stay on top of things for my final month here (I leave on August 29th).

In anticipation of my family's arrival I went to Rome a day early so I would be able to meet them at the hotel at 10am the following morning. Luckily I convinced one of my friends to join me, so we had a pretty fun day. Class got out earlier than expected, so we were able to make it to Rome by 2pm, get some sight seeing in, eat some dinner AND catch a showing of Harry Potter in English. :-) All fun things

Here is the obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo. (The Square of the People) I am in the foreground. 

That night in the elevator Emily and I spotted this sign... what may have made us laugh you ask??

Emily is nice enough to point out that the ad advertises for alcoholics to come to the cocktail hour. Everyone is welcomed in Italy! :-)

and... as a special bonus, by coming up to school alone with no one else on the internet I was able to finally upload a video. This is my last apartment. Next you'll have my walk to school, and then I will get some fun ones in. :-)

It's so hard to say goodbye...

Sadly, with all the fun we had this week there was one black cloud, we had to say goodbye to John and Jane. We figured we may as well make a night of it, so we did it Italian style and went out for a dinner. Here is my dinner, a paddletown salad (weird name right?). It is AMAZING! Romaine, swiss cheese (we think), walnuts, tomatoes, kiwi (you weren't expecting that were you?), pears and I think cucumbers. It is so amazing and yummy!

Michael, Lindsey's boyfriend arrived last Friday. He is hilarious!

Here Emily and I were trying to take a picture on both her camera and mine. First, I looked at my camera, she looked at hers.

Then she looked at my camera and I looked at hers.

Then we found it really funny that we couldn't get it right yet.

Finally we had success!

Isabel is just a blast. I can't exactly remember what she is doing here, but I can guarantee you that it was funny!

At some point during the night we all decided it was fun to take random pictures when no one was expecting them. Here Emily tried to catch us off guard, but I saw her coming.

Jane, John and I.

The group.

I am currently in Rome with Emily where we are hoping to catch a showing of Harry Potter in English. Then tomorrow my family (Mom, Kelly & Luis) arrive. SO EXCITED!!

Ciao Ciao!!

My New Place

Since my landlord rented out my other apartment, I got to move into a new apartment for the rest of my stay. I am pretty excited because I have two beds AND a pull out couch, a washing machine and a pretty nice terrace. Here are some views.

This apartment is in the same building as my last one, just a little further down the road.

Oh right... the other good thing is that it comes with a flat screen TV WITH BBC news. :-) 

My kitchen.

The noisy teens and their motorcycles/scooters/mopeds/dirtbikes. :-)

The view from my couch.

The terrace.

The bathroom.

My bedroom.

The washing machine!

Ciao Ciao!