It feels like a bit of a cheat since I'm writing this on Monday, but I fell asleep with my laptop open and photos half-uploaded at 9:30 last night due to complete exhaustion from a weekend filled with sight-seeing... Regardless, it was quite the eventful past 5 days in the transition to life abroad.

I can't believe it was only a mere few days ago that I first arrived here after surviving a 16 hour trip. I spent the morning in San Francisco, the afternoon in Philadelphia, and awoke to a morning in Rome -- how nuts is that!? I was immediately surrounded by clusters of shingled buildings, ancient churches, and loads of hefty smokers and fur coats as I made my way to an apartment along the main street of Trastevere via crazy taxi ride (they make up their own lanes, drive against traffic, disregard red lights, and cluster 4-5 cars in 2 lane streets) and settled into what I will call home for the next four months.

Jetlag was a pain to get over, but I've beeng slowly conquering it a bit each day. It was not pleasant to have heavy eyelids as the sun was setting at 5 pm and forcing myself to stay awake until midnight in hopes of overcoming the time difference only to wake up at 3 am completely energized and ready to go when my days actually picked up at 10 am. I have now, however, made it to staying up until at least 10 pm and waking up at 7 which seems like a healthier lifestyle though I'm sure my hatred of early mornings will soon return as I fully adjust to Roman time. (Though the cappuccinos at the bar in the morning help a lot.)

Thursday and Friday were school orientations and by the time we completed our time sitting in ridiculously uncomfortable seats for 4+ hours each day we returned to the apartment stiff-backed and drowsy with information overload. I really only remember the sheer terror of sitting down at the esame orale (oral exam) during the placement test and having the woman, who is now my Italian professor, look me in the eye and just say, "Dimmi di te, Natalie (Tell me about yourself)." While taking the paper test I realized how much Italian I had unfortunately forgotten over break when I blanked on the differences between congiuntivo, imperfetto, and trapassato which were the last things I'd studied for my final a few weeks ago. I did make it into the advanced italian class, but the first day deserves a recap of its own.

The weekend was when I finally took advantage of being in Italy and immersed myself in tourist life. I can't believe in 48 hours I saw the Castel Sant'Angelo, Piazza San Pietro (the Vatican), Palazzo Venezia, the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and many more ancient ruins of Rome. These visits took me miles around the city, finding historical gem after gem, and left me with lots of photographs and unbelievable sore calves.

Overall it's been a crazy hectic (less than a) week, but I hope I'm transitioning well into the Roman lifestyle though there's still so much to be learned!