Autobiography of a Mortal: It's Hard Work Getting Lost

Well folks, I had quite an adventure today...doing something that seemed like it would be really simple. Who knew shopping for textbooks would be such an ordeal?

I went to class today for the first time, and although I'm not particularly looking forward to our 12 page research paper, I think it's going to be a really great class overall. My professor is from Austria, and although the accent is a little thick, I got the hang of listening to her after the first half hour or so. It was so cool, talking about early Roman history while we stood right next to the island in the Tiber and pointed at all seven of Rome's hills. We walked across a bridge that was built in 62 BC and is still being used today. We saw the mouth of Rome's original drainage system, also 1st century BC in origin. There may be gypsies camped out around it and graffiti everywhere, but it's still really cool to see the origins of such a great civilization. We saw a couple of early temples today, too, and talked a little about the Etruscans...yeah, so I'm nerdy, but I'm really excited about this class. Tomorrow we're going to Museo Capitolino, the Capitoline Museum, so I am excited about that too.

But yeah, my adventure today started when my classmate Rachel (she's from New York, incidentally) and I decided to go get our books for the class. There's a bookstore here called the Anglo American Book Shop, which sells English language books for John Cabot students and presumably any other British or American expats in Rome. It's really not that far off the beaten path, but John Cabot's map and directions were wretched beyond description. First of all, it gave the completely wrong bus number we were supposed to take...Rachel and I were just forunate enough to meet an English-speaking Italian lady, who just happened to know the correct bus route. Then, once we got the right bus, the directions told you what bus stop to get off at and then just said, "Walk 250 meters to bookstore." No clue what direction, what street, nothing. We walked a while in one direction, then turned around and went the other way...finally I had to call my program coordinator for help just getting the address, and then we had to ask several passers-by to get us pointed in the right direction. I don't know how anyone given those directions could ever find the place, but whatever. We finally found it, and I got my books, groaning at the price tag (over 100 US dollars, for one class...I know, I know, that's not unusual even in the States where they don't have to import the books...but still...). By this point we were exhausted and stressed out, but the best was yet to come. My roommate ran into us in the bookstore, and she told us a better way to get back to the school than the way we had come. We took the metro, then got on bus 271 to get back to JCU. Well, somehow we got on bus 271 going the wrong direction, so we ended up in Suburbia Desert. Rachel and I were both starting to get scared...and then we reached the end of the line and the bus driver told us we had to get off. Lol we had no idea where on earth we were or what had gone wrong...but eventually we found the next bus going the other direction, and eventually it took us to our JCU stop. It was a long, long ordeal, punctuated by nearly getting run over, fighting with metro ticket machines, etc... not to mention gallons of sweat. I love Italy...but boy am I tired now.

So here are a few pics...

I went to the Trevi fountain! This was on Saturday. I was so tired I thought I might fall in, and the place was so crowded...but I threw a coin in and made a wish like you're supposed to. I think I'm going back with the roomies tomorrow night to see it lit up, which is supposed to be quite beautiful.