So since I last wrote, my roomate Kym and I decided to travel.. we weren’t sure where yet so we started looking at Sardinia and Sicily (the two islands) but airline tickets were super expensive and the train was 11 hours… so we decided on Paris! Ha. RyanAir is a discount airline in Europe.. kinda like SkyBus in the USA.. so we got roundtrip airline tickets to Paris for 39 euro each (39×1.5 = US $) We’re leaving the thirtieth so I’ll have to keep ya posted.

Yesterday after class I had decided that I was going to explore Rome.. we only have 6 weeks left and I feel like I haven’t seen nearly everything yet.. so Kym and I left our apartment around 130pm and walked down Via del Corso to Borghese Park.. (these places mean nothing to you but oh well) so we walked past this park for probably another mile.. (Northwest of Central Rome, North of the Vatican) I’ve never been that far in that direction, and we ended up in the business district of Rome.. where the real Italians hang out/go to work/have apartments. It was pretty quiet over there and basically no stores to go in and look at, so we checked out some fountains and churches and followed the Tiber River south towards the Vatican.. we found an organic grocery store, which we attempted to tell Meg it’s location (one of our roomates is crazy about organic) and we also found another “Corso”.. a main drag with shopping on it.. we were meandering when we saw this one store that caught our eye so we popped in.. and we saw Mexican food.. PopTarts.. Betty Crocker.. Thanksgiving foods.. etc etc.. wow.. I think my jaw dropped.. it ends up we were in the International Grocery Store.. so all the crazy things we were craving all semester we found.. we ended up taking home some taco mixin’s, cheddar cheese, and blueberry muffin mix.. haha.. all the little things you take for granted (ahhh I can’t wait til there isn’t a pizza store on EVERY corner) After that we crossed the river.. two bridges north of the Castel Sant’Angelo bridge and took these stairs that led down to the walkway that runs right next to the water.. BAD IDEA. Usually sometime in the evening it’s like you’re in the movie Birds.. its SWARMS of birds.. so we were walking on like a thin layer of bird-poo instead of sidewalk.. then we started hearing it.. (imagine the sounds of raindrops) needless to say I got pooped on I’ll post a picture below of the birds.. About 45 minutes after this we made it home and cooked up some delicious tacos. I think next Friday I’m headed for South-East Rome.. past the Tiber again…

Tomorrow a big group of ISU students is going to the Roma soccer match! Should be interesting

View of St. Peters from down by the river

Casel Sant’Angelo

the swarms of birds