TRAVELOGUE.jesswrites.com

I’ve had the most amazing week and I think it has a lot to do with the hot sunny weather. I already wrote about the zoo, and the trip to Ostia Antica. Then on Wednesday night Amanda and I were suppose to meet in Piazza del Popolo to do night time photography with our class. But Amanda read that we were suppose to meet there at 20:00 and thought 10:00… and we were two hours too late when we got there. But while we were looking for our class, we did see the President of Arabia strolling through the piazza. Then we were passing by a movie theater and just decided to go see the Constant Gardener since it was starting at 10:30… we didn’t end up getting home until almost 2:00 am because there weren’t any buses running that late and we had to walk home most of the way. But it wasn’t fine because it was a nice night. I had class the next day, and then we all went out that night which was really fun. I like going out in Rome.

On Friday morning Amanda and I slept in late, got up and worked out, and then I randomly decided that I really wanted a haircut. Amanda refused to cut it for me so we walked over to a little salon near our apartment and I got it cut there. The hairstylist didn’t understand any English so when I said I wanted him to cut off about 4 inches, but not to cut my layers because I was trying to grow them out… he didn’t understand and instead cut all of my hair 4 inches, including my layers… so so much for growing them out because now they are shorter than ever. BUT, it looks good so I’m not worried about it. It’s nice to have shorter hair for the warm weather. Later that evening I went to the Pantheon to meet a lady from Grand Valley, Nikki, and Jaci for a dinner that was meant to check up on us. It was nice… I always like a free meal, too. Afterwards I went to Liza’s to meet up with the rest of my roommates for Liza’s 21st birthday celebrations. We were there for a couple hours before we ventured out and walked all over the entire city… like 5 miles. We went to several different bars and clubs and met tons of people from JCU… it was such a fun night. I met a guy from Mt. Pleasant who goes to my school and we talked for a long time about Michigan sports.

Saturday morning I woke everyone up so we could go on a picnic in Villa Borghese!! We bought tons of bread, cheese, and snacks, and went to the park wearing skirts and flip flops. I love Villa Borghese because it’s so pretty and relaxing, and we got a beautiful day for our picnic. We met up with Lauren and Lauren when we got there, and we all ate and layed out for about 4 hours. It was so nice. I took lots of pictures and video. When we got back to our apartment it was starting to get dark, and we all just stayed in and watched movies for the rest of the night.

On Sunday afternoon after sleeping in really late, Amanda and I went to the Trevi Fountain to take pictures, and then went and sat on the Spanish Steps for a couple hours to do homework and read. We met some people there and they told us that it was the one year anniversary of John Paul II’s death and that there was a huge memorial with at least 100,000 people going on at St. Peters in the Vatican. We weren’t actually going to go until we took a run bus home and ended up at the Vatican anyway… and the ceremony was going to be starting in 20 minutes, so we just stayed. It ended up being a great experience. There were thousands of people and everyone was given a colored candle… which were all lit and looked gorgeous because the whole Vatican was filled with colored lights. A choir sang beautiful songs in Italian, there were several speakers (and I understood a lot of what they were saying) and then the Pope came out and spoke and blessed the people. The service was broadcasting on TV all over the world, so maybe some of you saw parts of it? I’m so glad we ended up going.

Now it’s Monday, and I’ve been sitting outside in the sun for the past three hours and I’m fried. Well… more browned to a crisp. Either way, it’s gorgeous out and I’m trying to spend as much time outside as possible.

There’s some new pictures up. Check them out if you want!
Love til later,
Jess