FEB 13-FEB 17

Feb. 13th, 2006 - Monday
Today, I woke up a little early so I can take a shower……..and I was expecting this really hot shower……because supposedly they only have the running hot water at certain times…so I couldn’t take a hot shower at night, because their wouldn’t be any. And umm…to my surprise, all I got was freezing cold water! L Tiff and I got to school and sat in on our first class! We had history of philosophy! Our teacher wasn’t talking much about philosophy at all though…she was asking all of us students how our apartments were, if we unpacked…etc and she reminded us that if we ever felt homesick that we can go to her place and she would make us a cup of tea and talk with us to make us feel better, etc! lol So as you can tell, we didn’t do anything in that class! Then the rest of the girls showed up at 10:30 for our next class, which is Mythology. Unfortunately in this class, she did start lecturing lol! Monday’s are my shortest days for me. I finish at 12. After class, we all went out to eat and went walking around to go see what’s around our school! For lunch…..Vikki, Bri and I went to McDonalds…..now all of you know that I don’t like eating there at all that much…but what can I do….its the closest thing to home! They had this special going on….2 full meals, big mac and chicken sandwich with 2 drinks and 2 fries and chocolate candy for 10 euros! It was way cheaper that way. So we asked the lady to get that…and she looks at me and she says I couldn’t have it because it was only a Valentines special…and I told her, that it said the special in fine words at the bottom said that it started on the 11th and ended on the 17th. So she was a little upset that I told her that, and she gave it to me! Lol…..that’s right…..she tried to get more money off of us!!!! Ce sad!!! L Whatever though..then we went home….and finally started unpacking all of our things! We felt a little more at home!! Then later on that evening, I went to a place nearby to go make a phone call home! I called my parents at work…..and I talked to them for like 15 minutes, which was really nice! J So…not much happened today……but it was a great day overall!!!!

Feb. 14th, 2006 – Tuesday
Another really cold shower….lol…Well, today we had to all meet at school for another tour! We officially met our art history teacher from here in Rome. Her name is Cristina! For our tour today around Rome, we were going to go visit Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel. Another little side note: Did you know that Vatican City is its own country? It is a country inside a country! CRAZY!!!! Lol with all my “little side notes” you guys are all going to learn so much!!! Lol So…I have already had the chance to come visit Vatican City before. But when I went the first time, we went super fast through everything….and we didn’t see a lot of the things that it had to offer! You seriously need to spend a few days too look at everything in detail and go in every room and see every fresco, and sculpture, etc! As always, walking inside to see the famous wall fresco that has the amazing creation and the last judgment! I got in trouble while I was in there….I got caught with my camera open. I was getting a little video of the inside. While you are in there, you aren’t really allowed to talk at all, or to take pictures, or video…..woops!!!! Oh…I forgot to mention….on our walk towards Vatican City…..the guy who I told you about that totally has a thing for Vikki, comes up to us, and says Happy Valentines Day to the both of us in Italian! Lol we had no idea what he was saying to us….and then he translated it and then we were like oh………and said it back to him! Vikki and I completely forgot that it was even Valentines Day! So we asked Michael how he learned how to say it in Italian. And he’s all like….well this morning before we had to meet at school; I asked a random Italian person how to say it, because I wanted to impress you girls! Lol…..and he only said “girls” because I was there; if Vikki were to be alone, he would have said he wanted to only impress her! HAHA so that’s what happened with that! There’s one more guy who likes Vikki……..ACTUALLY……….there is a total of 3 guys who like her since before we even got here to Rome! Here’s all of them for you, so you guys can know….JOSH, MICHAEL AND JONATHON! Josh…..we met him in our Italian class last semester! So, we have known him for a while….these other two guys we met during all of our orientations for this trip! So after the Sistine Chapel, I don’t know how….but we ended up separated from our girls…..first of all because there was way to many people inside there, and then we ended up bumping into Jonathon and we went outside with him and a few others. We started walking out and we were all very hungry! So we went to this restaurant close by and all got something to eat! GUESS WHAT I GOT LIDIA?! I got this pasta thing…..Pasta Carbonara!!!! J Can you say YUMMY?! (It was really good……but it wasn’t as good as I remember the first time having it in Florence with you Lidia! I think that was the best I ever had!!!! But I’m sure you can make it better….my little chef that you are J ) Anyways…..after having lunch……..Vikki and I didn’t have a phone to get a hold of the rest of the girls…so we asked Jonathon to call them, and they didn’t answer. So we figured they were going to be out for a little more. So we went with our group to Jonathon’s apartment to go check it out. The whole time he was saying when he came to visit ours that his stinks compared to ours, and all this stuff. We all thought that he was exaggerating. Well……to our surprise……..HE WASN’T! He was telling the truth…it was way worse then ours! After we stayed there for like 15 minutes, Vikki and I decided to leave and go back home! On our way back home, we went a little around the stores on our streets. Vikki bought this really cute jacket, and I bought two turtlenecks! Then we got home and we stayed home for like 15 minutes, and then decided to leave so we can go buy our cell phones. Right when we got outside of our door, the girls were there! This was a good thing, because we only have 1 key to our apartment…for all of us 6 girls! So we gave them the key, we went to go the to cell phone store to go buy our cell phones, and we also bought a hair dyer and flat iron….and then we were going to meet up with them later on for dinner! We went to our friend Andrew’s house for dinner. The girls were supposed to be there by the time we got there, but they weren’t. So, we went by the internet café to finally go check our emails for the first time! I spent an hour…payed 2 euros for it too! Yeah…..pretty pricey!! I had to read all of my mails very quickly and wrote back to all my comments on myspace…they were very short though! I felt bad…but I had little time….and much to read than write! While we were at the internet café we met this really nice Christian married guy that was on a business trip here in Rome and he was telling us that he knows of churches and people we can meet up with and stuff here, and if we need anything to let him know or whatever! He was super nice!!! We were praying like seriously praying to meet a Christian person around here…because all the people we have bumped into here in Rome are all very worldly in their language, smoking, drinking, etc…you get the idea…..so meeting this guy…it was great! Guess where he lives?! …….. nope not Romania……he lives in IRELAND! Who ever knew that Romanians would ever live there!!!! Well…..now you know that they do! Crazy huh?! Haha yeah I know…..well…….Vikki and I, if it’s possible, we might go take a little visit in Ireland, because I have always wanted to go there!!! And by meeting this guy….what a great opportunity to do so!!! Anyways….so after the internet café, we went back to Andrew’s apartment and the girls were there making dinner! Which was great!!! We hung out and talked for like 30 minutes….and then all the guys, got all dressed up and we were about ready to get up and get our food….and the guys told us to sit down….so we did, and after we all sat down they all came towards us with roses for each of us!!! How cute is that!!!! Then…not only did they give us roses, they served each of us dinner!!! AWWW!!!!!!! It was a good Valentines Day for all of us! Then since I didn’t really help out with dinner….I washed all of the dishes after dinner was done. Then we all went back home! It was a great day, filled with lots of things that I saw, things that we did, got my new cell phone, dinner and most of all because I got to check my email lol and hear from all of my friends and family!!! I really missed them a lot…and hearing from them…..it totally made my day!!!! J

Feb. 15th, 2006 – Wednesday
So, today…..if none of you know…………I REALLY dislike Wednesday’s because it’s my longest day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (It felt EXTREMLY good to finally use a hair dryer rather than my having to sit next to our heater in our room) I start class at 9 am and have a 30 minute break from 12:00-12:30 and then class until 5!!! How horrible is that! Today…..Tiff went to class by herself for our first class…..which was ok, because I didn’t miss a thing in that class. I went to school with Bri, Kendra and Lisa and we took the bus, and someone tried to pick pocket Kendra! I was holding on to her…and Bri was noticing the guy behind her totally staring at us and our stuff. And all of a sudden Kendra felt someone moving all their fingers on her…and she’s like Diana what are you doing?! Are you touching me…and I’ m like yeah I am lol cuz I was holding on to her! And then when we got off…she’s like why would you do that to me?! And she showed me what she felt and I’m like I didn’t do that to you at all!!! And Bri was like…..I knew it….it was the guy behind you the whole time!!! CRAZY!!!! Bri was staring him down the whole time, so I think because of her he didn’t do anything! (THANKS GIRL J ) For lunch since I only have the shortest break…Bri and I decided to go share that special at McDonalds again!!!! Anyways…I have this Cinema class….I took this class, thinking it was going to be fun and interesting…….and boy was I wrong…I don’t like it at all….especially cuz its FOREVER long too! NO one likes this teacher either!!! She’s super weird! A couple of us gave her a nickname……it’s…..ABU…..you would understand if you would see her why we gave her that nickname! Lol On top of the class being extremely long…..today, she couldn’t get the TV. Projector working so she lectured for 3 hours or so….and then she got the technician guy to come in…he fixed the problem and she kept us in for almost another 2 hours! We got home close to 7 pm!!!!!!! WHAT A SUPER LONG DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After we took all our books and stuff home, we finally decided to go grocery shopping! So the way we do it, there’s only 3 little shelves so we each shelf is for each room. So Vikki and I bought things for ourselves, and spent almost 50 euros on food! Haha I’m planning on making something that I’ve never done in my life before……..and yeah…………so that was our whole day today!!!!
Let me not forget that many flirtatious comments came from Michael and Josh today towards Vikki too!!!!!!!!! By the way…..another cold shower was taken today!!!!! Tonight it also started raining really hard with lightning and thunder!!!! Up until now, its been cold but sunny outside! The rain just had to start!!!! L

Feb. 16th, 2006 – Thursday
(Another cold shower was taken today too……Just to let you know how I dry my hair…..to give you a visual…….there is a heater on our wall under the window in our room, and every morning after my shower, I go sit on a blanket that’s on the marble floor with my head towards the heater…..while reading my bible…..waiting for my hair to dry!!!.........you gotta love the way people have to improvise!!! J ) Anyways….today I had no class since I had our “art history” class technically on Tuesday when we went to go visit Vatican City! Today is Kendra’s 21ST Birthday!!!! J We were trying to get her out of the house all day. She had class today, and she wanted to skip it…and we didn’t wan to let her stay home! She finally left to class, and while she was gone….Tiff, Vikki and I went looking around school for little bakeries to find a cake for her! The ones we found were way too expensive or closed! Josh called Vikki to see what she was doing and he met up with us…..awkward…..at least for Tiff and I…..but yeah….he took us to a place next to school, and it was closed but it looked pretty good and fairly decent prices. So we waited around for the store to re-open….told Bri to keep Kendra distracted after class….we bought her cake, walked to school and came around the corner…..and started singing to her! She was so happy and was crying and she was totally touched! It was very cute!! J She loved it! Then a like 2 hours later…..all of the girls besides Vikki and I, went to Vienna, Austria! We went to an internet café today…and right next to it……we saw …………SUBWAY!!!!!! J I was so excited!!! I had to have some….it was really good J On our way home, this guy tried to pick pocket me! I have this purse with many pockets and all this stuff….but little did he know that I don’t have anything on the outside in those pockets, even though it looks like I do. Underneath one of the pockets though, was my umbrella….I saw the guy stick his hand and feel what was in there….and he realized it wasn’t anything important so he took his hand out, and moved into another section of the bus!!! Lol Tonight………..Vikki and I are alone………we have the whole apartment to ourselves!!!! The girls were totally gone……and we didn’t know what to do, so we just took a little walk around our apartment….to see what’s around, because all we know is what’s around school……and guess what we walked to………..the Colosseum!!! It was like seriously a 7-10 minute walk! We were excited for that! After our walk…..we came back home………and we went to bed!!!!!


Feb. 17th, 2006 – Friday
This morning we woke up…..took another cold shower….after the first few days….I seriously became immune to it! Anyways…..then we called our teacher up LeVonne….to see if we can go over to her place! We wanted to see her place, and also use her computer because she has internet connection at her place…..which is very rare here in Rome to have! She made us some tea….and gave us chocolate……which was absolutely delicious….and we stayed there and talked with her for a while and stayed a few hours. After we left her place….Vikki and I decided to walk home from school…on our way home…we finally dropped off all our postcards and sent them!!! Then all we did was homework the rest of the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing else but homework……we talked to Vikki’s cousin Danny from London and his sister Christina….and that’s about it. My mom called I think today too….and talked to her a little bit….but other than that just stayed home and did homework!!!! If it were up to me, I would have went out to go visit things around…..since I got here, I haven’t been in the school mood….because there is so much to do and see around here….but Vikki being a good girl….wants to get her things done on time and not procrastinate….which is something I tend to do sometimes with homework….and she made me do my homework!!!!!!!!! It’s a good thing she’s here with me lol