Arrival / Intoduction to Rome

Well, I'm here. It's late evening on the second day, and now is the first time that I've had to sit down and write a few lines. I pulled an all-nighter the day before I left due to last minute packing and tax preparation, and left for the airport at 4am. Flight left at 6, and I traveled to Denver, Washington D.C., and then finally, Rome. There were several flights that just barely made it in to D.C. in time to catch the flight, and those of us on the plane breathed a sigh of relief when they boarded, since we had already been told of how difficult it would be to get them to Rome if they did not catch the flight. The flight was long, about 9 hours, and I was able to catch about two hours of sleep, though not very good sleep. We got to campus at 9 am, Jan 23.

They kept us busy on the theory that doing so would help us get over the jet lag more quickly, and we spent all of yesterday in orientation and convocation sections. All most of us wanted to do yesterday was sleep, though, and we were all nodding off. One of the RA's was amused by this, and went around taking pictures of sleeping students. I'm sure there's at least one of me on that camera! Finally, after a 52 hour period with 2 hours of sleep, I crashed hard.

The next day Jocelyn came by to make sure I was up. I stumbled out of my room asking, "Weren't they going to give us a wake up call?" She informed me that they did, twice. :-) Similar thing happened this afternoon, except it was a roommate waking me up after I slept though an alarm. Jet lag is not treating me well.

Today, Jan 24, was much more exciting. We went into Rome for the first time, and were taught how to use the Italian subway and bus systems, and given lots of general advice, including:

• Push hard when getting on the subway and buses, or you will not get on.
• When crossing a street at a crosswalk with no traffic light, just step out into traffic with determination. The drivers are required to stop for you. Don't look them in the eye, or they will know you saw them and just keep on driving.
• Don't ever give money to beggars on the street. Far too often there is someone they are working with just waiting to see where your money is kept.

Rome is beautiful! It's amazing to see the blend of the ancient and the modern. Among the many things we saw today were the Vatican, the pantheon, the forum, many large monuments, and an inscription in Latin explaining how some pope had driven out all the businesses of ill repute -- in a slab of limestone directly above a McDonald's.

We attended Mass at the tomb of Saints Simon and Jude in St. Peter's Basilica. It was a wonderful Mass, but I admit it was hard to pay attention with all of the amazing artwork all around us: statues and sculptures and paintings and much more. The least of the dozens of side altars there is more wonderful than 90% of American cathedrals. It's had to believe that I'm actually here, seeing the actual work of Michaelangelo, Bernini, and many others. I've seen pictures of much of it before, but there is no comparison to the real thing.

Speaking of pictures, I'll get a few posted soon. In my Jet-Lagged stupor this morning, I forgot to get my camera -- but I'll be back later to every place I went today. Classes start tomorrow, with half-periods of orientation in each. They are all back to back -- and that's enough to disorient anyone!

Buonasera!

Sean