cobblestone= 46 Maggie and Sara=0

Ciao!

So much has happened since the last time we wrote... now the problem is where to begin.

We finally started classes last week! It was a bit of a shocker. We have been so excited about being in Rome that we forgot that we were here for school too! Classes are going to be a little harder than expected and very hard to get motivated for...! I (Sara) am taking an Italian class, which I cannot wait to be able to speak with the locals, philosophy class (yuck), an on-site history class of monuments around Rome, and a painting class. And yes, I have to paint a naked man....

Maggie (me) is taking 3 psychology classes.. ughh... also talking intro to Italian- which so far has paid off because we were able to introduce ourselves to the local butcher and navigate through the grocery stores- and a Victorian novel class. Nothing too exciting, but we will be visiting a few museums for classes so that will be rewarding!

Once we came to terms with the fact that we are actually in class we decided it was time to get books. We had about a 40-minute walk in the freezing cold to get there. On the way there we made time to go to the Trevi Fountain! Hope our wishes came true!!

Saturday was another beautiful day in Rome. We decided to get up early and wonder around the city until we found something new. We stumbled upon villa borghese- a huge park resembling something like central park.... We grabbed some lunch and sat by a fountain. We have never seen so much PDA in our lives!

One of our friends visiting said, "Loving someone is a hobby. Finding a lover is a Roman sport."

On the way home from the park we walked down an amazing shopping street (We will be sure to remember it when our parents visit!) then went to THE BEST GELATO NEAR THE VATICAN, Old bridge gelato!!! Which is conveniently a short walk from our apartment and is one of the only places in Rome open after Midnight!

Last night we had a cooking class through John Cabot. We met on the rooftop terrace and had Chef Andrea Consoli teach us basic Italian cooking. Along with 8 other students we made a 3-course meal. Amazing tomato pizza for an "appetizer", Fried Zucchini pasta for the first course and for dessert, Chocolate salami (this is making us hungry again just typing about it!). It all sounded pretty crazy to us at first but we both agreed we have never tasted better food in Italy to date (and the best part is... we now know how to make it when we get back to the states for everyone!). To make it even better, tonight we have wine-tasting class :)

Everything else is going great. Were starting to plan trips and making the most of every second here! This weekend we will be heading to Interlaken, Switzerland to go snowboarding on the Swiss Alps! I am sure we will have interesting stories to follow.

Also, the title is a joke with all our friends- at night when we are walking to bars the streets are all cobblestone... we have yet to master the art of walking on them with heels yet... meaning plenty of falls and swollen ankles by the end of the night!!!

Hope everyone is doing well!

xoxox

Sara and Maggie

If you need to send packages...

NAME________

c/o John Cabot University

Via Della Lungara 233

00165 Rome

Italy

PS: Maggie's running story

So finally after waking up super early on Sunday and walking with Sara over to the Vatican we got our Sunday blessing from the pope and got pizza for breakfast (naturally)

I had had nothing but gelato and pizza everyday so I thought it was a good day to try and go for a run in Rome- girls don’t really run in Italy, so its pretty awkward because old women give you dirty looks the whole way...

But anyways so I was minding my own business when a police car stops right in front of me and 2 policemen get out holding bats and start running towards me yelling things. I was so scared so I just froze. Then, two other policemen on bikes are riding straight at me. I look behind me and there is a man-holding tons of bags (that they sell drugs out of apparently on bridges) running behind me then turned into a tunnel. The police then run right by me shoving me out of the way chasing after this guy screaming. I look around to see about 20 people staring at me... I started to walk away sooooo nervous and still had about 20 minutes to go home still.

Needless to say, we will still try running again soon- hopefully nothing major will happen!!

Ciao!

Perfect Video

Just thought we would post this quick video they showed us in orientation. From what we have seen so far, everything in this video is completely true!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=IT&v=nQWNGLv8w74


We will tell more later! Time for class!

ciao!

Woke up to the Vatican Bells

As the title says, we had a nice wake up call from our neighbor, the Pope.

Every Sunday at noon he blesses the people in St. Peters square so today we walked out on our porch a had a weekly blessing.. looks like we are to be coming home very holy....

Our roommates have finally arrived! (and we got VERY LUCKYY) Rima, a sophomore from Marquette who we knew of and her friend she met on the plane ride over, Audrey, from Pennsylvania! We all get along so great and have started to plan out our weekend travels together. Its so crazy to have a list of 20 countries that we are going to visit in the span of five months.

Here is a list of our 10 "first's" of ROMA

1. Had our first galato

2. First 30 minute walk to school.

3. Experienced the first DISCOTECCA of rome's crazy nightlife- we went to a classy place called ore20sky

4. Rode in a taxi for the first time and "tried" to explain directions

5. Got lost in rome for 3 hours. Ended up tired, sitting at a little patio with wine....

6. Trying to pay the bill at a non speaking english restaurant

7. First view of the colosseum

8. First real italian meal- AMAZING

9. First time trying to cross the street alone, and succeeding at it dodging all the cars

10. First italian double cheek kisses!

We have realized that we are super lucky at our apartment because we have wireless internet- almost everyone else doesn't and has had to walk to the school's computer labs to talk with families! Skype has been a lifesavor and we both have been in contact with our families back home.

Maggie's Skype: Maggie.rudersdorf

Sara's Skype: sarapeitzmeier

add us if you want to say Caio!

It's becoming a great feeling now that we are very familiar with the area and feeling more like a local! Off to the fresh marekt before school tomorrow!

We're off to bed because classes start tomorrow morning bright and early.

Arrivederci!

Buona Notte

Bella

Maggie and I gave ourselves a 7 hour tour of Rome today, here are a few highlights...

Tiber River

View after our hike up many steps in a back ally

Fountain by our campus

Typical bread and cheese shop

WE MADE IT!!

Ciao da Roma!

We finally reached our destination of the beautiful city that we will call home for the next 5 months- Rome! Naturally, we hit a few speed bumps along the way- but nothing we couldn't handle!!

The trip started off early Tuesday morning when we met at Chicago O'Hare Airport. Arriving 4 hours early due to the excitement we made our way to the gate area. Looking through Rome and Europe books and making last minute phone calls we filled those four hours pretty fast. We finally got called to board our flight. We gathered up our things and headed to the agent. Sara gave her boarding pass to the lady and it was denied. Then we looked very confused so i gave her mine.... denied. She then looked at us in annoyance and said "ladies, you are the the wrong gate!". Turns out we were trying to board a flight going to the same place (NYC) at the same time but going to the wrong airport. We sprint out of line to the correct gate and walk on board realizing that we were the LAST ones on the plane. Thank god we made it.

Arrived in NYC for a quick 1 hour layover. We double and triple checked to make sure we were on the right gate boarding area and noticed we were in the right place due to the fact that half the plane were students headed to John Cabot also! Sara was sitting next to this nice old Italian man and we charmed our way into asking him to switch seats with me (maggie) so we could sit together. Not understanding a word we said- he moved- so we got to sit together for the flight! The 8 hour flight was pretty uneventful besides the fact that there were honeymooners in the row in front of us kissing the whole time. Real cuteee... We finally landed after getting not much sleep and having millions of cramps in the legs- and the rush of kids ran off the plane.

Our bags came super fast- but we both learned a valuable lesson today, we can't carry 4 hugs bags alone nor depend on boys to help.... struggling big time, we finally reached where all John Cabot students were gathering and had to wait 3 hours till we got on the shuttle bus due to the amount of students. It turned out alright because we met some new friends from New jersey, Boston, California, and Alabama (all asking us what we "do" in Nebraska and do we live in farms? typical..)

(view of the Vatican at night from our balcony)

We got to John Cabot University campus (2 buildings) and it was one of the prettiest drives we had ever had. Rome is just like the movies... but 10x better. We both got assigned to an apartment in the "Vatican" neighborhood- we live 2 block from the pope! We were told we had one of the best apartments the university had to offer because of the views and being a safe area. We have found some negatives like the 25 minutes walk to school and its not the best nightlife... but we did the walk tonight and it is not that bad when you stop and get amazing pizza and walk by gellato stands- just watch out for CRAZY DRIVERS.

(view of the vatican outside of our apt)

Everything is great here and every-time we turn a corner the same words come out of our mouth-"this is so pretty" "I feel like I'm in a movie!"

In the past 48 hours we have had about 9 hours of sleep!

Hope all is well with everyone! We miss you

xoxox

-Mags and sara

Years of dreaming, months of planning, weeks of excitement, and days of packing. It is finally coming down to the final days before we leave to study at John Cabot University in Rome. Although there may be days that we are wondering what we got ourselves into, we know it will be an adventure that we will never want to forget. (Especially because the weather in Milwaukee right now is 12 degrees and snow and Rome is a nice 56 degrees and sunny). Hopefully this blog will help all of you, our family, our friends and pets (Nellie and Gracie) keep updated on our lives. Enjoy...

We will miss you all so much!

-Maggie and Sara