Ciao a tutti,
After twelve hours of traveling (nine hours from Seattle to London, three hours from London to Rome), I arrived in Rome. The nine hour flight was a bit draining (especially since I accepted the wine option), but after the initial apprehension, the trip went well. My favorite part was listening to all the British accents once I landed at Heathrow. The people there were probably annoyed at how enamored I was, which was probably very obvious.
The three hour section to Rome was littered with hip-looking Italian belli that reminded me of miniature Enrico Martinezes (both girl and boy versions). Once in Rome, I lugged my bags to the Leonardo Express train (which would take me to my sleeping arrangements for the night), where I was forced to use my limited Italian for the first time. This was not easy, since it was 83248235489328 degrees (Celsius, man.) outside.
Fortunately, I made it to the Rome's central train station, and, after walking in the wrong direction for half an hour, arrived at my hostel. My roommates were sick. Though I met two of them as I was leaving the subsequent morning while there were half-asleep (their kind sounding moans told me they were cool), the other three were very nice.
Two (Anna and David) were from the University of Maryland, in the process of a grand European tour. Anna had just graduated and we engaged in intense dialectic discourse about the pressures experienced by youth Asian culture and the resulting epidemic of suicide (Cool, huh?). David was a 39-year old teacher that looked like he was 25, tops. He hooked me up with a phone card that didn't really work (Papa - this is that call you received where I couldn't hear you). The third was from Ecuador and knew very little English. Unfortunately, I didn't remember his name, but we were (surprisingly) able to converse in Spanish. I just wish my Italian was as sharp.
Because of the heat and new time zone, I could barely sleep.
All-in-all it's been fun! I'll try to keep the updates coming, even though I'm about a week behind. Pace fuori.
On the Leonardo Express to Termini Stazione
View outside my hostel window #1
View outside my hostel window #2
Love,
Michael
Love,
Michael
