Today was our first day of orientation, and while it wasn't too stressful, it seemed to drag on in an auditorium with maz AC and a malfunctioning microphone. Lunch was catered, though, and I met a lot of people in my program, signed up for a few day trips, and attempted to learn my way through the public transportation. We got out around 430ish, and after arriving back at my apartment, I decided that I wanted to/needed to buy a converter for my computer, as it was beginning to die, so I asked my ISC for a place to go. While she looked it up for me, I sat in my bedroom, unpacking the material we had received during the seminars. I went to the window, snacking on a few grapes that a roommate and I bought at a local market and heard A LOT of music coming from my neighbors. Not only do we live next to what sounds like entire marching band in our building (we heard them practicing), but we also live across from a shirtless, Italian DJ, who keeps his windows open as he practices his DJing. Lovely. The sound, though, was nothing compared to the nightlife that we attempted to fall asleep to last night. Italian apartment buildings are thin EVERYTHING. Thin walls, floors, doors, etc. So the conversation between the family above us? Heard it. The baby crying down on the street 5 (or so) stories below? Heard it. The lift (elevator) door that slams shut right outside our door? Definitely heard that. Coming from 1. a quiet town in VT and 2. a (mostly) quiet campus in VA, it will take some getting used to the Rome city noise, but hopefully not too long!
Back to the converter...my ISC tracked down a place that was probably a 15 min tram ride, plus a 15 min walk from the apartment, near Ospedale Fornalini. Easy right? Wrong. I made it to the hospital fine, it was only 7 stops away. But that was where my good luck ended. I immediately asked for the direction in which a road I was looking for was, either right or left of the hospital, in Italian, and a gentleman pointed, spoke rapid Italian and thought I had understood him correctly. Well, about 20 minutes later I realize I have missed my turn. I walk into the first electronics store I can find, hoping that they will have what I am looking for. When they didnt they would point me further down the road, telling me to look for a sign that says "Materiale Elettronica". Again, this seemed simple enough. And again, I was wrong. When I felt like I was just plain going the wrong way, I caught the tram back to the hospital, and started the directions over. It was beautiful out, so I didnt mind walking, even if I continued to get myself lost, and didnt want to give up just yet. Round two and I asked directions for Via Virginia Agnelli again, and some more rapid Italian later and a different gentleman actually walking me to my turn, I found a road that would eventually become the road I wanted. (Apparently the Italian mapquest had left that tiny bit of info out). What seemed like ages passed, and I more or less found where the electronics store was supposed to be. But I still absolutely could. not. find it. By then I was tired and had been thirsty since going back to the hospital, so I was beginning to lose hope in finding that specific store so went into another one randomly and found a converter (hopefully the correct one, I havent tried for fear I short out the fuse). When I came out of the store, I realized that while I had finally found a converter, I still had absolutely no idea where I was. I began walking in a direction I believed to be the correct way, but as usual was unforgivably WRONG. This road brought me to another road, one that had neither bus nor tram stops on it. Great. Then I began to backtrack, asking for the direction of Viale Trastevere every 5 minutes (there are tram stops on that road...where the hospital was, so I knew once I found Trastevere I was more or less home).
Losing daylight became my biggest concern, so I picked up my pace, looking for any bus stop I could find. The first one had no one at it, and I really needed help in finding out which number line to take, so I kept going. Thankfully the next one had an Italian family whose older son also spoke English-finally! He helped me and then we chatted for a bit, but thank goodness the bus was close because I was still pretty worried about the dark coming quikly in a city with tall buildings, and since it is still about a 10 min walk from the tram station to my apartment building, I just wanted to get back ASAP. All in all, I got lost about 3 times (maybe more-I have no clue!), turning my maybe hour and a half roundtrip into about a 3 hour jaunt around parts of Rome that I still have no idea how to get around, but I made it back okay, right as night began to set in, so all is good.
More orientation later this week, and a bunch of trips this weekend that I fill you all in on soon!
Buonanotte!
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