I am in love with Rome. The John Felice Rome Center is not a four star hotel, and it’s probably not even a three star hotel, but the people here are fantastic. I am meeting so many new people, but I still don’t know half of the students. My roommate, Courtney is from St. Louis University, as are a lot of my friends. I have been hanging out a lot with a bunch of LUC kids which I’m excited about because I’m looking forward to hanging out with them when we get back.
On Saturday we had some VISA stuff to fill out and we took a tour of the neighborhood. I’m still figuring out where everything is, but it’s nice to know where you’re going! I finally got to go out and explore downtown Rome. It was great fun getting lost!
On Sunday we all went to ASSISI, Italia for our orientation. ASSISI is gorgeous! It was really cold there but the way the fog blanketed the city reminded me of San Francisco. ASSISI is famous for St. Francis, patron saint of animals, and it is northeast of Rome, located in Umbria. The streets are all really small so our buses had to park outside the city walls, but of course there were a few locals who still owned SUVs.
A bunch of us took a hike on Tuesday up to a hermitage in ASSISI for some amazing views. I didn’t bring the best walking shoes so my feet were pretty sore after, but it was so worth it. My knee is also bugging me a bit because I tweaked it over the break in Tahoe. No worries, I’m in Rome!
Yesterday I had my first class of the semester – a political science class about contemporary Italian politics taught by a former Italian ambassador! It sounds really interesting, and he really knows his stuff, but he’s a little hard to understand because his accent is so thick. Today I had two history classes about Italy and one Italian film class. I didn’t actually get to do anything in the first two because I had to leave early to finish my VISA stuff, and I have yet to go to the Italian film class. Tonight I get a phone!
Please DO NOT send me packages. I don’t mean to sound like I’m flattering myself, but I could end up paying hefty customs fees or the package could get stuck in
customs for months. That being said, I love letters (they’ll take about 3 weeks to get here).
My address is:
Mackenzie Drosd
Loyola University –
John Felice Rome Center
Via Massimi 114 A
00136 Rome, Italy
1 comment:
Grazie, Mackenzie, for taking me with you on your wanderings around Roma--every picture takes me there. In my den I have three framed photo montages my old friend Gayle did of Roman architectural details; fluted pillars, majestic gods, towering fountains, mysteriously muted and overlapping. Very lovely. I can almost hear the traffic!
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