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Arrived at Rome
By Lyn Brown | October 8, 2008
I finally made it to Rome! For the first weekend, the entire program stayed at a lovely little hotel that is in the same building as my school, Italiaidea. The first few days were filled with plenty of information about the coming months.
Practical information, like where to buy all the necessities, but also plenty of information about the gypsies that we are constantly told to look out for. We were also given a few walking tours of the areas around our school, and central Rome which was the first time I got to see many of the famous sites, such as the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. It was great getting to know the city and the people in the program. These first days were filled with socializing and simply trying to get to know the city.
Then the fear of meeting my host family set in. On Sunday, we sat for a few hours, like a group of orphans waiting, and one by one were picked up and taken away. Finally, my new Italian mother came to take me home, she speaks no English. She is good friends with someone else in the neighborhood that also hosts a girl in the program, so we had a little walk together around our neighborhood, learning which buses to take and other practical information.
Then we all got gelato, and finally I went to my new home for the next 3 months. It is in a condominium, it has 2 bedrooms a kitchen, bathroom (complete with a shower with NO curtain…let’s just say, showering is interesting), and a dining room/living room. It’s small but very nice and cozy. Then I finally met my host sister Michelle, who is 21. She is great and helps me with the language as much as she can. Virtually no English is spoken in my house (Michelle speaks very, very little, and the Sandra speaks none), which of course is frustrating but I’m sure very good for improving my Italian skills. I was proud of myself for being able to hold up conversation throughout the afternoon and dinner; it’s hard to enjoy dinner though when you’re constantly trying to translate in your head.
Dinner was amazing though! We had a great Sicilian salad (Sandra is Sicilian) with tomatoes, corn, beans, potatoes, and oil along with salmon. After dinner I went to unpack what little had, because I still had no suitcase. I tried to make my tiny room as homey as possible, so I put up pictures and explained them to Michelle and Sandra (they were only interested in Bailey, my dog). It was a strange first night, but I was hopeful that soon I would feel more at home with this family. They were nothing but fantastic with helping feel at home, and most importantly working with the language barrier.
Topics: Travelers Stories |
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