Poster Rome

(Top: Boring but necessary: my bed).

I registered. I moved in. I ate. I walked. I read. I went to an orientation. I walked. I juggled. I ate. I mingled. I read. That was my day. In between the walking and reading (which we did quite a bit of), a few things intruigued me about the day. One was bartering for salami with a friend of mine. The other was a conversation with a girl I had during the welcome dinner (the lasagna was the best I’ve ever had, and the pizza Bianca was superb. I could live off of that).

Bartering for salami was exciting. My friend and I decided we needed some groceries to make sandwiches tomorrow. When we were getting the salami, we didn’t quite understand what the man was saying. A few confused glances and a near deal-shutting misunderstanding later, I finally understood the guy wanted 9 euros for his salami. Yeah right. I was only prepared to pay 5. The barter wanted 9. So, I asked my friend for some coins. She quickly handed them to me, and I immediately started to juggle. Cinque! I said. Fine, otto, he replied, his face beaming with amusement. Tired of bartering in an unknown language, we decided to accept the offer. It was my first bartering experience. Although we probably still came out short, it was a fun way to use my juggling.

(Top: The view from one of the apartments. Seeing everybody's apartments was part of the massive amount of walking/orientation stuff that we did).

The other interesting part of my day you won’t find in the general honors blog of “what we did” was the talk I had with a lady named Lauren from another group staying with us in Rome. She posed an interesting question that made me think quite a bit: Represent how you feel about Rome in a poster. I’m not sure what I would do. As of now, I think what I’d make would be collage of numerous photos of shops, roads, and monuments, with a photocopy of one of those IS papers I have to read shining through. Why? Well, so far Rome is a confusing mess. I feel at home, but it is still very confusing to me. But I always keep thinking about my stupid IS reading, and that’s why there’s that paper shining through.

Tomorrow I hope to have the photo I’ve been dreaming of: me juggling 5 clubs in Rome.