Finally, Internet!

Hooray!  I got internet access!  I will explain in a bit

Rome was awesome.  Not only because it is an amazingly interesting, and as I found out, traversable city, but because so many cool people stayed at the Hostel.  I met a French girl and a Colombian guy who were traveling Europe and an Argentine and a Danish girl.  For two nights, me and and French girl, Helene, and the Colombian guy, Sebastian, drank wine and played games.  It was a great time.  During the day I was mostly by myself.  I took a bus tour and walked around the Colosseum.  I went out to the Villa Borghese with Mia, my new Danish friend who is looking for an apartment in Rome.  I was proud of myself when I was able to buy my own cell phone, conducting myself in Italian the whole time!  What a great city Rome is.  You can find old and new back to back without realizing that to your left, is a 15 year old building, while to your right is a 2015 year old building.

I left Rome on Friday at 7:30.  Italy in amazing.  On the way from Rome to Urbino, I slept, but in a way, I regret it because there were so many incredible things to see.  The entire way, you could see distant mountains, nearby pastures and houses along the road that date back to the Renaissance.  When I got to Urbino, mamma mia!  The instructions from Urbino were not entirely clear and I figured, having looked at google.earth that it would not be that hard to find the Collegio Aquilone by walking down the main drag in town.  What google.earth neglects to mention is that Urbino is built on a mountain in an age before there were readily available earth-moving machines.  This being the case, the hills in Urbino can only compare to San Francisco.  So on I went with my bags (weight approx. 100lbs plus my camping backpack weight approx 35-40lbs) up the hills looking for the collegi.  I finally gave up and called the contact number.  I struggled on the phone and found out that I needed to head down the hills to the bus station and catch the bus to the collegi.  I waited there for about 20 minutes and then realized that the number 21 bus comes to the OTHER bus station and that I had probably missed 2 or 3 buses.  I caught the bus up the hill and got to the collegio.  I walked into the door and asked if they had a room for me.  "Questo collegio è Serpentine.  Vuoi Aquilone" ("This is the Collegio Serpentine.  You want Aquilone") So up another stair case I went to the collegio aquilone.  When I arrived at the desk, which is up a maze of stairs and what I can only compare to an M.C. Escher painting, I was told that I had been placed in the Collegio La Vela, which was up another steep hill.  I wandered the halls of yet another M.C. Escher Painting and eventually found the office...on the 7th floor.  A nice guy in the office named Pietro helped me find my room.  He gave me the keys and showed me in and then left.  

So...What now?  Friday and most of Saturday were filled with hiking to and from campus looking for open offices to find out exactly what my status is in the University.  See, in Italy, they don't believe in 9-5.  They believe in 9-12.  Having showed up at 12:30, all of the offices were closed for Saturday and Sunday.  After braving the cold and the steep hills several times, I gave up on finding an office and settled down into my on-going game of CityBloxx on my cellphone, interspersed with chess on my computer (I am yet to win).  I called my parents, and after they encouraged me, I went to town and got dinner.  I later, after another voyage to my room, found a bar.  I started a conversation with some German girls, then I heard someone speaking in English with an American accent.  I asked him where he was from and he said Tennessee.  This is how I met a group of exchange students with whom I spent the rest of the evening.  After some drinks and some dancing in a bar or two, here I am.  It's 3:13 here, evening for everyone at home.  I think I'll go to bed now.  

Fino quando c'è piu di tempo,

Arrivaderci