if you wander, you may be a little lost.

I'm less than a week into my semester in Rome, and I already feel more comfortable with the city and hopeful about how great my experience will be for the next few months.

Yesterday was probably my favorite day so far. On Saturday, the city seems to come alive with groups of locals crowding the via del Corso. There are no siestas. It's just a bustling day and we had such a great time! Prapti & I went to the welcome lunch at the American University. Then we made the half hour trek across the river up Viale de Trastevere and up to Piazza Navona for some red wine and olives. I don't like olives in the States, all jarred and sitting in that liquid stuff, but these olives were nice and they tasted great with the merlot. Artists and street vendors were set up all over the Piazza with their beautiful oil paintings and it made for some great people watching.

Our next stop was suppose to be the Spanish Steps, but we tried to get on a bus, ended up at St. Peters Square and right back to where we started, after an hour. Which, honestly, was fine with me. There's not much of difference between the 20 euro tour buses and the transit buses, either way, you learn the city.

Getting lost around here is the best way to figure out where you are.

We got of the bus and continued to walk around the Navona area, got lost again but found some amazing little antique and vintage places. One store in particular was smaller than my parents closet, but had some beautiful vintage fashions. We got into a conversation with the owner about how closely society and fashion are intertwined. You can look at the fashion of the people from a certain area and draw assumptions about the way society worked, especially with women. So much to learn!!!

Speaking of fashion, Prapti and I finally discovered via del Corso and made our way to Zara. 4 stories tall, at least a thousand people in the store. It was nuts. I found a few great things, then got to the cash register and realized I didn't have my debit card. If you know me, go ahead and giggle because this behavior is all too typical. In classic Clare fashion, I started freaking out, jumping to the conclusion that someone probably took it out of my pocket on the street and I would now have to go home, cancel my account, have to wait for a new card blah blah blah. Calmly, Prapti suggested we go back to Navona to see if it was there and after a very anxiety driven 10 minute walk, we got to the restaurant anddddd the man had my card. But it scared me enough, I will absolutely be more careful in the future (ok, Dad?)

At this point I'm elated, and we headed to the Pantheon and met up with Rodney, Steve, Mike and Ryan. We listened to some awesome guitar, ate and amazing sandwich and finally walked to the Spanish Steps. The view from the top of the Steps was AMAZING, especially with the laser pointer Mike bought from a peddler for 15 euros. Made for some good fun.

We went to a restaurant and had some wine, potatoes, cheese and ham. So Italian, so great. We got on a bus back to their place in Monteverde and just had a great night getting to know new people.

Classes start tomorrow, it's weird not having school supplies or an idea of what these classes will be like, but I'm so excited. Today, I'll be getting groceries for the week & applying for internships for the summer. Hopefully I'll upload pictures too. Also, I've been talking to friends about letting them guest write on my blog so they don't have to make their own. It'll make it more interesting for sure.

Wish me luck on my first day!!