Ischia!

Ciao!

First things first let me catch up where I left off. Wednesday the 26th classes were cancelled so we could attend the papal audience in St. Peter's Square. Caitie and I had a rough start to our morning after being sick, but we rallied because we didn't want to miss the pope! Our seats were pretty good actually. Less than twenty rows in front of him. I could see his little white hat bobbing and his arm outstretched so I would say that's a success. He gave a shout out to "all the students here from Loyola University Chicago studying in Rome" and gave us a blessing, along with our friends and family.

Thursday night, a group of us went to a place that everyone around here calls "the harry potter bar" because they have shots that are named after Harry Potter characters. I promised Michel, Caleigh, and Ashley that I would find the bar and take a shot for them since they adore Harry Potter as much (if not more than I do). Caitie and I had the "harry potter" shot. It had cinnamon and was lit on fire!

Saturday we spent the day at Borghese Park, which is like Central Park in NY. It's huge! We only saw a small part of it, but it was very pretty and I definitely can't wait to go back. Saturday night we intended on going to a reggae and dub-step party, but on the way, we ended up in a club called Mood.

We got up early Sunday morning in search of the flea markets in Trastevere. We never found them haha, but we're hoping to this Sunday.

Tuesday, October 2nd was my first tutoring session with my nine-year-old pupil, Sara. Her mom, Tania met me at my school and we walked to pick Sara up from her school. She gets out of class at 4:20 and I walk her to her piano lessons at 5 while practicing English with her. She is so adorable. She doesn't know much English yet, and was very shy the first day, but that was okay because I was a little nervous about it too. Sara is going to be trilingual at the age of 10! She already speaks Italian and Croatian (her mom is Croatian and her dad is from Rome), and she's been playing the piano for years. Such a little stud. She loves the song "Payphone" haha, and I'm going to introduce her to some more English songs (Justin Bieber anyone?).

Wednesday was my first exam. Time to start putting the "study" in study abroad. My test was for my Art in Rome class and I think it went pretty well. Wednesday night was calcio. My orange team continued our domination with a win.

Thursday, October 4th, I went to the Premio America, which is an awards ceremony that celebrates the relationship between to America and Italy. It was held in their state official building, so that was pretty cool. Italian vogue director, Franca Sozzani got an award. And the real reason I went is because Andrea Bocelli got an award! As we were walking out to leave, he was waiting for his limo, and no big deal, but I was about 2 feet away from him! If his car hadn't come so soon, I'm pretty sure I would have been able to get a picture with him. For those who don't know, he's a famous opera singer. You should probably google him haha. Afterwards, Caitie, Marymar and I went out for pizza, wine, and gelato. Just a typical night in Rome =)

Friday morning, we left bright and early on the train for Napoli on the way to the island of Ischia. After the train ride, we hopped on a ferry to the island. I did not like what I saw of Naples. I already had a bad impression of it from what people at school had said about it: dirty, and smelly. This was spot-on. They don't have dumpsters or trashcans so there's trash everywhere. My fifteen minutes in Naples was more than enough, I'm really glad we don't have a trip planned there, because I don't think it'd be worth it. But the ferry ride of Naples from afar was very pretty. We stayed at a bed and breakfast, right on the port of Ischia. There were about 15 of us who went on the trip. 3 of the boys were scuba certified so our dives were separate from theirs.We wet-suited up when we got there around 1. Our first dive was in shallow water, about up to our necks. We learned all the basic stuff and got used to all the equipment. It was a little difficult the first day, especially since our instructors spoke very broken English. It was also weird having weights wrapped around your waist to hold you down, a big tank of oxygen on your back, and having to think and remember to breath like normal into the tank. After our practice dive, we all went to dinner together and then went out that night on the town with our scuba instructors. The nightlife in Ischia was pretty quiet since summer's over and it's the off-season.

Saturday, us girls got up early and went shopping along the main drag. Everything was pretty expensive, but Ischia is known for its ceramics (and lemons), so I got a couple little souvenirs. We met our instructors around 2 for our second dive. We boated to the Baia di Cartaromana, which was absolutely incredible. I was a little nervous, but my second dive went so much better than the first time, I didn't need to come up above the water at all. I realized how mental scuba diving is. It's also a little exhausting haha. We were about 20 feet deep for 30-35 minutes and saw some fish, coral, and starfish. It's a whole different world under there. The scuba certified boys got to go into some caves and saw barracudas, and octopuses. I'm so glad I went, and tried it. I would definitely do it again.
Saturday night we went exploring a couple bars in Ischia.
Sunday morning we went in search of some sand beaches, but didn't have time to make it there before catching the ferry, so we climbed on some rocks, hopped on the ferry, and made it home around 9.

This past Tuesday night, we went salsa dancing in a part of Rome called Testacchio. I have never been salsa dancing before, but it was so much fun!

Wednesday night was of course, calcio. Orange team is ranked number one and we won again (3-2)! Not to brag or anything but I scored our first goal of the game.

So that's all I know. I'm staying in Rome this weekend to study for midterms next week.
Sending lots of love!