Hello from Roma! I'm pretty frazzled right now - it turns out that moving out of our apartment and getting ready for a six-month trip at the same time was kind of a bad idea. But we survived, with (most of) our belongings intact, and now here we are! My mood is currently a mixture of excitement at finally being here, and sheer terror at what we're about to undertake. I'm also still suffering from major jet lag (our journey took 12 hours and crossed six time zones), but that didn't stop us from doing some touristy things today. You know, the Colosseum, Palatine, all those ruins that were once the center of the biggest empire Europe has ever seen. Pretty cool stuff, I just wish they had labels or explanations for all those buildings.
Rome is nuts - it's bustling and vibrant, but there are ancient ruins every other block or so. The streets are twisting and labyrinthine, and they're jammed with people and vehicles everywhere, all the time. And there don't seem to be any traffic rules in effect - we just dodge smartcars and motorcycles everytime we cross the street. The food here is pretty expensive, but so far we've subsisted on panini and pizza. One exception is the wine - for example, I spent 3 Euro on the chianti I'm drinking right now, and it's delicious.
Ok, that's all for now, I just wanted to let y'all know that I'm alive, exhausted and having fun. We're here for a week, and our hostel has free internet, so hopefully I can post again before we leave. Also hopefully I can figure out how to put my own pictures up on this thing. Until then, peace and be safe~
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