This week has been another crazy adventure in my study abroad travels. We had a three day weekend and a group of 7 of us decided to go to Rome! It’s been a dream of mine for so long to go to Rome and I was really excited that it was finally happening. When we first landed we had a super tight schedule that first day. We arrived at 8:30am and had to take a bus from the airport which was going to take about 45 minutes, check in to our hostel, eat, and find our way to the colosseum by 11. We got there about 20 minutes late and they almost didn’t let us in which made me so nervous, but it turned out okay and I really enjoyed seeing this iconic building. After that we had to leave by 12:30pm to take a bus to Vatican City because we had tickets for an incredibly unique tour of the Vatican necropolis which is under St. Peter’s basilica and contains the tomb of St. Peter! I was especially excited for this because I love Peter so much! It was truly a breathtaking experience. Afterwards we had almost no energy left because we had woken up that morning at 3:30 and took a much needed nap. The rest of that first day was pretty relaxing and we woke up the next day to start again.
We had to be at the Vatican at 10:30 to see the Vatican museum and Sistine chapel. Once again we were running late and I was afraid we wouldn’t make it. But thankfully we got there and enjoyed it so much. We had some AMAZING gelato on the way back and tried to go see the Roman forum and Palestine hill afterwards but they had already closed. We headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner to celebrate Madyson and Marcus’ birthdays! We had a nice dinner and I enjoyed being together with the whole group.
Sunday morning I went to Mass near the hostel and afterwards it took me about 45 minutes to search for WiFi to try and meet up with everyone. Thankfully it worked out okay and I met them at Trevi fountain. Sunday was spent walking around central Rome and seeing some of the more well known sites in the city. We walked all the way to one of the catacombs outside the city and were able to take a tour there. All together we walked almost 15 miles on that one day. We had quite the scare trying to get back to the airport because buying tickets was really confusing and we bought tickets that were slightly cheaper without realizing that the connection was at a different subway station. I learned that it’s really important to think about what are good ways to try and save money and what are not so good ways. After about an hour of stress we arrived at the airport relieved that we even had time to grab dinner before we boarded.
This trip was by no means “easy”; my patience was tested, my stamina was close to running out many times, and I learned to be ok with letting go of controlling every situation. But I wouldn’t change it for a thing (okay maybe I would’ve changed SOME things). In the midst of everything I could tangibly feel myself being stretched in new ways. Study abroad is all about transformation and this weekend I experienced that more than I ever have before. I will miss Rome but I am sure as heck glad to be back in Bonn!
As far as everything with school, this week was pretty great. I'm still loving my classes and the best part about the week was getting a ton of SNOW! I knew we would get snow at some point during the semester but I expected it to be in a different city and not in Bonn because I heard it doesn't snow there very often. It was so fun to play with everyone in the snow, I feel like it brought out all of our inner 5 year olds!
I'm currently finishing this blog post in Vienna. I cannot believe how much I have been traveling these past few weeks. It has been an absolute dream but I feel like the exhaustion is starting to catch up to me. Thankfully after this coming weekend I will hopefully have a relaxing weekend in Bonn to recuperate.
Until then!
Ana :)
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