You say ciao and I say ciao ciao, ciao I don't know why you say ciao

So I'm bored and don't feel like doing homework (don't have anything due any time soon anyways) so I decided to further update my blog with random happenings at J-Force (yes, this is what people call JFRC). This week Julia and I tried (and failed) to book a trip for next weekend to Prague. It was way too expensive so we then tried Vienna. We had the same results with Vienna and later Madrid, so we took out a map of Europe and looked at all the countries and literally looked up every country that even remotely interested us (including Iceland, though we decided that there we'd see ice-cars, ice-animals, ice-museums and we'd come back as ice-people) but everything was so expensive we decided to give up. [Speaking of maps, I'm gonna get a map of the world when I get back to Chicago and mark every state and country that I've been to-I think it would be cool to have hanging up in my room to see where I've been :) I can update it every time I go somewhere and hopefully soon I'll have gone everywhere I want to!] Instead we're going to Orvieto on a Loyola-sponsored trip which is FREE!!! We were going to to go in March cause the weekend they were planning it in February was the weekend we wanted to go to Prague, but since that failed miserably we changed the dates and are going in 2 weekends instead :) Although the trips we wanted to go on failed, at least we're not staying in Rome for 2 weekends in a row (although I love Rome, I have the chance to travel and I'm gonna take it!).

Hmmm... What else? There are orange and lemon trees outside the JFRC so Julia and I picked a few today-they're absolutely delicious. Well, except for one of them which was really bitter, but otherwise the oranges here are amazing! --->
Oh and today mensa (the cafeteria) was gonna open later cause a pipe burst but since they didn't fix it in time we got 20€ for food which is awesome cause I only spent 3€ for a panini downstairs (delicious and very filling) so now I have 17€ for myself-mensa should be closed more often :P

Also, we watched a really crazy and funny movie in film today-Miracle in Milan-the main character is crazy. He's always happy and optimistic even though he was an orphan for most of his life and then his (dead) grandma comes down as a spirit and gives him a magical dove that gives him magical power so he can grant any wishes anyone wants. We were all just sitting there wondering what the director (Vittorio de Sica) was thinking when he directed the movie.

This weekend... this weekend we have some fun plans to explore Rome. We're gonna see the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the walls (one of the first churches built which is outside the walls of Rome, and St. Paul is buried there), Ponte Milvio (the love bridge) and the pyramid Romans stole from Egypt. We'll also probably just walk around Rome some more, see the Spanish Steps again, the Trevi Fountain, etc. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures :) Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to a museum with my food and wines (and culture and context) class but apparently there's gonna be a bus boycott so we'll see how well that turns out.
And then Sunday Julia and I are going to Porta Portese (Rome's biggest flee market) to do something shopping :D
Oh and random thing I forgot to post about Venice earlier: when we got on the train our first thought was of the Hogwarts train from Harry Potter (but not nearly as comfortable or nice-looking) and then to Eurotrip. We then proceeded to watch a clip of Eurotrip on Julia's iPod (the scene with "mi scusi" for those who have seen it) and we couldn't stop laughing.
I'm having so much fun here-Michasia, if you go to to Loyola and want to study abroad I definitely suggest Rome-there's so much to do here, you can travel every weekend if you want and the people here are amazing so you'll make lots of new friends. I only knew 3 people coming in and I only really hang out with one of them-all of my other friends are people I met through classes and just randomly talking to them. It really is an amazing experience and I completely understand why everyone says it's the best time of your life and that you make friends here that you'll keep for the rest of your life! Every day brings something new and exciting, whether it's a hilarious moment with your friends, some funny comment from a teacher that makes you cry cause you're laughing so hard (the teachers here are so nice and friendly, you're even on a first-name basis with some of them, such as my Italian teacher or the Dean of Students) or an amazing trip to Venice or Barcelona-you'll always have fun here! I also love being able to say "I'm going to Paris for the weekend" or "I'm gonna do homework on the Spanish Steps" (which we plan on doing, just as soon as it gets a bit warmer). Speaking of warm, it was sooo nice today-lots of people were outside doing homework and enjoying the sun-it was probably around 60 degrees during the day! Can't wait till it's 60 degrees all day everyday :)
I can't believe it's only (already?) been a month. It seems to go by quickly so it's crazy that's it's already been a month, but at the same time so much happens that it's surprising that it's only been a month. I don't think I could do the summer 2-week session-definitely not enough time to spend here.

Also, friend's status on facebook: (to the tune of Hello Goodbye by the Beatles) You say ciao and I say ciao ciao, ciao I don't know why you say ciao I say ciao ciao, ciao I don't know why you say ciao I say ciao