A Final Blog - Part 1

So here it is: the final, penultimate post.

Last week was my last week in the schools. On Thursday we had an American culture day where we taught the students about the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Native Americans. We also introduced them to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (What we call 'jelly' is their 'jam.' And what they call 'jelly' is our 'jello'). Most of them wouldn't even try it but of those that did, most were repulsed by it but a few came back for seconds. Then in the afternoon we played American games: four square, kickball, and baseball. It was a lot of fun. The kids were sad to see us go and they gave us big, huge cards.

Then after school we pretty much came back here to Hope University to gather our things and left for the airport. We flew to Venice, or what was technically not Venice. We had to take a coach bus to some metro station and then a city bus from the metro station to our camp site. I have pictures of the tent/bungalow we stayed in there. So we got settled pretty late and decided to just sleep.

The following day (not last Friday but the one before) we spent all day traveling to different places in Venice. We didn't really go inside anywhere, we just walked around admiring the architecture. We eventually took a gondola ride as well, which was fun. We had to talk the guy down because they were expecting 100 euros (about 140 bucks) and we were like "No thanks!" Eventually we got them down to 60 for a bit shorter ride. It was fun but the guy was less than kind. No worries, though.

We ate margherita pizza which is basically cheese and sauce on a flat crust. A staple for Italian pizza and quite delicious. We also tried our hand at gelatti which tastes just like ice cream but still good. Then the following day we got to the airport by taking a shuttle and flew to Rome.

Once we arrived in Rome we took a bus to the metro station and attempted to figure out where to go next. The people at the information desk were not helpful and acted as though they didn't speak English. But eventually we figured out where to go. We thought we couldn't check into our hostel until 2 (and it was around 11 at this time) so we took the metro to the Colosseum. You see it pretty much as you're stepping out of the metro station. We walked over to get a closer look and got hassled by fifty different people offering all kinds of 4th of July pub crawls and whatnot. We eventually got hassled by a tour guide and we talked them down to giving us a tour for 18 euros a person which was a good deal. So we took a tour of the Colosseum which was okay. Our guide wasn't the best, just kind of matter-of-fact. Then we got 45 minutes to ourselves before the second part of the tour so we walked around the upper level and got some great photographs. Then when we were suppose to meet our second tour for the walk of the Palatine Hill, they never showed up. Luckily there was another tour going on from the same company or a similar company anyway and lady let us join.

So we toured Palatine Hill which is basically the hill that Rome started upon. There used to be a grand palace up there but now it is ruins. It overlooks all of Rome, including the Roman Forum where all the government buildings and temples were. That was essentially day 1 because we went back to our hostel and bought some food for our 4th of July party.

We attempted to buy a whole watermelon, even though we couldn't cut it because we didn't have anything to cut it with, but the label machine wasn't working. We tried to tell the cashier how much it costs after weighing but she was like "Impossible!" and just held the watermelon for a second, staring at it, then she set it on the ground and continued checking people out.

At this time as well, one of my traveling companions decided to purchase some sushi. The price said like 6.20 euros for a small thing of it which seemed like a little bit more than she wanted to spend but she was hungry and that was the only thing that looked appetizing. When she checked out it rang up as 11.70. She tried to explain to the cashier that she didn't want it then but the cashier just kind of ignored us. So we went to customer service. We tried speaking to the lady there but she claimed to not understand English and then tried to call someone over who could. So we waited and waited as her and the guy working there helped about a thousand Italian-speaking customers.

She ended up leaving and so we tried speaking to the guy who understood English quite well. He tried arguing with my friend for a long time and she was getting really frustrated. The sushi had no price tag on it and it was set out in the section where it said 6 euros 20 cents. There was no sign for 11 euros 70 cents anywhere. Eventually he finally gave in. But he made her take it back and then threw her money at the rest of us. We took it, left, and never went back to that place. Good riddance. All in the all, I was not impressed at all by the Italians. I was impressed with the French, however, and I will come back to that.

So that was essentially our first day in Rome. I will continue with our other days in Rome as well as the one in Paris in Part 2!