University of Arkansas Office of Study Abroad: A Day of Wandering: Day 7 #HogsAbroad in Rome

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It’s officially been a week since I left home, though it feels like much longer unfortunately. While I really like it here, part of me misses familiarity and not feeling like I constantly have to be out and about in the city for this to count for anything. Yet whenever I go out into the city to do something I couldn’t feel more like a tourist if I tried. It doesn’t hit me as much when I’m busy and doing things that I’m homesick, but then it’s times like right now when I’m alone in my apartment when I miss home more than anything. Even though if I was at home I’m sure I would just be sitting on the couch watching tv or something, it still sounds better to me than sitting around my apartment here alone in a strange city I don’t know.

Anyway, instead of just talking about my homesickness and making myself sadder than I need to be, I’ll share about my day. This morning I woke up after actually sleeping pretty well last night. I think it had to do with my new pillows I bought myself, using the old pillows to muffle the traffic noise through my window and keeping my fan on to be a little bit of white noise in my room.

I met up with one of the boys in my program and we went to sort of explore the city. The original plan was to try and find two markets he had looked up, but it turned out to be more of wandering a little aimlessly until we happened upon the markets. We also hit the Pantheon because he wanted to see that and then later headed along the Tiber toward the Vatican where we stopped and got some gelato and sat in the shade for a little while. After our well needed sit after walking around for such a while we headed toward an outdoor cafe where he grabbed something to eat and I just accompanied him.

We then headed back to our apartments and I Facetimed with my family for a little while which was very nice other than the very poor connection from my wifi. I then had to make myself dinner for the first time in my apartment so naturally I made myself a grilled cheese because that’s who I am. Even in Italy. I managed to find Kraft singles at the grocery store yesterday and thank goodness I did because it made my life so much easier.

Since dinner I’ve showered, and just kind of hung around by myself in my apartment because my roommates were out, so it’s been a little quiet around here, but it’s okay. I’ll probably try to head to bed soon if I can since I start class in the morning, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to fall asleep any time soon. I don’t really have many pictures from today since it was a day of wandering, but I’ll post a few of the neighborhood area I was in near the markets! I’ll report to y’all about my first class tomorrow, until then, bye!