Rome, Italy Day 1

It’s time for my next adventure. I realize that I never really wrapped up my blogs from Thailand…. Since it seems like I ended it on some random day while still in Thailand. I think I forgot all about the blog once I got sick. Anyway, it’s time to resurrect the blog for a brand new adventure, new destination, Italy!

So how does this new adventure have anything to do with following Jesus (since that’s the name of the blog which started before the mission trip to Kenya)? Well, a lot has happened since the trip to Kenya and Thailand. From my experiences overseas and volunteering with the inner city kids of Atlanta, I felt compelled to better equip myself in order to be able to help equip others. Since then, I’ve started on my master’s degree in counseling at Mercer University. Last semester, I heard of a joint counseling class (a quick May-mester) with some other universities offered in Italy and I thought going to Italy and getting credit for class while studying with one of the leading professor in the counseling field sounded fantastic. The program will be about two weeks worth of lectures, discussions, and sight seeing. The 30 or so participants and professors will stay together in a villa in Tuscany called Casa Cares. So that’s the nice round about way of explaining how I got here!

So my friend/travel buddy from grad school, Elizabeth, and I decided that since we’re flying into Rome, we might as well see Rome for a few days before heading out to the Italian counseling institute. We hopped on a plan from Atlanta to Rome 4 days before the rest of the class participants are expected to arrive. By the way, as we were getting ready to take off from Atlanta, the flight attendant came over to verify than I was not a minor traveling alone, how weird! Then off we flew!

Anyway, before getting to Rome, we had almost 6 hours layover in Frankfurt, Germany. Yay, for a German stamp on my passport! I have research a great deal about a quick trip into town and it seems like it’s a real possibility. However, we hit a few minor delays so we ended up with about 5 hours. We are both pretty tired so we just opted not to go gallivanting into town. I ended up snoozing for about an hour before boarding. The connecting flight was pretty empty. Elizabeth and I each had all 3 seats to ourselves. We totally stretched out and enjoyed the short flight.

We landed and collected our luggage. When I got my checked bag, I knew I was going to be in trouble. Even though I took out half the stuff I packed the night before, my carry-on and checked bag were still so heavy, books and electronics mostly. The trip from the airport to the Bed and Breakfast was torture but we finally made it there. The B&B is small but nice and clean and in a quiet and safe neighborhood. We settled in, took our showers, and headed out for dinner. We walked a few blocks to a local restaurant recommended to us by Marco, the B&B host.

We haven’t really “seen” Rome yet so our perception of Rome in this short period of time is summed up into the 3 things that really stuck out: Graffiti (they are everywhere, even on the trains), excessive PDA (everywhere we go, people are just making out), and tiny cars (not until the end of the night that we finally saw a “normal” size car).

That’s it for my first Italy entry. Dull, I know. It’ll get better.