The Vatican!

day 2 of orientation! can't believe it's already wednesday! the days go by so slow, i really lose track of time. it's so EARLY right now but i keep thinking it's supposed to be 6pm or something. really weird. and i get tired really fast too. maybe because i WALK like 3hrs a day now, lol. i met the legendary gianni today! TOO FUNNY! ahhh---he's a natural comedian even tho he thinks he isn't. teaching us ways to cheat the italian customs. "and don't be american, ya kno...cause that's, not cool." in a thick italian accent.

since me and anna got had orientation earlier than michi and cheryl, we left and went to the market today! it was so nerve racking! there were tons of stalls selling fresh fruit, vegetables, and all sorts of random things. we finally settled for this one random vendor who had lots of fruit and was very nice. we bought pineapple, apples, blood oranges (good for your health!) and bananas. she spoke a fair amount of english and the transaction went fairly well until she said it would cost 80 euro! at least that's what it sounded like that's what she meant but it was really 8 euro. and we got a lot of stuff too. we also bought cookies and orange fanta! i would like to kindly point out that italian orange fanta kicks american orange fanta's ASS! the stuff is SO GOOD!!!!! so i bought two bottles today, lol, even tho we need water SO MUCH more.

so me and anna dropped off our stuff and decided to go exploring! we walked into these mini gardens, braved italian traffic, and walked up these steps and around the corner to THE VATICAN! gianni was right, lol, the vatican is so close we can see the pope brushing his teeth! we didn't want to go in without michi and cheryl so we explored the stores around. total tourist traps. we DID go into an italian footlocker and watched this awesome italian rock video. LOVED IT! made me all giddy inside because it was so american rejects. many shoes were on sale but i figured it would be really unwise for me to blow 80 euro, no matter HOW cool the purple chucks with gold olive branches looked. O_O 

we walked back around and stopped by this gellato place! the guy working there was very cute and very nice to us. he spoke good english and asked us where we were from even tho the obvious answer was america. lol, he asked us what we wanted and didn't even charge us for the cone! we gave him 5 euro each (because he didn't ask what size we wanted) and he gave us two scoops on a cone! he didn't even count the money we gave, he just kept smiling. lol, he asked us our names, i think he liked us! will definitely go back there again!