I arrived in Rome on the 23rd of August knowing no one in this city. Yeah, yeah, I lived up in Viterbo which is an hour and a half away, but here in the big city? I moved here with no community. It was my largest fear that I would get lost here and feel lost here without direction. I've had three weekends here since I've been back. The first weekend, I headed up to Viterbo on Saturday to see Anna. The second weekend, I also headed up to Viterbo for Santa Rosa. On Sunday the 4th, my friend Mary Bentley arrived in town as my first official visitor to my Rome life. For all you out there who are reading this......if you travel as one or a couple, I have an extra bed right here in the center of everything here in Rome...you can map the address, which is Piazza della Rovere 109.
But this first full weekend gave me great hope for my year (or maybe more......) here. If things come together as well and as nicely as they did this past weekend, who knows. It all started Wednesday afternoon at school. It turns out that there is a group of about five teachers (of which I am one) that by luck has it we never teach the period after lunch. So, as most teacher get up to go to class, the group of us sits there and spends an extra half an hour in the sun, lounging and eating slowly. One of the group, an English teacher named DD (keeping names undercover these days) invites me to a get together on Thursday night. I accept, thinking that it was going to be a bunch of fellow teachers, but it wasn't. It turned out to be a going away party for one of the members of a group of friends of her new boyfriend. It was at one of the classic Roman summer outdoor bar/dance clubs near the Colosseum and it was 98% Italians. This is where my ability to speak some basic Italian comes to bear fruit because I could pretty much hold up my end of the conversation. I know my Italian isn't nearly as good as the English spoken by my friends in Germany/Holland, but the Italians tell me I'm pretty good, so I'll take the compliment. We're all hanging out, toasting and just enjoying in the evening, when DD and I start talking about all the new teachers at school this year. DD mentions that a number of them are young and pretty and SS's ears perk up. I mention that the next day, a couple of them are throwing an aperitivi at their apartment and SS (I have to give the guy credit for having balls) asks me point blank if he can come. I say sure, let me check with the hosts and I would text him the next day.
Now it's Friday, I put in a long day, stay late and prep all my classes for Monday, which is my habit. No work on the weekends! There were a number of expat happy hours scheduled for that night (along with the aperitivi, it was to be a full night), one of which was the American International Club of Rome happy hour. I had heard that this was a good group to get to know, so I invited another friend of mine EE (it's weird all my friends have first and last initials that are the same) to join me. We arrive and it was WAY dressy and looked it was Greenwich, CT transported to Italy. We left within five minutes. EE and I wandered around the city for an hour before meeting up with SS to head to the aperitivi. SS is THE MAN. He actually followed through! We had a great time at the get together and SS is asking me to give his number to one of my colleagues! In bed at 2AM.
Saturday morning, I got up to go to the Italian Health Office to change my doctor from the one I was assigned in Viterbo to one here in Rome. I had gone to the office once before a few weeks ago, but they didn't realize I was NOT Italian (is my Italian that good, no can't be) and so I don't require the city residence card, which others in the EU are required to have. I went back to that office and all was good and I was about to be assigned a doctor when they asked for my address. It turns out that even though this office I was at is closest to where I live, I am in another district, which is on the other side of town. To give a Seattle equivalent, I live around Northgate and should go to NW hospital, but I am actually assigned to The UW hospital. Whatever, I head over to the other office, and successfully register as a temporary resident of Rome (it was way easier just to keep Viterbo as my permanent Italian residency and be a one year resident of Rome....so if I stay, I have to do this every year) and now Dr. Pietro Corttegiani, you are my doctor. Nice to meet you...someday I hope soon. After the office, I was just wandering back to the tram when I saw a sign for the Museum of the Liberation of Rome. It was a former prison run by the German's when they occupied Rome during from September 1943 to June 1944. Further wandering led me to San Giovanni in Laterano, the great cathedral which is the official seat of the Bishop of Rome. I wander in.....sit down......and take a nap. It was cool inside, and no one was going to bother me. It was a nice hour.
That evening, I had planned on hanging out with another colleague BS. While he was in transit from his place, DD texted me to a dinner at her place. So BS and I spent the evening hanging out with a bunch of Italians, again. I'm LOVING meeting Italians and being with them. One of the highlights of the evening was one of the girls refusing to eat some pasta made by SS and his friend (and DD's guy) IM. The gave it to her, and she just picked at it and called them idiots. You had to be there. Later in the evening, another colleague BB (another double initial) came to hang out and mentioned that he was going to go paintball on Sunday with friends and I was welcome to come along. Being as it's a good policy to say yes to everything, I agreed to do so. The evening wound down, and my walk home was literally in front of St. Peter's Cathedral and the Square.
Sunday morning and it's off to paintball!!! BB tosses me a helmet and I get on the back of his motorino. And we're weaving our way through the traffic in Rome, and I'm feeling completely Italian. The paintball session turns out to be the birthday celebration of a friend of BB's. There were only six of us, so we played 3 on 3. For 20 Euro, we played for three hours. I have to admit, I suck at it. I have no aim, I can't really run fast, and I'm a chicken. My first instinct is to hide behind the barriers, whereas BB is standing tall, taking aim, attacking and hitting me and thereby eliminating me. But it was fun. Two more Italians were there, first was G?, who's birthday we were celebrating and AC, who turns out to be BB's neighbor and also the chef who runs the #1 cooking school in Rome as rated by Trip Advisor. Yeah, here I was spending my Sunday afternoon playing on the same paintball team as the famous cooking school owner. So amazingly....Roman!
So I have to admit, after having a weekend such as this one, I'm feeling much better about life here. I know that it can't ALWAYS be like this, but having a good one here right at the beginning makes me feel a whole lot better. I've still got some things to work out, but I'm close to getting my medical certificat (hello Doctor Corttegiani) so I can go to the pool and start working out. I'm thinking about taking an Art History class (I've seen an Italian one advertised, but maybe one at the local American University) and hope to find a regular crew to play cards with! Oh and of course there are the sports bars so I can watch....football
But this first full weekend gave me great hope for my year (or maybe more......) here. If things come together as well and as nicely as they did this past weekend, who knows. It all started Wednesday afternoon at school. It turns out that there is a group of about five teachers (of which I am one) that by luck has it we never teach the period after lunch. So, as most teacher get up to go to class, the group of us sits there and spends an extra half an hour in the sun, lounging and eating slowly. One of the group, an English teacher named DD (keeping names undercover these days) invites me to a get together on Thursday night. I accept, thinking that it was going to be a bunch of fellow teachers, but it wasn't. It turned out to be a going away party for one of the members of a group of friends of her new boyfriend. It was at one of the classic Roman summer outdoor bar/dance clubs near the Colosseum and it was 98% Italians. This is where my ability to speak some basic Italian comes to bear fruit because I could pretty much hold up my end of the conversation. I know my Italian isn't nearly as good as the English spoken by my friends in Germany/Holland, but the Italians tell me I'm pretty good, so I'll take the compliment. We're all hanging out, toasting and just enjoying in the evening, when DD and I start talking about all the new teachers at school this year. DD mentions that a number of them are young and pretty and SS's ears perk up. I mention that the next day, a couple of them are throwing an aperitivi at their apartment and SS (I have to give the guy credit for having balls) asks me point blank if he can come. I say sure, let me check with the hosts and I would text him the next day.
Now it's Friday, I put in a long day, stay late and prep all my classes for Monday, which is my habit. No work on the weekends! There were a number of expat happy hours scheduled for that night (along with the aperitivi, it was to be a full night), one of which was the American International Club of Rome happy hour. I had heard that this was a good group to get to know, so I invited another friend of mine EE (it's weird all my friends have first and last initials that are the same) to join me. We arrive and it was WAY dressy and looked it was Greenwich, CT transported to Italy. We left within five minutes. EE and I wandered around the city for an hour before meeting up with SS to head to the aperitivi. SS is THE MAN. He actually followed through! We had a great time at the get together and SS is asking me to give his number to one of my colleagues! In bed at 2AM.
Saturday morning, I got up to go to the Italian Health Office to change my doctor from the one I was assigned in Viterbo to one here in Rome. I had gone to the office once before a few weeks ago, but they didn't realize I was NOT Italian (is my Italian that good, no can't be) and so I don't require the city residence card, which others in the EU are required to have. I went back to that office and all was good and I was about to be assigned a doctor when they asked for my address. It turns out that even though this office I was at is closest to where I live, I am in another district, which is on the other side of town. To give a Seattle equivalent, I live around Northgate and should go to NW hospital, but I am actually assigned to The UW hospital. Whatever, I head over to the other office, and successfully register as a temporary resident of Rome (it was way easier just to keep Viterbo as my permanent Italian residency and be a one year resident of Rome....so if I stay, I have to do this every year) and now Dr. Pietro Corttegiani, you are my doctor. Nice to meet you...someday I hope soon. After the office, I was just wandering back to the tram when I saw a sign for the Museum of the Liberation of Rome. It was a former prison run by the German's when they occupied Rome during from September 1943 to June 1944. Further wandering led me to San Giovanni in Laterano, the great cathedral which is the official seat of the Bishop of Rome. I wander in.....sit down......and take a nap. It was cool inside, and no one was going to bother me. It was a nice hour.
That evening, I had planned on hanging out with another colleague BS. While he was in transit from his place, DD texted me to a dinner at her place. So BS and I spent the evening hanging out with a bunch of Italians, again. I'm LOVING meeting Italians and being with them. One of the highlights of the evening was one of the girls refusing to eat some pasta made by SS and his friend (and DD's guy) IM. The gave it to her, and she just picked at it and called them idiots. You had to be there. Later in the evening, another colleague BB (another double initial) came to hang out and mentioned that he was going to go paintball on Sunday with friends and I was welcome to come along. Being as it's a good policy to say yes to everything, I agreed to do so. The evening wound down, and my walk home was literally in front of St. Peter's Cathedral and the Square.
Sunday morning and it's off to paintball!!! BB tosses me a helmet and I get on the back of his motorino. And we're weaving our way through the traffic in Rome, and I'm feeling completely Italian. The paintball session turns out to be the birthday celebration of a friend of BB's. There were only six of us, so we played 3 on 3. For 20 Euro, we played for three hours. I have to admit, I suck at it. I have no aim, I can't really run fast, and I'm a chicken. My first instinct is to hide behind the barriers, whereas BB is standing tall, taking aim, attacking and hitting me and thereby eliminating me. But it was fun. Two more Italians were there, first was G?, who's birthday we were celebrating and AC, who turns out to be BB's neighbor and also the chef who runs the #1 cooking school in Rome as rated by Trip Advisor. Yeah, here I was spending my Sunday afternoon playing on the same paintball team as the famous cooking school owner. So amazingly....Roman!
So I have to admit, after having a weekend such as this one, I'm feeling much better about life here. I know that it can't ALWAYS be like this, but having a good one here right at the beginning makes me feel a whole lot better. I've still got some things to work out, but I'm close to getting my medical certificat (hello Doctor Corttegiani) so I can go to the pool and start working out. I'm thinking about taking an Art History class (I've seen an Italian one advertised, but maybe one at the local American University) and hope to find a regular crew to play cards with! Oh and of course there are the sports bars so I can watch....football