July 1, 2007
7:30pm Rome, 12:30pm Houston
I can’t believe I’ve been here for over a week now! In some ways it feels like I’ve been here for weeks & then it also feels like I just got here yesterday!
I left the last blog with me starting my apartment search…and those appointments continued all week long! In addition to the appointments I had on Monday, I had appointments on Wednesday & Thursday. I looked at 8 apartments in all. Out of the 8, there are only 2 that I actually liked the inside of the apartments and those 2 are in different parts of Rome. Both have their pros & cons, so I’m still trying to decide which I like better. Yesterday (Sat.) I spent several hours during the day & at night walking the streets around both trying to get a feel for the neighborhood, but I still am not sure which I like the best. I need to get some more information from the agency about them and talk to some more people in the office about them, and then maybe I will be able to make a decision.
On Thursday the girl from the agency also took me to the post office to apply for my stay permit. It ended up not taking as long as we thought because the line at the post office wasn’t all that long – thank goodness! I won’t actually get the permit for 2-3 months, but this was the first step. I think next I will get a call that I have to go to the police station to get fingerprinted and some other stuff. The other thing I have left to do is set up a bank account of which I think I will have an appointment to do that on Tuesday. I’m so glad my company has an agency helping me with all this stuff because I wouldn’t have the first clue what to do & it would be even more difficult since I don’t speak Italian!
My work week was very light, first because I was out on the appointments mentioned above most of the time & second because I haven’t received any client work yet. So when I was at my desk, I was reading some of the PwC auditing guidance booklets my office mate lent me and then just sent e-mails and did other misc. stuff on the internet to pass the time. I’m not sure if I’m suppose to be doing anything else because no one told me anything and since I don’t know who I will be working with I don’t know if I’m suppose to ask anyone. I know to enjoy this transition and down time now because once I start working I probably won’t have that much down time! And despite popular belief, the people in the office here work more then 8 hrs days! When I was thinking about doing the assignment here, many people made comments about how they only work 35 hours a week - but that is not true. When I didn’t have appointments in the evening, I left at 6pm and was the only one leaving...and the others didn’t even look like they were close to packing up. One girl told me many prefer to work later during the week to let traffic die down and also because they typically don’t eat dinner until around 9pm because they want to let the tourist eat and then they eat. Seeing the traffic during rush hour - I understand why they wouldn’t want to leave at 6!
Speaking of traffic - one thing I have determined is that I definitely will not be driving here (or at least not a car)! After riding around town in a car and watching people drive there is no way on earth that I could learn to drive like that in 2 years! On many streets there aren’t even any lines on the street separating the lane (they have 1 to separate the 2 directions but that’s it). And people just create their own lanes between cars and all kinds of crazy stuff. Plus you have to search for parking forever and then once you do park you may have to walk blocks to find the machine to pay for parking. Even when we were looking at apartments the girl showing me around told me it was best if we took the bus or metro to some of the places because the parking and traffic was so bad. So I’ll stick to public transit…even though it is a bit dirty and not always on time. I’ve already gotten a bit better about using the metro & the bus system after the girl with the agency told me a website you can go to see what bus routes you can take. Of course patience is key to using the buses too! On Thursday it took me about 1 ½ hours to get home from the center because I had to wait for the bus for a long time and had to switch buses and had to wait for the 2nd one as well (probably should have taken maybe 30-45 min max). I will just have to learn to allow at least double the time that I think it will take to get to/from anywhere. And then sometimes the metro lines will be closed when I didn’t expect it. Like Friday I was trying to get to St. Peter’s and took line B to my stop with no problems and then I went to get on Line A & it was closed – I still have no idea why! And the metro closes so early (sometimes between 9-11, still don’t know the exact time yet) and most buses stop at midnight (some earlier). If you need to get home after midnight you have no choice except to take a taxi. Another thing I have already learned about public transit here is that when you don’t have every one of your limbs touching someone else – that is considered having ‘personal space’ and you learn to appreciate it. Already on the metro and on the bus I’ve had times where it was so packed I was just pushed on & off the metro/bus and you don’t have to hold onto anything because you are so packed you won’t move anyway…not really a pleasurable experience but I know it won’t be the last. I am starting to pick up on some stuff like I realized that the 1st and last couple of cars on the metro are usually not as full while the middle ones are packed, so I’ll start waiting in those areas so maybe I won’t have to be a sardine all the time. Another observation I’ve had is that people on motor scooters and pedestrians can do whatever they want on the street! At stop light, the people on scooters always just go between the cars to get to the front. And then they park their scooters wherever they want & it’s okay. For pedestrians, in most places there aren’t cross walk signs so you just have to start walking in the intersections & then the cars stop to let you go. Even when you have a light if there is a gap between cars you usually just go even though it says don’t walk. At first I was always hesitant about walking in the intersection, but now I do it without thinking.
This past Friday I celebrated my first Roman holiday (feast of Sts. Peter & Paul) & it was GREAT! As I had mentioned in previous blog, prior to leaving I had sent a fax requesting tickets to the mass that Pope Benedict was celebrating on Friday for the feast day for me, Jody & her mom. On Wednesday I went to go pick the tickets up after one of my apartment visits and that itself was an experience. My letter said “come to the Bronze Door of the Apostolic Palace...the bronze door is situated in St. Peter's Square where the right-hand Bernini colonnade begins." I start walking down the colonnade & see a sign for the Bronze Doors and it looks like it points to security. I was a bit aggravated because there were tons of people in the line & I had thought I could just go in & out. So I look around & realize I must not have a choice and have to go through security. So I pick the shortest line of course & it didn't take all that long. So I kept walking down the colonnade and get closer to the Basilica and am looking around figuring that it has to be there somewhere...but the only doors I see are the ones with the Swiss Guards standing at them & it has a barricade in front of it. I see a policeman close there smoking so I ask him where the Bronze Doors are showing him my paper & he points to the one with the guards. He said go up the stairs there! So I walk up the steps with all these tourists looking at me (a lot there taking pictures of the guards) and have to show the guards my letter. So one talks to the guard at the front desk & then tells me I could go get the tickets from him. So I show that guard my letter & he looks in a box of envelopes he has & finds mine & gives them to me. Then I walk out through the same steps & there are just tons of people there taking pictures! The policeman tells me...smile!! I can just imagine most of them were probably asking...why in the world does she get to go in there!?!?!? I almost felt like a superstar or something – of course I knew they weren’t taking the pictures of me, but still I felt special.
Then fast forward to Friday… the tickets said the doors were going to open at 8am, so I planned to get in line around 7:15 or 7:30 to get our place in line and then Jody & her mom would get there sometimes before 8. Somehow I thought if I got there at that time I would be pretty close to the front of the line. When I got to out of the taxi (because the metro line was closed) around 7:20, the line was already really long and it just kept growing and by the time they opened the doors it almost as long as the whole outside of the piazza (from on colonnade to the other). The good thing about my spot in line was that Jody & her mom could find me very easily because it was right in front of where the taxis dropped people off. Once they opened the doors and we got in, we were in the front half of the seats so it wasn’t that bad. I was just so happy we had seats inside. The mass was where over 50 Archbishops from all over the world got their palliums from the Pope and many of the people inside the church must have been from some of their dioceses (according the cheers when some of them got their pallium). It was so interesting seeing people from some many countries and speaking so many languages there. It was a reminded of how universal the Catholic Church is and how we are really one big family! I have a few pictures and some video (taken with my camera) that I took during the mass & then Jody took a lot of pictures. Some of my pictures are in the blog “Pictures from Mass at St. Peter's” and the rest with comments are at this facebook link (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32469&l=ee612&id=800405227) & I will let you know if I can figure out how to upload the video somewhere for you to see. Also when I get some of Jody’s pictures I will upload those too (she has some good ones! J )
The mass didn’t start until 9:30 so we had an hour & a half to just sit in the Basilica and try to soak it all in. But no matter how many times I got to St. Peters and no matter how many hours I spend inside the Basilica, I still can not get my head around the size of the place and all of the beautiful things that are in there! The mass itself lasted about 2 hours, but even though I didn’t understand most of it (most was in Latin) it still did not seem that long. As I was sitting there I still could not believe I was actually attending a mass in the Vatican presided over by the Pope. And when I received communion in there I just felt so blessed! (yes believe it or not they give communion to everyone there…it’s a bit interesting because you have to kind of crawl over people to receive it but it is done). Overall I just felt so blessed to experience that…never in my wildest dreams growing up as a Roman Catholic did I actually think I would be attending mass in St. Peters in Rome with the Pope! After mass he also did a greeting and the Angelus in from his apartment like he does on Sunday, so we stayed and saw him there too.
After mass and seeing the Pope from the piazza, we went to a religious store close for a while and around 2pm went to a restaurant for lunch. We ate Roman style and stayed there until about 4pm (when they kicked us out) and we enjoyed a mixed plate of antipasti, pasta, wine (the house wines have been very good here), dessert and then some grappa (btw that’s some strong stuff!). We left there & just walked…not sure where we wanted to go, but just walked towards the center. Since it was a holiday most of the shops were closed, so we couldn’t do much shopping. After a bit of walking we stopped at a bar (btw bars in Italy aren’t like American bars – they are open all day and although you can by wine, beer and some alcoholic drinks they also have coffee drinks, snacks, gelato, etc.) and had some drinks and snacks and sat outside for a while. Then we walked to the Spanish Steps and sat there a while watching all the people. From there we walked through the Borghese Gardens and went to Jody & Lil’s hotel, where we relaxed for a couple hours and all took a nap for a bit. By the time we woke up it was almost 10pm, so we grabbed a quick bite at a hotel close to them. Overall I think we spent the holiday in true Roman style and it was very enjoyable!
Yesterday I slept in late…which was quiet enjoyable after some very late nights! I didn’t do too much until late afternoon when I went to check out the neighborhoods of the 2 apartments and I got back from there around 10 or 11ish. When I was waiting for it to get dark to see the neighborhoods at night, I went to Piazza Novona for about 2 hours and walked through looking at all the artwork the artists had set up and sat on the benches and watched the different entertainers they had in the piazza (saw a on a tall unicycle doing tricks, a magician type guy, and then some break dancers). That is what is so cool in the center is that you can just walk around & find something to watch most evenings on the weekends…and if nothing else you can just people watch.
And one thing about moving to a place where you don’t know the language yet is that almost anything turns into a challenge, even every day tasks such as washing clothes. Yesterday I finally asked the guy at the front desk where the machines were at and what I needed to do to use them. I had to buy these coins to use for the machines & it costs 3 euro to wash & 4 euro to dry for each load. I thought the guy told me the machines were on the 5th floor, but I couldn’t’ find them. I checked every floor from 3 through 9 and couldn’t find them. This afternoon it finally hit me that he must have meant 1st instead of 5th (he said it in English, not Italian but I still didn’t understand). So I found them & decided I needed to wash my clothes. The machines are so different from home & had all these setting. I just tried to figure it out by the pictures and what little Italian I knew, but didn’t do so well. When I did the washers I pushed a button to skip the spin cycle (realized afterwards of course) & then for the dryer I guess I put the lowest setting possible because after an hour my clothes were still soaking wet! So I spend 8 euro for the machines to spin my clothes for an hour! Now I have clothes hanging all over my room & bathroom and I think it might take days for it all to dry! Hopefully next time I will do better!
Well I better close…this blog has taken me a very long time to write because I’ve been doing laundry and several other things in between writing. I think I will turn in kind of early today to get ready for the week.
Ciao!
9:20pm Rome/ 2:20p.m. Houston
I left the last blog with me starting my apartment search…and those appointments continued all week long! In addition to the appointments I had on Monday, I had appointments on Wednesday & Thursday. I looked at 8 apartments in all. Out of the 8, there are only 2 that I actually liked the inside of the apartments and those 2 are in different parts of Rome. Both have their pros & cons, so I’m still trying to decide which I like better. Yesterday (Sat.) I spent several hours during the day & at night walking the streets around both trying to get a feel for the neighborhood, but I still am not sure which I like the best. I need to get some more information from the agency about them and talk to some more people in the office about them, and then maybe I will be able to make a decision.
On Thursday the girl from the agency also took me to the post office to apply for my stay permit. It ended up not taking as long as we thought because the line at the post office wasn’t all that long – thank goodness! I won’t actually get the permit for 2-3 months, but this was the first step. I think next I will get a call that I have to go to the police station to get fingerprinted and some other stuff. The other thing I have left to do is set up a bank account of which I think I will have an appointment to do that on Tuesday. I’m so glad my company has an agency helping me with all this stuff because I wouldn’t have the first clue what to do & it would be even more difficult since I don’t speak Italian!
My work week was very light, first because I was out on the appointments mentioned above most of the time & second because I haven’t received any client work yet. So when I was at my desk, I was reading some of the PwC auditing guidance booklets my office mate lent me and then just sent e-mails and did other misc. stuff on the internet to pass the time. I’m not sure if I’m suppose to be doing anything else because no one told me anything and since I don’t know who I will be working with I don’t know if I’m suppose to ask anyone. I know to enjoy this transition and down time now because once I start working I probably won’t have that much down time! And despite popular belief, the people in the office here work more then 8 hrs days! When I was thinking about doing the assignment here, many people made comments about how they only work 35 hours a week - but that is not true. When I didn’t have appointments in the evening, I left at 6pm and was the only one leaving...and the others didn’t even look like they were close to packing up. One girl told me many prefer to work later during the week to let traffic die down and also because they typically don’t eat dinner until around 9pm because they want to let the tourist eat and then they eat. Seeing the traffic during rush hour - I understand why they wouldn’t want to leave at 6!
Speaking of traffic - one thing I have determined is that I definitely will not be driving here (or at least not a car)! After riding around town in a car and watching people drive there is no way on earth that I could learn to drive like that in 2 years! On many streets there aren’t even any lines on the street separating the lane (they have 1 to separate the 2 directions but that’s it). And people just create their own lanes between cars and all kinds of crazy stuff. Plus you have to search for parking forever and then once you do park you may have to walk blocks to find the machine to pay for parking. Even when we were looking at apartments the girl showing me around told me it was best if we took the bus or metro to some of the places because the parking and traffic was so bad. So I’ll stick to public transit…even though it is a bit dirty and not always on time. I’ve already gotten a bit better about using the metro & the bus system after the girl with the agency told me a website you can go to see what bus routes you can take. Of course patience is key to using the buses too! On Thursday it took me about 1 ½ hours to get home from the center because I had to wait for the bus for a long time and had to switch buses and had to wait for the 2nd one as well (probably should have taken maybe 30-45 min max). I will just have to learn to allow at least double the time that I think it will take to get to/from anywhere. And then sometimes the metro lines will be closed when I didn’t expect it. Like Friday I was trying to get to St. Peter’s and took line B to my stop with no problems and then I went to get on Line A & it was closed – I still have no idea why! And the metro closes so early (sometimes between 9-11, still don’t know the exact time yet) and most buses stop at midnight (some earlier). If you need to get home after midnight you have no choice except to take a taxi. Another thing I have already learned about public transit here is that when you don’t have every one of your limbs touching someone else – that is considered having ‘personal space’ and you learn to appreciate it. Already on the metro and on the bus I’ve had times where it was so packed I was just pushed on & off the metro/bus and you don’t have to hold onto anything because you are so packed you won’t move anyway…not really a pleasurable experience but I know it won’t be the last. I am starting to pick up on some stuff like I realized that the 1st and last couple of cars on the metro are usually not as full while the middle ones are packed, so I’ll start waiting in those areas so maybe I won’t have to be a sardine all the time. Another observation I’ve had is that people on motor scooters and pedestrians can do whatever they want on the street! At stop light, the people on scooters always just go between the cars to get to the front. And then they park their scooters wherever they want & it’s okay. For pedestrians, in most places there aren’t cross walk signs so you just have to start walking in the intersections & then the cars stop to let you go. Even when you have a light if there is a gap between cars you usually just go even though it says don’t walk. At first I was always hesitant about walking in the intersection, but now I do it without thinking.
This past Friday I celebrated my first Roman holiday (feast of Sts. Peter & Paul) & it was GREAT! As I had mentioned in previous blog, prior to leaving I had sent a fax requesting tickets to the mass that Pope Benedict was celebrating on Friday for the feast day for me, Jody & her mom. On Wednesday I went to go pick the tickets up after one of my apartment visits and that itself was an experience. My letter said “come to the Bronze Door of the Apostolic Palace...the bronze door is situated in St. Peter's Square where the right-hand Bernini colonnade begins." I start walking down the colonnade & see a sign for the Bronze Doors and it looks like it points to security. I was a bit aggravated because there were tons of people in the line & I had thought I could just go in & out. So I look around & realize I must not have a choice and have to go through security. So I pick the shortest line of course & it didn't take all that long. So I kept walking down the colonnade and get closer to the Basilica and am looking around figuring that it has to be there somewhere...but the only doors I see are the ones with the Swiss Guards standing at them & it has a barricade in front of it. I see a policeman close there smoking so I ask him where the Bronze Doors are showing him my paper & he points to the one with the guards. He said go up the stairs there! So I walk up the steps with all these tourists looking at me (a lot there taking pictures of the guards) and have to show the guards my letter. So one talks to the guard at the front desk & then tells me I could go get the tickets from him. So I show that guard my letter & he looks in a box of envelopes he has & finds mine & gives them to me. Then I walk out through the same steps & there are just tons of people there taking pictures! The policeman tells me...smile!! I can just imagine most of them were probably asking...why in the world does she get to go in there!?!?!? I almost felt like a superstar or something – of course I knew they weren’t taking the pictures of me, but still I felt special.
Then fast forward to Friday… the tickets said the doors were going to open at 8am, so I planned to get in line around 7:15 or 7:30 to get our place in line and then Jody & her mom would get there sometimes before 8. Somehow I thought if I got there at that time I would be pretty close to the front of the line. When I got to out of the taxi (because the metro line was closed) around 7:20, the line was already really long and it just kept growing and by the time they opened the doors it almost as long as the whole outside of the piazza (from on colonnade to the other). The good thing about my spot in line was that Jody & her mom could find me very easily because it was right in front of where the taxis dropped people off. Once they opened the doors and we got in, we were in the front half of the seats so it wasn’t that bad. I was just so happy we had seats inside. The mass was where over 50 Archbishops from all over the world got their palliums from the Pope and many of the people inside the church must have been from some of their dioceses (according the cheers when some of them got their pallium). It was so interesting seeing people from some many countries and speaking so many languages there. It was a reminded of how universal the Catholic Church is and how we are really one big family! I have a few pictures and some video (taken with my camera) that I took during the mass & then Jody took a lot of pictures. Some of my pictures are in the blog “Pictures from Mass at St. Peter's” and the rest with comments are at this facebook link (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32469&l=ee612&id=800405227) & I will let you know if I can figure out how to upload the video somewhere for you to see. Also when I get some of Jody’s pictures I will upload those too (she has some good ones! J )
The mass didn’t start until 9:30 so we had an hour & a half to just sit in the Basilica and try to soak it all in. But no matter how many times I got to St. Peters and no matter how many hours I spend inside the Basilica, I still can not get my head around the size of the place and all of the beautiful things that are in there! The mass itself lasted about 2 hours, but even though I didn’t understand most of it (most was in Latin) it still did not seem that long. As I was sitting there I still could not believe I was actually attending a mass in the Vatican presided over by the Pope. And when I received communion in there I just felt so blessed! (yes believe it or not they give communion to everyone there…it’s a bit interesting because you have to kind of crawl over people to receive it but it is done). Overall I just felt so blessed to experience that…never in my wildest dreams growing up as a Roman Catholic did I actually think I would be attending mass in St. Peters in Rome with the Pope! After mass he also did a greeting and the Angelus in from his apartment like he does on Sunday, so we stayed and saw him there too.
After mass and seeing the Pope from the piazza, we went to a religious store close for a while and around 2pm went to a restaurant for lunch. We ate Roman style and stayed there until about 4pm (when they kicked us out) and we enjoyed a mixed plate of antipasti, pasta, wine (the house wines have been very good here), dessert and then some grappa (btw that’s some strong stuff!). We left there & just walked…not sure where we wanted to go, but just walked towards the center. Since it was a holiday most of the shops were closed, so we couldn’t do much shopping. After a bit of walking we stopped at a bar (btw bars in Italy aren’t like American bars – they are open all day and although you can by wine, beer and some alcoholic drinks they also have coffee drinks, snacks, gelato, etc.) and had some drinks and snacks and sat outside for a while. Then we walked to the Spanish Steps and sat there a while watching all the people. From there we walked through the Borghese Gardens and went to Jody & Lil’s hotel, where we relaxed for a couple hours and all took a nap for a bit. By the time we woke up it was almost 10pm, so we grabbed a quick bite at a hotel close to them. Overall I think we spent the holiday in true Roman style and it was very enjoyable!
Yesterday I slept in late…which was quiet enjoyable after some very late nights! I didn’t do too much until late afternoon when I went to check out the neighborhoods of the 2 apartments and I got back from there around 10 or 11ish. When I was waiting for it to get dark to see the neighborhoods at night, I went to Piazza Novona for about 2 hours and walked through looking at all the artwork the artists had set up and sat on the benches and watched the different entertainers they had in the piazza (saw a on a tall unicycle doing tricks, a magician type guy, and then some break dancers). That is what is so cool in the center is that you can just walk around & find something to watch most evenings on the weekends…and if nothing else you can just people watch.
And one thing about moving to a place where you don’t know the language yet is that almost anything turns into a challenge, even every day tasks such as washing clothes. Yesterday I finally asked the guy at the front desk where the machines were at and what I needed to do to use them. I had to buy these coins to use for the machines & it costs 3 euro to wash & 4 euro to dry for each load. I thought the guy told me the machines were on the 5th floor, but I couldn’t’ find them. I checked every floor from 3 through 9 and couldn’t find them. This afternoon it finally hit me that he must have meant 1st instead of 5th (he said it in English, not Italian but I still didn’t understand). So I found them & decided I needed to wash my clothes. The machines are so different from home & had all these setting. I just tried to figure it out by the pictures and what little Italian I knew, but didn’t do so well. When I did the washers I pushed a button to skip the spin cycle (realized afterwards of course) & then for the dryer I guess I put the lowest setting possible because after an hour my clothes were still soaking wet! So I spend 8 euro for the machines to spin my clothes for an hour! Now I have clothes hanging all over my room & bathroom and I think it might take days for it all to dry! Hopefully next time I will do better!
Well I better close…this blog has taken me a very long time to write because I’ve been doing laundry and several other things in between writing. I think I will turn in kind of early today to get ready for the week.
Ciao!
9:20pm Rome/ 2:20p.m. Houston
No comments:
Post a Comment