Wine Flies When You Are Having Fun

Ciao friends! So for the past few weekends I stayed here in Rome and enjoyed all that Rome has to offer. As far as school goes, I’ve been very busy with midterms and group projects lately. Despite being hounded with schoolwork though, I have found a good balance between work and play.

When I was here three weekends ago, my roommate Emma and I were the only ones out of all of us roommates who were in Rome that weekend because the rest of my roomies had gone to Paris. That Friday night, Emma and I went to a bar called Scholar’s, which I had been to a couple of times  before. We had a blast hanging out and dancing to the music played by the live band that was performing. The next night Emma and I went out with our friend Jessica to a club called Art Café. Art Café is sort of far from our apartment so we had to take a bus there, and when we arrived we found out that it is a fairly exclusive club. Luckily, Jessica knew a club promoter that was there that night so he got us into the club. Art Café definitely lived up to its name because it was quite artsy. At one point, there was even confetti falling from the ceiling. We had a great time dancing but didn’t get home until really, really late (well I guess it would actually be considered early in the morning). We had to take a cab home because not only was it too far to walk home but also because some of the buses stop working after a certain time.

Two weekends ago Emma and I went to G Bar, a local bar, which I have been to many times and where basically all of the American JCU students hang out. We just had a chill night and hung out with some classmates. The next day was Valentine’s Day and I lost my voice so I had what my friends like to call “my sexy voice” that day hahah. Anyway, I spent Valentine’s Day with my friend Samantha (we were each other’s valentines and she likes to call it Galentine's Day haha). I was happy to spend Sam’s favorite holiday with her, and it was great catching up! We went to an art exhibition, which was nice because I hadn’t been to any art museums in Rome before that. I enjoyed viewing all of the various pieces of art. After we were done with the art exhibition, we left to go find a place to eat dinner. On the way though we stopped into a few shops and Sam bought a sweater. Then, we continued on our way to find a Sushi or Chinese restaurant. After about an hour and a half of wandering around, we found a sushi restaurant, which I was really excited about because I love sushi and haven’t had it in a couple months. Both of us were starving so we devoured our sushi once it arrived to our table. After our delicious dinner, we walked back to Trastevere and got gelato, where we proceeded to talk about our love for Harry Styles lolz. Then I walked back to my apartment and Rome was rockin’! I have never seen Rome sooo busy and so many people out and about. Valentine’s Day must be a huge deal here because it seemed as if the whole city was out on the town. The next few days I started to get sick so I just rested in my apartment and tried to recover. I was sick for about a week with a cough, sore throat, and cold so that was no fun. But I’m basically all better now (minus still having a slight cough)!

The Sunset on Valentine's Day

That next Thursday all of us roomies went to a restaurant called Tony’s! The waiter at Tony’s treated us to free wine, bread, and tiramusu so I was delighted. Emma and I split pollo de Roma, and Bria and I split vodka de penne. Everything was really good. The next day Emma and I went to the library to study, and then after studying we wandered around Trastevere and found a cute little restaurant so we ate there. I got a margherita pizza, and it was quite good. The pizzas were so big though that both of our hands hurt from cutting the pizzas into bite-sized bits. Then we were on our way back to our apartment and stopped at Old Bridge, which is a gelateria, where we bought some yummy gelato. Also random sidenote: I found out that the guys from the show, The Buried Life (a show that I was obsessed with in high school), were in Rome that night so I got really excited. I was on the lookout for them, but sadly did not see them. On Saturday, I studied some more, and then Emma and I bought some wine, cheese, meat, and crackers. We decided to watch a movie so we sat on the couch and watched Ratatouille while sipping on our wine and eating our cheese and crackers. It was perfect given that the movie is about food and based in Paris. After finishing Ratatouille (which was a very cute movie by the way, even though I didn’t think that I would like it because it's about a rat and I'm not a fan of rats...), we went out to G Bar and Drunkenship. At Drukenship I met a Scottish guy who lives in London so naturally I told him that I was just there a few weeks ago. I asked him where he lives in London and what did he say?! Clapham!!! Clapham is where Chen and I stayed when we were in London because our hostel was located there! What are the chances of that? Too crazy. Again, what a small world this is that we live in.

A day that I spent soaking up the sun and studying on a balcony in Roma

This past weekend I spent Saturday in Venice. I was super excited to go to Venice especially since it was Carnivale, which is one of the biggest festivals in Europe! Everyone (well most people) wear masks and some people even dress up in elaborate costumes. It’s basically like one big masquerade party. The morning of leaving for Venice, I got up really early because we had to be at the Termini Station by 6:40am since that was the time at which the bus was leaving to go to Venice. It took about 7 hours to get to Venice because we also had a mandatory 45 minute pit stop. When we arrived in Venice it was only raining a little bit, and we hopped on a waterbus to go to the main part of Venice, which is called San Marco. Once we got to San Marco, we walked around a little bit and stopped in a few shops. Then we walked around some more to go find masks. I saw this black lace mask that I liked a lot, and I wanted to buy it but it was 25 Euros so I ended up getting a cute light pink and white mask instead because it only costed 5 Euro. We then put on our masks and explored Venice some more until all of a sudden it started downpouring rain. Everyone rushed to get under the building overhead coverings and ducked for cover. It was pouring the rest of the time that we were in Venice, and there was even thunder and lightening. We stopped into a small café at one point to grab some hot chocolate (which was delicious) so that helped warm us up a little bit. My umbrella ended up breaking so I was mostly using it as a shield against the wind and rain, but I ended up getting absolutely drenched. 

Venice

Carnivale!

Kinda creepy costume...

By the time we got to a restaurant for dinner I was sopping wet, and my socks and shoes were soaked. It basically felt as if I had been walking in puddles of water barefoot (that's how bad it was haha). At the restaurant I got a Bellini (a mixture of Prosecco sparkling wine and peach purée) to drink and a margherita pizza. I could only finish half of the pizza because it was pretty large and I wasn’t all that hungry. Bellinis actually originated in Venice so of course I had to order one. The bellini was fabulous! After we finished eating we stayed at the restaurant and chatted for a couple more hours because we weren’t up for going back outside into the cold, pouring rain. We finally left when we needed to head back to the bus so we quickly power-walked back to the waterbus and hopped on the waterbus to go to where the bus stop was. On the way back it only took 6 hours because we skipped the pit stop since a group of girls held up our bus for an hour. Apparently they had gotten lost so they arrived an hour late so rather than leaving at 10pm, we left at 11pm. By the time we got home it was about 5:30am on Sunday. Luckily, I have a talent of being able to fall asleep basically anywhere so I slept through most of the bus ride.

The Aftermath

One of my new favorite drinks, the Bellini.

My meal 

My trip to Venice was definitely a memorable one, but I do think that I need a re-do of visiting Venice. I think it would be much more enjoyable to go when it’s a nice, sunny day so hopefully I will be able to visit again later on in life and experience a nice gondola ride as well. I also really want to go to the island of Burano, a small island near Venice, the next time I visit because I heard that Burano is absolutely adorable. Apparently all of the houses in Burano are painted different bright colors, and if the residents want to repaint their house a different color then they have to get approval from the government. Even though I still had a fun time, I will certainly need to go back to Venice sometime later on in my life!

As for next weekend I will be heading to Paris, France to visit my friend Chen and to celebrate her 21^st birthday! YAY! I cannot wait. However, I am a bit concerned because I don't know any French, which will be a major problem since I have heard that the French really dislike it when foreigners do not at least try to attempt to speak their language, so that will be interesting. Wish me luck my friends! Ciao for now.

                                                                        XOXO Jaden Ellesse

Jaden and Chen Take on LondonTown

Okay wow, I am really behind on updating my blog so this post will probably be super long. So three Thursdays ago I left Rome to embark on my journey to meet up with one of my best friends, Chen, in London and spend the weekend with her (January 30^th – February 3^rd). I somehow managed to pack 4 days worth of stuff in just one backpack, which is a major accomplishment for overpackers such as myself. And as if I wasn’t nervous enough to be flying by myself in another country, right when I got into the taxi that was taking me to the airport the taxi driver told me that RyanAir (the airline I was flying through) is absolutely terrible and that I should have taken EasyJet. Like thanks?! That’s really reassuring…haha anyways my travel experience and flight to London was just fine! After I landed, which was around midnight, I took a shuttle over to my hotel. I checked in, went up to my room, and did as the British do which was making myself some tea! After sipping on my lovely cup of tea, I hit the hay.

Tea Time!

I then woke up early the next morning to have my complimentary breakfast, which consisted of a nutella crepe, sausage, a banana, yogurt, hash browns, and orange juice. What a great way to start my day! After breakfast I took a cab to downtown London to meet up with Chen. My cab driver was super nice and pointed out all of the monuments and famous places in London (including where the Olympics were held!) as we drove past them. It turns out that he is from the same town as where David Beckham grew up so I thought that was really cool! When I finally got to the hostel I greeted Chen with a huge hug and then checked in and dropped off all of my stuff. We shared a room with 10 other people so there was a total of 12 of us in one room. There were 4 bunk beds that were 3 stories high. I was assigned the top bunk, and Chen was assigned the bunk below me and some other kid was on the bottom. As soon as I dropped my stuff off, we hopped on a red double decker bus (all of the buses in London are red double deckers by the way) and headed to downtown London to grab a bite to eat and go sightseeing! We ate at a local pub and Chen got a beer called Nicholson’s with her meal. I had a sip of it and it was by far the best beer that I have ever had. Sadly, when we looked it up as to where we could buy it, we discovered that it is only made and sold in the UK….naturally I would find a beer that I actually like and not be able to buy it back in the United States…Shoots! Anyway, after devouring our food, we walked around in the rain and took pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye. I could not get over how beautiful Big Ben was, especially when it was lit up at night. I took like a billion pictures of it because it was just too incredible of a sight.

Big Ben. It is even more breathtaking in person.

After a little dose of sightseeing we went back to our hostel. By then it was dinnertime so we went across the street to get Chinese food (after all it was the Chinese New Year!). I could not wait to have Chinese food, especially after only eating pizza and pasta in Italy for the past month. I ordered orange chicken and it actually was the worst Chinese food I have ever had (despite some guy telling me that the Chinese restaurant we went to had the best Chinese food in London hahah I don’t think he knew what he was talking about). My chicken literally had orange slices on top of it haha Chen and I were cracking up about how weird and gross it was. After only eating half of my dinner we met up with a guy named Matt who Chen had befriended the day before. Matt is from Wales and was also staying at our hostel. Matt, Chen, and I wandered around the streets on London to find a bar to go to. We ran into a bar called “The Slug and Lettuce”, so we thought why not go in and see what it's like. The people at this bar were of ALL ages which we thought was interesting, and not long after being there we discovered that it was pretty trashy so we left and went to some sort of Tiki themed bar instead. I ordered an Old Fashioned because my Grandpa Heim makes really good ones (or so I’ve heard haha) so I thought I would try one. However, the one I ordered was super strong and not very good (so I’ll just leave it up to my grandpa to make me an Old Fashioned from now on). The nice thing about this bar though was that the upstairs had a chill bar atmosphere and the downstairs was more like a club with music and lots of people dancing. We all had a great time dancing, and I had flashbacks from freshmen year of college because many of the songs that were being played were from that year.

There it is...the orange chicken with actual orange slices on top hahah

The next day we slept until like 10:30 in the morning and left around 11:30 to grab something to eat and go sightseeing. Chen and I found this cute little restaurant where I got a sandwich and “chips” (a.k.a. fries). After eating, we did a lot of walking around and a lot of sightseeing (which is clear from all of my pictures that I have up). Then, since it was so cold out we stopped at a restaurant called Giraffe where we ordered hot chocolate (for me) and tea (for Chen). Of course we had to get desserts too! I got a warm brownie with vanilla ice cream, and Chen got chocolate mousse. It was a delicious treat! After our tummies were full of chocolate, we walked over to see Buckingham Palace and Queen Victoria’s Memorial. It was so beautiful. However I was shocked to see that the guards weren’t dressed in red! I always thought that wore red but apparently not because they were dressed in grayish-blue attire. Anyways, it was really neat seeing Buckingham Palace and all of its beauty.

 My brownie and ice cream

                         

              Buckingham Palace

At that point we started to get hungry again so we took a bus and went to Covent Garden. Covent Garden is this super cute area with lots of restaurants, bars, and shops. Located in Covent Garden is a burger joint called “The Shake Shack”. According to Chen there is a “Shake Shack” in New York and she said that it is really good so we got a burger, “chips” (again they are really fries), and a shake. Chen was right, it was super yummy! It was definitely one of the best burgers I have had (watch out In N Out Burger, you’ve got some competition!). We then tried walking off our burgers and shakes by walking around and strolling into several different cute shops. After browsing around, we found a classy bar filled with young professionals, which is definitely more of our scene. However, we did kind of stuck out because we were dressed more casually compared to the majority of people there since we were wearing our daywear while sightseeing. Once we looked over the drink menu and decided what we wanted to get, we walked up to the bar to order. I ordered first, and to my surprise, I got carded! I was in shock since the drinking age in Europe is 18, so apparently I must look like I am 16 years old or something haha. Chen, on the other hand, did not carded so we had a laugh about that. I ordered a white peach martini and Chen got a mojito. We spent a good amount of time just sitting and chatting at the bar until it started to get kind of late so we headed out and took the tube to Tower Bridge. I had driven past the Tower Bridge on my cab ride into London but Chen hadn’t seen it yet. The Tower Bridge is a spectacular sight to see so I did not mind at all that I was going to see it again. Also, I had seen it during the day so it was nice to see it lit up against the night sky. After walking through the Tower Bridge, we hopped on a bus that took us back to our hostel, and we went right to bed.

               

                      The Tower Bridge 

On Sunday morning we got up and headed out with Matt to have some brunch. It was nice to have pancakes and bacon for a change so I was one happy camper! After brunch we said goodbye to Matt and went to Kensington Palace, where William and Kate live (and baby George too)! Chen and I could not believe that we were in the same place as where William and Kate reside. We also went to the Orangery where we were planning on having afternoon tea but it was pretty pricey and we were pressed for time since we had to make it back in time for the Taylor Swift concert so we decided to pass on the tea. Before heading to the T-Swift concert, we grabbed an early dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Wagamama. I got teriyaki chicken with rice, and it was quite tasty. I don’t think I have ever eaten so fast in my entre life, partly because we were in a rush and partly because I was starving. After basically inhaling our food, we took the tube over to the O2 Arena where the Taylor Swift concert. It took about 40 minutes to get to the O2 Arena, and we were a little late but thankfully the opening act hadn’t even gone on yet so all was well! Then we found our seats, which were in a really good location because we were on the floor level pretty close to the stage. We then waited for about 15 minutes until the show started. A band called The Vamps was the opening act, and they were quite good. Their lead singer was a Harry Styles look-a-like so of course I was staring at him practically the whole time. He even had very similar mannerisms to Harry Styles, which was actually really weird so I’m guessing that he has been taking some notes from the infamous boy-bander. Then the time had finally come; Taylor came on stage! A rush of excitement came over the entire audience, myself included. Taylor was AH-MAZING live, and she put on a fabulous performance. I am so incredibly glad that I went! Oh yeah, and apparently Niall Horan (Yes, Niall from my favorite boy-band One Direction) was watching T-Swift perform from backstage that same exact night that I was there! I would have freaked out if I had seen him, although I literally would have died if it was Harry Styles that was there instead!

Kensington Palace

      The Harry Styles look-a-like from The Vamps

 

        Chen and I at the Taylor Swift Concert

Oh hey Taylor

After we rocked out to T-Swift we took the tube back to our hostel. By the time we got back it was around 12:30 at night so we went straight to bed because both of us had to get up early the next morning to leave. I only got about 2 hours of sleep because I had a super early flight and had to take a cab to the airport. Before I knew it I was on a plane back to Rome. I slept almost the entire flight back, except I did wake up when the pilot was making an announcement that we were flying over the Swiss Alps so I took a few pictures of that because it was so gorgeous, and then I fell right back to sleep. Once I landed and got back to my apartment, it felt unreal. I could not believe that I was just in London a few hours ago and now I was back in Rome. It was a very strange yet cool feeling that I had never experienced before. I guess that means I’m becoming a jetsetter hahah :)

             Overall, I had an absolute blast in London! It was such an incredible and unforgettable experience. Chen and I had an abundance of laughs (especially when Chen did not mind the gap and fell right between the curb and the parked bus by the bus stop)! Also, random sidenote....I think I grew by half an inch! And I am not just saying this because I think so, but Chen had noticed that I had gotten taller too. She kept saying that she was so proud of me for growing and getting more on her level...k thanks?! Hahaha. Okay now back to London…. I also had my very first hostel experience and all I can say is that I do not like roughing it. I survived though, and we did meet some very nice people from all over the world, including New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Italy, England, and even some people from the Midwest (Chicago and Wisconsin/Minnesota). Luckily Chen had the public transportation system down so we were able to get to our destinations pretty quickly and easily (although we did get lost just one time). I would have been completely lost without her since I have a terrible sense of direction and probably would have led us in the wrong direction or led us to take the wrong bus haha so major props to you Chen.

As much as I love Rome, I fell in LOVE with London! I could picture myself even living there (especially in Kensington which was my favorite area in London and is where we spent on our last day in London). I love how proper everyone is, and the city is just so elegant and historical yet modern at the same time. Unlike Rome, London offers a variety of different types of restaurants, and I could not get over how clean everything in London is. Even the tube is pretty clean! Also although I did not have time to go shopping, I scoped out all of the stores, and let me tell you, the shopping in London is endless! I also appreciate how the majority of people in London dress so effortlessly preppy and chic. I do wish that I had more time to see more sights, go shopping, and go to the museums, but I have a feeling that London and I will meet again sometime in the future (hopefully in the very near future!). Cheers to you London <3

                                                            XOXO Jaden Ellesse

Roaming Around Rome

As promised in my last blog post, here is a look inside of my apartment:

My room!

My closet

The other bathroom (complete with a bidet)

One of our two bathrooms

One of the shared bedrooms

The living room (plus drying racks)

Our dining room

The kitchen (And yes that is a washing machine right next to the refrigerator)

Okay now that you are probably tired of looking at all of the pictures of my apartment, here is an update on what has been going on here in Roma! It has been raining a lot here lately, and two Sundays ago I looked outside of my window and what do I see?! A DOUBLE RAINBOW!!! I have never seen a double rainbow before so as some of you might guess, this was a very exciting moment for me! It was so beautiful. I took some pictures of it and you can’t really see the second rainbow in one of my pictures but in the other picture if you look really closely you can see both.

Double Rainbow :)

Two Tuesdays ago (January 21^st) it was Emma’s (one of my roommates) birthday! Of course all of us roommates had to go out to celebrate so we headed over to the Abbey Bar because it was also Taco Tuesday! However, when we got there we were informed that they ran out of tacos (Who runs out of tacos on Taco Tuesday?!...Yeah I don't know either). We were all very disappointed but we were so hungry that we ordered other things off of their menu. Megan and I split a basket of chicken fingers and everyone else got nachos. Then after we devoured our food, we went to Sloppy Sams. Bria and I tried something new and got a Miami Iced Tea, which was pretty tasty. All in all, we all had a fun night just dancing and hanging out at the bar.

On Thursday Laura, Danielle, and Lauren left for Interlaken, Switzerland so it was just Emma, Megan, Bria, and me that stayed in Rome for the weekend. That night we went to one of the gelato places and got a nutella crepe with gelato on top. It was one of the most delicious desserts that I have ever had. However, it also gave me the biggest food coma that I have ever had as well. I literally had to lay down on the couch because I could not move. Luckily, my wonderful roommate, Bria, made me some green tea which helped soothe my stomach pain. We definitely could have split the nutella crepe because it was just too much to eat. I will for sure be getting it again but next time I am going to split one with someone else so I won't have to relive the experience of that food coma!

My Nutella Crepe with Gelato. Mouthwatering.

On Friday we went to dinner at a restaurant that was near the Pantheon. We got a table outside, and we had a wonderful view of the Pantheon from where we were seated. I ordered ravioli with spinach and ricotta and got a chocolate dessert cup (because everyone knows that a meal isn't complete without dessert!). I also tried Limoncello, which I was not exactly a fan of since it was quite sour but I guess it is just an acquired taste. Then we went out to the Drunken Ship and got drinks. Their music was on-point that night, especially when they played “Get Outta Your Mind” and “Get Low” (I love me some Lil Jon!). Then we went to a nearby club called Mood. I didn’t know very many of the songs at Mood since a lot of them were Spanish but nonetheless we tore up the dance floor and danced the night away until 4 in the morning.

The next day, all of us slept in (typical) but even more so than usual since we were out so late the night before. After we finally got up we went to the Colosseum because we wanted to tour the inside. Before we reached the Colosseum we made a pit stop because we saw this HUGE donut that we could not pass up because it looked super scrumptious so Bria and I split one of the humungous donuts. We continued walking toward the Colosseum while munching on our donut, and when we finally got there the Colosseum was closed (Fail #1). So we will just have to go back another day since our mission didn’t go as planned. After our failed attempt to see the inside of the Colosseum we walked to the Jewish Ghetto and wandered around that area. I wanted to try to find a bagel there since bagels are rare to find here in Rome but we were too full, tired, and cold so we headed back home. By the time we got back home we were exhausted so we all just crashed early.

The donut was bigger than my head

On Sunday I forced myself to wake up early and went to the Vatican at 7:45 in the morning. The Vatican was absolutely exquisite! I was in awe. After taking everything in, we walked over to the Sistine Chapel to try to get in because it is free on the last Sunday of each month but the line was so incredibly long and wrapped around 2 and a half blocks so we decided to just come back a different day when it will be much less crowded (Fail #2). Then we walked back home and I climbed right back into bed and took a 3 hour nap. After I felt rejuvenated from my nap, we went to get pizza and walked up to the top of Gianicolo Hill to watch the sunset. The view was spectacular! One of my roommates, Emma, and I were talking about going back to Gianicolo Hill to watch the sunrise so I will have to do that one of these upcoming weeks too!

The Vatican

As for tonight, I will be heading to LONDON!!!! The other day I booked a last minute flight to London to meet up with one of my best friends, Chen, who is studying abroad in Paris but has these next two weeks off. We are going to see what Londontown has to offer, and we are going to see Taylor Swift in concert on Sunday night so I am super stoked for that. So I will update you on London next week! Ciao for now my friends.

                                                                        XOXO Jaden Ellesse

My New Home, Rome!

Ciao! So here I am…..in Rome…..I still cannot believe that this is all real. It has officially been 2 weeks since I have arrived in Rome, and I have finally started to settle in. I still don’t really know how to get to a lot of places around town yet though because: A) There are so many small, somewhat hidden stores and restaurants so I walk passed them without even realizing it, and B) I have a terrible sense of direction and the small, winding streets here certainly do not help. What also doesn’t help is that I am constantly dodging cars and vespas. I find myself looking at the ground a lot around here because you have to watch out for the dog poop along the roads since apparently many of the dog owners here don’t pick up after their dogs. Yuck. Anyways, classes started last week, and I found all of my classes without any problems. There are two campuses that we go to for classes, and luckily the walk to my classes from my apartment is about a 5 minute walk to one campus (Guarini Campus) and about a 10 minute walk to the other (Tiber Campus). I only have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays but I have 4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays with basically no breaks in between (aka I have 6 and 1/2 hour days on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I make myself a lunch in the mornings to ensure that I don’t die from starvation during my classes).

My roommates and I
(Starting from the top left: Lauren, Laura, Danielle, Bria)
(Starting from the Bottom Left: Emma, Megan, and Me)

The first week of being here I spent settling into my apartment, going to orientation, and of course exploring Rome. I live in the Gionicolo Residence, which is in the Trastevere part of Rome, and I share an apartment with 6 other girls. My roommates are all from different schools, and they are all very nice. In our apartment we have a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, and 2 bathrooms (I'll post pictures of my apartment in my next blog post). I’m not even going to write about orientation because it was pretty non-eventful except for going on the Navigation 101 tour where we were shown and told how to get around via bus, tram, and train. The whole time while we were taking public transportation I was clenching my bag because pickpocketers here are crazy good at stealing foreigners’ stuff. We also took a small little tour around Rome during this Navigation session as well. I have already seen a decent amount of landmarks, including the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon.

The Colosseum

The Pantheon

The Trevi Fountain

Not only are the landmarks here amazing, but so is the food! I have already gotten pizza, pasta, sandwiches, gelato, a chocolate croissant, and my first ever cannoli while I have been here. I also have made gnocchi a few times at my apartment, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but I have to say that I did a job well done! Also, although I have only been here for 7 days, I have already made three trips to the grocery store! This is because the grocery store is sort of far from our apartment, and since we carry all of our groceries back, you can’t exactly get a lot of items unless you want to be in pain the whole time walking back or enjoy the feeling of having your arms about to fall off (which is how I felt after my first grocery store trip). My diet here mostly consists of pasta, pizza, and paninis because that is basically all that Italians eat. Thankfully, I do a lot of stair climbing (we live on the 4^th floor so I go up 8 flights of stairs each day/several times a day) and walking around here so hopefully that will keep me from gaining 20 lbs.

My first real Italian Pasta dish here: Penne al Salmone (It was delicious!)

Snickers and Stracciatella Gelato

My first slice of pizza in Rome
(they cut it in half because it was so big)

More Pizza!

Let’s see, what else have I been up to….Oh yeah, I spent some nights out on the town. On the first night out, most of my roommates and I went to a bar called The Drunken Ship with some other students who also go to John Cabot University. It was pretty fun and we liked it a lot because it had a pretty chill, laid-back atmosphere. The second night out a few of my roommates and I went to a place called G bar and to two other small bars near G bar. That night we met a lot of local Italians who were all nice, and they gave us advice on places where we should go in Rome so that was kind of helpful. On the third night, all of my roommates and I went to Scholars Irish Pub where we watched the Seattle Seahawks vs. New Orleans Saints football game. Naturally I rooted for the Seahawks because Russell Wilson is their quarterback and he was just playing for our team at Wisconsin last year (#BadgerPride!), so I’m happy that the Seahawks won. The last night, we all went to a bar called the Abbey and then we went to a place called Sloppy Sam’s after we got tired of the Abbey. All four nights that I have been out were really fun, and the nightlife here seems to be pretty great!

Scholars Pub

My final update is that three of my roommates (Bria, Laura, and Megan) and I took a day trip this past Saturday to Tuscany to do some wine tasting! I had such a blast and seeing all the vineyards and wine cellars was really cool. We went to two different wineries, Montalcino and Montepulciano. Some of the wines that I tasted were pretty good and some were not exactly my cup of tea. All of the wines that they provided were red wines, and my favorite out of all of them was the Rosso Di Montalcino. I do wish that they would have had white wine to taste since I tend to like white wine better but I can’t complain since some of the wines we tasted were some of the top wines in the world!

Okay, that’s all for now, and sorry that this is such a long (and late) post. I’ll try to update my blog once every week but it might be more like once every two weeks sometimes since I’m new to this whole blogging thing, and I might forget. Ciao for now!

                                                                                       XOXO Jaden Ellesse