On Saturday morning I said goodbye to my parents and entered the world of Covid traveling. I was flying from Dulles airport down to the Delta hub in Atlanta to catch our covid-free direct flight to Rome. In the span of 60 hours, I was tested for covid three times. Once 48 hours before my international departure back in Maryland, once at the airport in Atlanta and then for a third time (and a much more uncomfortable experience) in the Rome airport.
I used to be the best about sleeping on airplanes, but now it is really hit or miss. Between the two flights, I had eleven and a half hours in the air and sadly only slept for just under an hour and a half of that. In hindsight, getting an iced coffee in Atlanta might have been my downfall but oh well. I watched a bunch of episodes of the Amazing Race only to arrive in Italy and want to finish the season and realize it isn't available over here.
But besides extra paperwork and some lines, the process went smoothly. All three Rome coordinators were negative at all checkpoints and we could proceed to Residence Balduina, where the college lives during their semesters in Rome.
As soon as I walked up the stairs to the courtyard, familiarity came flooding back. It smells the same, the furniture is the same and just really not much has changed. It's like I never left even though its been three years since my semester here.
I am living in a different building now, the building to your right when you enter the courtyard. Shockingly we actually have more males than females this semester so I am in charge of one of the boy buildings. I have so much natural sunlight in my apartment and a gorgeous view of the sunset at night. I will be linking a video to my apartment here:
So we arrived on Sunday, got checked in and cleaned ourselves up and then headed to Mass at the local Church in Piazza Balduina. Not my favorite by any means, but after a long day of travel and we hadn't gotten our transportation passes yet, it definitely was the right call. After Mass, we did our first grocery run to get the essentials and then headed back to the Residence to unpack and settle in. Katy Ott, my boss had left us each goodie bags with some snacks and most importantly some coffee :) We had the goal of staying up until at least 9pm so we could beat the jet-lag. Plus, I always end up drinking more coffee when I am in Europe, I don't know if it is more the on-the-go lifestyle and constantly being busy or if it is just because of the culture here.
I am blessed to be working with two friends as the other Rome Coordinators, so hanging out each night is no chore! None of us felt like cooking so we ordered some food delivery of an amazing prosciutto, pesto, tomato and mozzarella sandwiches. Hit the spot. Tim lives on the top floor of the building and has a view of the dome of St. Peters from his apartment, so we ate our dinner watching the sunset and just taking in the city and being so thankful we had made it here safely and could once again called Rome our home. We played Phase 10 until about 9pm so proud of making our goal but we didn't stop there. We ended up talking about all things Christendom until about 11pm. Easy to say, we had well-earned a goodnight of sleep at that point.
I accidentally ordered a pizza with fish, teaches me to get better at translating menus!
The next three days consisted of staff training, various tasks to prepare for the students arrival and just spending some quality time together as a staff. This program has been running for years, but we do have to be a little creative and spend more time planning due to some challenges posed by Covid. But we are so blessed to be some of the few Americans allowed into Europe right now. So rather than focus on the negatives, we are truly thanking God that the region of Lazio is yellow right now. That means we can be out and about and travel within the region. Restaurants and bars close for dine-in at 6pm and then there is a city-wide curfew at 10pm.
I look forward to sharing more of my in-depth exploration of Rome and some nearby day trips that I didn't get a chance to do while here as a student. I was so focused on going elsewhere and so I am excited to know this city better and take advantage of the situation I find myself in.
On Tuesday we had the chance to go down to St. Peters in the afternoon while charging the students' transportation passes and getting a SIM card for my Italian iPhone. I absolutely loved how empty the square was, it was incredible since I'm used to it being packed with tourists. St. Peter's was the same way! There was no line to get in whereas in the past you could have waited for over an hour to be let in. The whole experience was so much more peaceful and prayerful since there were probably less than seventy-five people total inside this major basilica.
The students have now arrived and are completing their orientation currently before we head into Rome proper for our first group Mass at St. Peter's this afternoon. But their arrival and first few days will be covered in my next update.
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