Ciao Roma!

 So this is it, I have spent 4 months traveling and enjoying italy, and I finally head home tomorrow.  I think I have done everything humanly possible to get as much as I can out of this experience and to do everything there is to do.  And man am I tired! Im ready to go home and so grateful for what I have been able to do here.  Im sure I will miss my adventures here and all the fun and different things I have experienced.  I know this trip has changed my attitudes on a lot of things, but I know I have grown a lot during it.  I cant wait to be home in a little more than a day and sleep in my own bed and enjoy my family.  Here are some of the very last pictures of Joelle and I's adventures through Rome.  I think in the 4 days she was here, we saw all the highlights of rome and did as much as we could too, a great way to end my stay and say goodbye to rome.

last gelato: chocolate, hazelnut, walnut

joelle enjoying her swordfish pizza

We went to a soccer game! It was incredible and really exciting

It was tied 2-2 until the last 2 minutes when the home team (our team) scored and won! so exciting

Olympic pool at the olympic complex in Rome

joelle in front of a big monument to Vittorio 

Emanuele

Hot chocolate and pastries.  mmmm italy

Colosseum!

Inside the Colosseum

Can you tell we had fun?

In front of the forum

Ciao Romaaaaaaaaaa
Thanks for reading, Hope you enjoyed it!!!

Almost time to go

 I think I am going to make this my second to last post, cause I leave in 4 days! Crazy! Joelle has been here the last two/three days and we have been super busy exploring everything possible and enjoying every last minute I have here in Rome.  We have seen the pantheon, trevi fountain, spanish steps, piazza del popolo, vatican city, st. peters, and shopped for over 5 hours.  Not to mention we have had excellent pasta, pizza, gelato, hot chocolate, bruschetta, wine,  and tasted almost all of italy.  Tomorrow we are going to a european soccer game and then on monday we are going to the colosseum! Woo roma. I dont want her to miss anything, but i know i will be exhausted by the time we are leaving.  I honestly cannot wait to go home but I am making sure to enjoy this.  Ahhh cant wait to sleep in my own bed.

So heres tons of pictures from the past few days, evidence that joelle has been all of Rome, pictures of rome getting ready for christmas and everything else.

Happy Holidays!

marinara pizza with garliccc

A group of us enjoying a night out after our final studio review.  It went well so everyone was happy to have a good time

Joelle in Piazza Navona 

Joelle at the Vatican Museums

Joelle at St. Peter's

Joelle in St. Peters

Swiss guards

delicious spaghetti

joelle and her delicious gnocchi

Hot chocolate cause it was snowing!!! In rome! Crazy!

Decorated Christmas tree in Piazza Venezia

Joelle at Trevi Fountain

Looking out from the spanish steps

michael jackson performing in the piazza del popolo

Awesome decorations.

Ah 1 week left!

I cannot believe it but I only have one week left!! We just finished our studio final, which went really well. So happy thats over with, a huge weight off our shoulders and a semester of hard work finally done.  All thats left is our Italian final, but Im not really worried about that, so things are excellent.  Tonight we are going to all go out to dinner and celebrate and have a good time.  Im really excited.  So this is probably one of the last posts, just some more random images throughout Rome.  My sister actually comes tomorrow too! I'm really excited and we will get to explore all of Rome together.  Should be awesome.  Im sure I'll take more pictures with her and I'll try to keep you updated on that.

not sure why they are still sideways, but a really cool Bernini sculpture

Awesome spiraling solomonic columns outside of St. John Lateran's

Random parade of religious people singing and walking down the street
at 8 oclockone night on my way home from studio

Cinnamon French toast! Mmm

St. Peter's square decorated with a christmas tree! (the nativity scene is still in progress)

Hugeee crowds of people there (to see the pope at his balcony)

The pope!!! Ahhh! I can check that off my bucket list, even though he was pretty far away

Finals week, almost done

So finals are here and I have been very busy studying and working on our final project.  Thats my excuse for not updating my blog as much.  I also havent had as much time to go exploring and take pictures of new things.  However, my history class continues to take us to some really interesting and beautiful churches.  I definitely appreciated the fact that that class actually took us to the sites.  That makes learning about history seem so much for valuable and real life and really takes full advantage of the fact that we are living in such a historically rich area.  Speaking of history, its over! We had our last class earlier this week and we just had our final test.  It was basically two solid hours of writing about various baroque churches, paintings and other things, but I think I did well.  Definitely a relief to have that done.

So heres just a random jumble of images from the past week or so, some cool sights, some delicious eats

chocolate filled cornetti

dome of st. carlino. really cool

apertivo and wine again!

Sitting in Da Bafetto watching my pizza get made in this famous restaurant

pepperoni pizza here = peppers.  good thing i love peppers too

Indian food! it was really good.  good find

Hot chocolate makes a cold night so much better

one of the baroque churches (i dont remember which one, and i dont need to anymore!)

St. Ivo, another one of my faves

St. John Lateran.  The popes cathedral and actually the most important
catholic church in the world, even over st. peters

Back in Roma for the last few weeks

 Scary thought: in 16 days from today, I will be on my way home. Ahh!   The time is flying by and our finals are rapidly approaching and there is not enough time in each day.  Christmas is coming and Rome is starting to show it.  The streets all have lights hung up in between the buildings and little trees on the walls.  There is even a huge Christmas market in one of the major piazzas.  They have lots and lots of candy stands there with donuts and other Italian treats.  There are also stands with Christmas ornaments and random little trinkets.  Plus a carousel and game stands.  Its like a little festival/carnival every day .  Plus at night when everything is lit up its really cool to see.

One of the candy/sweet stands in the christmas market

mother church of the Jesuit order we visited during class

 Wandering through Rome one day walking back from our history class, there was a huge mass of people that was cutting off traffic in half the city.  This was one of many recent strikes that local students are starting to respond to the education system here.  Sounds like there are quite a few issues they have to work out.

huge crowds of students blocking the streets

 Saw another really good looking pizza place! Theres too many to try them all, but Im going to do my best haha.This time I got a pizza with salmon, clams, shrimp and anchovies.  So awesome.  I love seafood and pizza so its the perfect combo.

Huge and delicious

 We got the chance to go to a church by Richard Meier about 15 miles outside the center of Rome.  It was pretty unique and I had seen in published a bunch of times.  Basically 3 shells create one side of the church.  It was pretty impressive, and a lot better than the other Meier projects we saw.

Pretty cool church

Interesting lighting inside

Shells

Random movie filming on the way to school?

Us setting up a movie so we can watch it while we work in studio

Wandering around at night, the christmas lights and decorations are beautiful!  Heres some pictures from my most recent wanderings.