Italy: Day 2

I was one crabby person when I had to wake up this morning at 7am. I still haven't adjusted to the time change and I was extremely worn out. We had to meet Tim and Jake at 8am to walk back over to campus to take a bus to Ostia Antica. Let me point out that this bus (a normal sized coach bus) was the largest vehicle I have seen in this city. All the vehicles here are extremely small. Even the garbage trucks look like toy trucks. I still have to get a pictures of one!!

Ostia Antica is a large archeological site that was the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) northeast of the site and close to the modern town of Ostia. "Ostia" in Latin means "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but, due to silting and a drop in sea level, the site now lies 3 kilometres (2 mi) from the sea. The site is noted for the excellent preservation of its ancient buildings, magnificent frescoes and impressive mosaics.

It was nice seeing all the ruins, however, I could only see so many broken down rock buildings before I got agigtated. I was hot and I was hungry. I was also afraid that a lizard would jump out of the tree and land on my head.

We then took the bus to a farm where we had lunch. We had a full Italian 7-course meal. Which was very good. There was a lot that I wouldn't eat though. Tim and I decided that we are gonna lose weight from not eating. rather than all the excercise we will be doing. And the reason we won't be eating is because we don't know how to order the food. And often times we anger the locals.

When we returned from the farm, we bought our bus pass for 30 Euro. This pass lets us use the bus, tram, subway, and metro for a whole month. It is definitely worth the purchase, considering the distance we are from the campus, as well as the rest of the exciting stuff in Rome. I can only handle so much walking. And the later I can sleep in before classes, the happier I will be. I also got 5 stamps, which the lady wasn't to thrilled to sell me. She informed me that she didn't have very many, but continued to open a folder that was pouring out with stamps. Hmmm....

Then we headed to the market to try and find some food. Which wasn't very successful because we didn't know what anything was. We ended up getting a bottle of wine, some beer, and pasta. Sounds like the perfect meal to me. We are gonna do some research on dishes that we can make. I attempted to find the Italian alternative to Animal Crackers for Michael, but was unsuccessful in that search.

We came back to the apartment and crashed for a couple hours. Then Tim came over and we made Bliss cook us pasta for supper. We are currently waiting for her to finish up the cooking. I will have to inform you of the taste.

Oh!! And we have our electricity back on. Thanks to the maintenence man. Even though he didn't show us how to fix it. So if it happens again, I guess we have to call for help again. Which could make us seem very annoying to the Italians.