Today was an absolute blast! It was Laurel's birthday, so when we woke up in the morning, we tried to come up with something cool and fun to do with our morning before class. We were going to go to the zoo since we didn't get to last week, but after finding out where it actually was we realized it was far away, and directly next to where we were having to go in the afternoon for our tour of the Borghese Galley which was far enough away for them to supply us with transportation, so that was a no-go. So naturally I begin googling fun obscure things to do in Rome to spice things up a bit, only to find out we've done everything there is to do in Rome (with the exception of the catacombs, but who wants to go look at artwork made from dead monk skeletons underground on their birthday? The only other interesting thing we could find was a pasta museum, which would have been super cool, except of course it's closed while were here for renovations. We spent so long looking for something to do online that we ran out of time and had to go to class. In cinema we finished a film we had been watching called Life Is Beautiful. Seriously if you are ever given the opportunity to watch this film you need to do it. It's about the strength of love and strategies for survival in concentration camps, but I won't say much else because it's something you have to watch for yourself. Do it! Daily Life was cancelled so we could your the Borghese Gallery. It was so beautiful but you weren't allowed to take any pictures - so sad! So all I have is a picture from outside. They also have beautiful gardens, but we ran out of time to see them which is a shame because I love gardens. It's alright though, because we had to hurry home to eat dinner and get ready for the birthday celebration! We didn't even have enough time to go out for a nice dinner, we literally scoped the fridge and threw whatever we could together to make an edible dinner: gnocchi and mini pizzas was our ultimate decision. We then headed to another apartment of people in our group so we could all meet up to go out together. It was also another girl on our trip, CeCe's birthday, so it was a huge celebration! We went to a local Irish pub called Scholar's Lounge where they have nightly karaoke, and almost every person in our group came! It was such a fun night!
It was a very long day - we didn't get home until almost 3AM, but so worth it because we had a great time celebrating with the birthday girls!