Currently my apartment does not have internet or a phone line, but we are suppose to be getting them soon. I realized how important the internet is for the daily life of us Americans! My roommates are having a harder time with it and getting more annoyed by the internet situation, but we have an internet place right next door and at school so I don't mind.

Oh yea, so my 6th roommate came and she's nice. Her name is Kori and goes to UC Riverside. She has a friend from school that is on the program too so she doesn't hang out with us too much, but I really like her. We all get along really well.

I haven't uploaded my pictures yet, but I'll tell you about some stuff and you'll just have to wait for the pictures. So last weekend I went to the Colosseum in Rome (that's where the gladiators use to fight like 2000 years ago). We didn't get to go inside because it was closed for the day by the time we got there but I took lots of pictures from the outside. It's really big and just amazing. Pictures cant accurately illustrate how beautiful all these things I'm seeing are. It's funny because the Colsseum is an ancient and beautiful structure but it's surrounded by roads and cars.

Right next to the Colsseum is the Palentine which is a hill where a palace was built for Roman kings in 100AD or something. Now it's just this hill with the remains of what was once a lavish palace with marbel walls.

We also went to the Roman Forum (which is right next to the Palentine), which is basically a big area with lots of ruins and ancient buildings that were all built at different times. There are temples, a senate building during Ceaser's time, and beautiful arches that were each dediacted to particular people.

overall it was a pretty good and educating day. It's weird how Rome is a great big city with cars, people and buses, but it also has random ruins spread out throughout the city. For instance, there is this random area of ruins right in the center of Rome where I walk by everyday to get to class. I had taken picture of it and it's not tha great. But then yesterday someone told me that it's where Ceasear was killed!! Isn't that interesting. You can see it in my "Europe! Part 1" photo album and the title of the picture is "some random ruins in the middle of Rome that we pass everyday to get to class" haha.
There are so many ancient ruins throughout Rome , but they are not well marked with signs of describtions so usually I'm looking at incredible structures, but have not knowlegde about them.

I'll post more pictures soon. I've also seen a bit more of Rome, I went on a field trip with the program to Orvietto (a small city about 2 hours away with a great history and beautiful church), and tomorrow we're going to try to go to the Vatican Museum tomorrow (it is free the last sunday of every month). I'll keep you updated! I love you all and let me kow how you're doing. I know that it's only been a week and a half but it feels a lot longer to me!