and i'm free, free fallin..

So this past week has been absolutely insane. Last week was midterms, and basically the first tests we've had all semester. Everyone spent the entire week trying to actually learn everything that we had been taught. Luckily I think I did pretty well on all of mine :) Once this week was finallyy over, we all headed to Testaccio to celebrate at Coyote.

Tony with Sarah, Dana, Nicole, Christina, Sally, and I

On Friday, me, Christina, Sally, and Dana went shopping then headed back to get ready to go out. We headed to our favorite restaurant Tony's. It has the BEST chicken parm. Seriously to die for. Then we headed to a place in Trastevere called DJ Bar and hung out there for awhile. They have a special where it's 5 euro for unlimited shots for 2 hours. After that, we headed to a new club that we hadn't been to called Gilda. It was a blast and there were a ton of people there.

Relief of Saints Paul, Peter, Martial, and Luke on the altar of the crypt

Thursday my roommate Nicole and I headed to CO2 to get burgers. Yummmmmmm. That place could never get old. After CO2 we headed to Campo dei Fiori to go to the market. I love the markets here - that's something I really wish we had in the United States. There's so much cool stuff that's all so cheap and fresh: clothes, food, flowers, candy. After hanging out there, we met up with Christina and Sally to sightsee for the rest of the day. On the way to meet them Nicole and I walked by the home of Luke and prison of St. Paul. We decided to stop in and check it out. It was actually So cool because we got to see where St. Paul was actually chained up when he was in prison for 2 years and the actual chains. I was in total awe. It's amazing the stuff you can stumble into just walking down the street in Rome.

Chains used for St Paul

Where St Paul was chained and signed his name

After meeting Christina and Sally, our first stop was the Trevi fountain. I love the Trevi fountain, but it's so frustrating because it's in such a small piazza and just MOBBED with tourists all day. I've been trying to get there at night, but haven't yet because it's pretty far from us. We tossed our coins in and got yelled at for climbing on the side by the guards (typical...). After that, we headed to Vatican city.

Sally, Christina, and I at the Trevi Fountain

Nicole and I at the Vatican

Our original plan was to go to the Sistine Chapel since none of us have been despite the multiple times I've tried. I tried to go with some of my friends, but we went too late then we were supposed to go with our class but there was a transportation strike (thanks Italy). We got all the way to Vatican city just to find out we were about 30 minutes too late to get into the Sistine and the Vatican Museum. We used the opportunity to check out the Vatican (again) which never gets old. Seriously every time I go in it takes my breath away because of how beautiful it is. We walked around there for awhile before heading home.

That night we headed to a Benny Benassi concert. For those of you who don't know, he's the one who does Cinema. For my family, he's a dubstep dj. Anyway, it was so much fun. We went with a ton of people from our program. It started at 11, but Benny Benassi didn't even come on until 3am. Slowly the people we came with started leaving, but four of us made it until the end. It was an absolute blast, and cool doing something different in Rome.

Christina, Spencer, and I before boarding the plane 

The next day Christina, Spencer, and I woke up at 8am to start our adventure to Fano to go skydiving. Fano is on the Adriatic Sea so it's on the complete other side of Italy. This is a top 5 skydiving spot though, and cheaper than going anywhere around Rome so we figured we needed to go. It was a four hour train ride, which was kind of nice because we got to sleep. We spent the entire train ride trying not to think about the fact that we were about to jump out of a plane, which is very difficult to do. Once arriving in Fano a guy who didn't even speak English picked us up from the train station and drove us to the landing site. There we met the people who we were going to be jumping with. We each got a video camera guy, and Christina and I also got someone that took pictures of us for an extra charge. I got lucky and had the only one who spoke English well. It was weird seeing how different Italy does skydiving than us. Literally we had ZERO instruction... they just told us to lean our heads back. Within 15 minutes of getting to the drop site we were strapped in our harnesses and in the plane headed straight up. This was probably the most nervous I've ever been in my life. I had no idea what to expect because we made sure not to watch any videos or anything before we left. We got to a ridiculous height and we all thought we were almost there... until my instructor tells me that we're only halfway. It was absolutely GORGEOUS though. On one side was the Adriatic Sea, which they dropped us right over then there were gorgeous Italian fields then the mountains behind that. Absolutely incredible.

Jumping out!

After a plane ride that seemed like an hour, we were finally high enough. Literally one minute we were all sitting there comfortably, and the next second I look beside me and the door is open and Christina is gone out of the plane. Then the next second after that, I was in the air. The company literally did not give us any time to even think about it before we were in the air. This was literally the most exhilarating, intense, insane, AMAZING experience of my life. The first few seconds you're absolutely FREAKING out because you realize you are no longer in a place and just plunging toward earth. After that, you realize how ridiculously fun it is. The first 60 seconds or so you spend freefalling, then the parachute opens and it's really relaxing. There's not even a way to explain the freefalling part, except that EVERYONE needs to do it once in their life. It was absolutely insane. After skydiving, we had kebobs then headed back on the long five hour journey to Rome. We got back at around 11pm.

Parachute opening

Piazza del Popolo and the Vatican at sunset

Dana and I at our picnic

Today we had class then I headed to Villa Borghese with Dana and her cousin for a picnic. So pretty!!!! The gallery wasn't open unfortunately, but we were able to walk around and enjoy a relaxing day (quite the change from the day before). We ended up at Picino, which is a view overlooking the Vatican and Piazza del Popolo, at sunset. It was so pretty seeing the sun setting behind the Vatican and all of Rome. I can never get over the fact that I live in such a beautiful place. I am SO grateful that I am able to have this experience. And even more so, I can't get over the fact that it's over halfway over.

I'm spending this week exploring some sights in Rome that I really want to see because last week was midterms and next week is Spring Break. For Spring Break I'm heading to Brussels to visit my friend from Clemson Laura, then going with Bus2Alps on a trip to London, Paris, and Amsterdam. On the way home, it was cheaper to fly into Naples than Rome, so we're going there for the day to try the pizza. I can't waittttttt!!!