Little streets made of gray stones

Rome lives on a different schedule than the rest of the world. At midnight, the piazzas are still crowded with people eating dinner in the warm September air at the restaurants. At 6:00 in the morning, no one is around, not even the early commuters on their way to work. So as I made my way to the train station this morning to catch my early flight back to London, I had to hail a taxi from a stand because I could not get a bus. When we arrived two days ago, the driver who took us to the apartment we rented from the train station ended up driving us to an unfamiliar neighborhood. After a frazzled hour of arguing with the poor agent from the apartment agency, we learned that the apartment we had reserved had a plumbing problem and settled in to our new Roman residence, a large place in the Trastevere neighborhood in the center of Rome.

Roman piazza

Rome is arranged around beautiful piazzas, squares with churches. Unlike London's squares, which are quiet, grass-filled places where locals can relax, Rome's piazzas are busy with all sorts of people shopping, eating, or just passing through during the day.
Sunday morning my grandmother and I went to a flea market. It stretched for at least half a mile down the neighborhood. It was very busy and had very cheap prices on electronics, clothes, and souvenirs.

Tiber River at dusk

We went to the Pantheon, but stayed away from the other touristy sights like the Vatican, Spanish Steps, and the Colosseum. I liked walking around and seeing the way real Romans lived, not just the old ruins from 2,000 years ago. Even so, we inevitably stumbled upon the occasional ancient ruins in this 2,000 year old capitol.

There are always archaeologists uncovering more of ancient Rome

On the way into London this morning the plane flew right over the city.

Today I got my placement for the SHINE project, a volunteer opportunity in which I help out in a London elementary school classroom. I will be at St. Andrews Primary School in the London borough of Islington. I am excited to start next week.


This evening I was checking my bank account to see how much money I had spent in my first three weeks here. I spent more than I expected-about $1400 more! Someone had stolen my debit card, somehow, and was withdrawing £200 twice a day all weekend while I was in Italy. I have to live frugally for the next couple of weeks before I get a new debit card in the mail. Hopefully I have enough cash to live off of until then.

Side note: I'm not sure why some of the pictures come out with high-resolution versions when clicked and some don't. I uploaded that last one differently via my Flickr account. I'll do the rest like that.