Sick in Rome and The Pope

So here's the story:

Apparently every year JFRC sets up a Papal Audience for the students, meaning that we get tickets to go see the Pope give some blessings and speak in person on a stage in an auditorium with hundreds of other groups from throughout the world.

While I have many thoughts on Catholicism (which are more for an in-person kind of conversation), the chance to see a respected world spiritual leader in person is too incredible an opportunity to pass up. So of course I grabbed a ticket.

I made plans to leave at about 7:30 in the morning, knowing it would take about 30 minutes to get there, which would give me a few hours to get in and hopefully get a decent seat before it started at 10:30 (which in retrospect was very smart because apparently I heard a bunch of JFRC students who arrived a bit after me were not allowed in because it was too full).

Mistake #1
Early morning = no breakfast. I managed to grab a peach and a yogurt, but being the kind of person I am that's not enough to sustain me from 6:30-12:30.

Mistake #2
Rushed in line after getting off the bus instead of buying a cornetto (croissant) or some other type of food to sustain me once I outside the Vatican

Mistake #3
Underestimating my level of sickness left over from the weekend. I got a little throat cold Saturday night and thought it was gone by this morning. Wrong.

Anyway, we get in at 8:30 and get decent seats. The auditorium looked a bit like this:



9:30am: I read, look around, try to close my eyes to pass the time. Look at my watch and I'm already starting to feel what I think are hunger pains. Great. Suck it up Sarah, only ~3hours to go.

10:35am: The Pope comes out. Awesome! My stomach is at this point stinging a sharp and continuous pain, but... the Pope is up there! Two hours to go, I tell myself, you can make it.

[Hi Pope!]

10:40am: The Pope begins an address in Italian, and then different Cardinals come up and speak representing all the different Catholic languages (Italian, Spanish, German, English, French, Polish, Portuguese (?), Russian (?)). They speak to the crowd, calling out all the different groups from their languages, and then the Pope addresses each one in that language. I make it up to the English one.

10:50: I turn to my neighbor and tell her I feel like I'm going to pass out. She nods sympathetically and holds her stomach.

11:05: I start shivering and the pain in my stomach is so intense I can no longer sit up. I lean forward and put my head between my legs, close my eyes, and start breaking out in a cold sweat. My fingers go numb and I feel like I actually AM going to pass out.

11:10: They're addressing the Spanish speakers of the crowd now I think. I still can't see straight. I begin contemplating lying on the floor, or running to find a bathroom if I can even stand.

11:30: Everyone stands up to say a final prayer in Latin. In retrospect I think the idea was nice because it was a way for everyone of every language to come together on some common ground and connect, but I couldn't really open my eyes to appreciate it at the time. Ah well :-/

11:45: "Sarah don't fall asleep! We have to go" "I'm not falling asleep guys... I don't feel good" "Oh... oh wow, Sarah you're dead white, what's wrong?" The next hour is a blur of people talking, someone trying to give me a bit of a peanut butter sandwich, Father B. (from the school) coming over and then calling a Doctor in the room, being lead down to the First Aid by some men and being followed by a girl at my school, Hope. The doctors taking my pulse and trying to speak to me in English, ordering a cab and giving me some bags (for in case I get the 'sensation to vomit' which I was definitely having), one of the security guards saying "Andiamo" ("let's go") and being rushed out and into a cab.

12:30: I arrive back at the school, step out of the cab, and vomit profusely. Hope tells one of the SLAs (Student Life Assistants) and then helps me to my room and gets me some bread from the Mensa (cafeteria). She tells me to find her if I need anything. I spend the next 5 hours curled up on my bed in immense pain, throwing up three more times.

4:50: SLA Gabriella comes into my room to check on me. Gets me some Gatorade and Sprite and some little tubes of medicine she claims will help ease the acid imbalance in my stomach.

5:00: I take the two capsules (which taste like tap water and say "Milan" on them) and lie back down and wait.

5:20: My stomach unclenches and for the first time since 11 in the morning I feel like a human being again.

Anyway, I was feeling pretty weak the rest of the evening. I chugged the drinks and had some crackers that my roommate was sweet enough to get for me at the store, and now I'm feeling almost normal. Whew. Obviously the issue was not lack of food and was probably a stomach bug of sorts, but either way I'm almost fine now. Sad I had to miss half the Papal Audience, but at least I got in a got to see him at all.

C'est la vie!

Lessons

Over the past three days I've learned a series of really important lessons about myself, and my life and place here in general.

Lesson #1: I can have just as much fun on my own

I had the day off from school on Friday, and wanted to do something fun. I decided to explore the city on my own, to test myself and see if I could do it.

Best decision I could have made.

I busted out my bus maps and my city guide, found the location of an English book store in Trastevere (a neighborhood of Rome about 20 min. south of me), figured out how to get there by bus, and got up and went.

Trastevere is beautiful. Honestly when you think of Rome, you're probably thinking of that neighborhood. Winding streets, cobblestone roads, tall buildings painted (and peeling) with rusty warm colors, little shops scattered everywhere. I used my map to find the bookstore, had a great conversation with the Irish guy who ran it, bought a new book, explored the Church of Santa Maria, and bought a gelato in Italian.

Lesson #2: I am capable and resourceful

Bolstered by my success in navigating Rome on my own, I decided to take a day trip outside of the main city the next day mostly just to see if I could do it. I chose Ostia Antica, the ruins of the old port town of Rome before the Tiber River silted up and ruined them thousands of years ago.

Using maps and internet directions I took the bus to the metro, transferred to another metro, then got on a train and finally made it there. It was HUGE. But impressive looking. Ruins of fountains, bath houses, churches, temples, schools. I walked around forever in it. You could get lost.


Lesson #3: Follow your gut. And Rome NEVER sleeps. Ever. (But that part I knew).

After getting back from Ostia Antica I decided I wanted to go out into the city that night. I left with a group of people who I had lunch with once, but got a very good vibe from (as opposed to the people I've usually found myself hanging out with) and am very glad I did. They were probably some of the sweetest people I've met at this school so far. I wore the wrong shoes for the amount of walking we did that night (which I'm suffering for this morning, believe me) but it was still fun.

Pizzeria at midnight by the Trevi fountain, meeting up with other people we know in Piazza Navona at 1am, popping into an Irish pub at 2am, hanging outside with a crowd of people at Scholars (a huuge and well known American bar) at 3am.

Honestly it's impossible to tell what time it is in this city because the amount of people you see out and walking around at 3:30 in the morning looks like the amount of people you'd see at 12:30am at home. You can stop at a restaurant at midnight and order food and hang out for an hour if you'd like. You can gather with a massive crowd of the moderately buzzed (and the very drunk) in Piazza Navona or Campo de Fiori at 2am. You can get a bottle of wine and watch the sun come up on the Spanish Steps with groups of Italians and lovers scattered about. You can get home at 6 in the morning and have that be normal.

This city is insane. But amazing. And I feel like I'm finally starting to find my place in all of it.

The Past Few Weeks

Well I must say, the past few weeks have been a blur of beautiful sights, awesome food, awkward situations, uncomfortable language barriers, and other general exploration.

Since arriving, the JFRC (the school I'm attending through Loyola Chicago) has for the most part owned my life with their meticulously planned 10 day orientation. When I wasn't doing that, I was doing my best to make friends and explore the city. And my god this is a huge city. While sometimes it was frustrating to not have as much freedom as I would have liked the first few days, the orientation definitely did enable me to experience things I probably would never have otherwise.

For example, the second day here the JFRC piled everyone on four different buses and took us down to the beach. And it was wonderful. I was blown away by how warm the Mediterranean is, and spent a majority of my time just standing in the water talking with people. I also got my first taste of Italian food (the bruschetta here is AMAZING) and in all honesty was walking on cloud 9 for most of the day.

I also spent a few evenings at this summer festival on the Tiber River, enjoying Sangria with some new people I met at the Rome center and attempting to order a focaccia in Italian (I for the most part succeeded. I judge that by the fact that I got what I asked for, eventually. Score one for Sarah.) Although, to be honest, it's not that hard. "Vorrei una capresi focaccia", or something along those lines. "Posso avere una birra" is another helpful one. (Vorrei = I would like & Posso avere = Can I have... in case you were wondering.)

Of course dealing with the large disconnect from people is also a frustration. I'm hoping that aspect of my time here will dissipate as I become more familiar with the culture and the language. As for right now though, there's a strong mix of both incredible excitement and debilitating loneliness. Which is, I assume, to be expected.

Anyway, at this moment I think I am off to the Jewish Getto to find some fried artichokes (apparently a specialty there.) I'm also hoping to find some bagels, although I'm not holding my breath, haha. Will write again in the next couple days about the Colosseum, my three days in Matera, and other city adventures. Once I get more pictures uploaded I'll post links to flickr too.

Ciao,
Sarah

An American Tale: Sarah Goes East

My second airport adventure was, thankfully, not nearly as stressful as my first. Anne (the woman I was staying with) dropped me off at the International Terminal at about 12:30pm (after I had gotten virtually no sleep the night before), I checked in for my flight, ate my last meal on American Soil (an apple salad from Panera, yum), had some lotion thrown away at security (only issue of the day) and made it to my gate.

The flight itself was for the most part uninteresting. Highlights include watching Star Trek in Italian, a few hilariously inaccurate historical and political conversations with the girl sitting next to me which are better described in conversation, and a couple kids sitting in front of me who decided to be obnoxious Americans and actually get drunk on the plane and block the entire freaking isle because they legally could and because wine was complementary with the meals.

By far though, the best part was this:

What followed after that was a rush of exhaustion (after having about two nights with no sleep and then arriving in Rome at about 8am with a full day ahead of me) and insane heat. I lugged my bags around for a couple hours for move-in, ran up and down stairs a kajillion times (there’s no elevators), had to for some reason take a picture for an ID that day, signed papers, tried to move in, passed out for an hour in the afternoon, took a long cold shower, and finally explored the neighborhood a bit in the evening.

(To the right is actually a view from outside my bedroom window. That huge round thing is Rinaldo’s café in the basement of the school, owned by this adorable Italian couple and a place in which I know I’ll be spending lots of time.)

Despite all of that though: the heat, the sleep deprivation, the heavy lifting… my first sight of Rome was, well, simply incredible. I don’t know if I can describe it fully – all I know was that as soon as I was on that bus away from the airport I couldn’t stop grinning. It could be because something I’ve been dreaming about since I was 12 is finally happening, or maybe because I was finally under some air-conditioning. But I think more than anything it was getting the undeniable feeling that this is exactly where I’m meant to be right now, and I can’t imagine it any other way.