ok so today rachel and i had photography today- we are getting to be such professionals. We went to Piazza Navona to take the pics and they were filming a movie! I didnt see any movie stars though...after school rachel and i got caught in a political  demonstration and the stupid Italian police wouldn't let us through so we had to go this round about way. HOWEVER, we met up with bri and went to this restaurant that was a little fancy but guess what I had for lunch...HUMMUS! finally, i can't believe i went an entire month without eating hummus. but i devoured my plate and then i went to to the Jewish quarter and found some more hummus at a jewish grocery store but that hummus tasted like glue. i am just going to have to live at that restaurant. but italian hummus doesn't even come close to athenos in america... gahh how i miss it! roma has had great weather and we have been walking our butts off but its still pretty chilly! On friday we are going on a day trip to Tivoli and Villa D'Este and then saturday we are going to a soccer game which should be interesting...i will update yall again soon! Ciao!

Annie

p.s. Rachel is pretty much all better and her eyes are pretty much healed...wahoo!

ciao- rachel and I are sitting here eating our dinner of cereal, cheese and crackers, and some nasty euro canned soup. dont feel too bad for us though, we have some yummy ice cream waiting for us in the freezer. Now, we aren't complete losers: rachel is sick and annie went out last night. We have officially been in Rome for 1 week- boy how the time flies. Rachel got sick on wednesday and has been out of commission since. But she is getting better and to quote what rachel just said, " I have a vision that tomorrow will be a good day." Sounds like a line from Obama's inauguration. How insightful- anyways, here is the low down on a scuola: 

Annie's classes:

1. History of the italian mafia: its going to be soooo cool. I already started reading Gomorra, the novel about the mafia in Naples. Our teacher is funny: he will be the first to admit that Italy isn't the most ideal country. He describes the inefficiency of the government, the corruption, the HORRIBLE traffic, and everyone's link to the mafia (including the current prime minister). So far, this class is my fave.

2. Rome through the Ages: another history class, but its a borefest and my teacher says "uh" after every sentence. The only redeeming factor is that alot of it is taught on site, so that means we get to meet her at certain locations and that is where our lesson will be for the day.

3. Photography: Rachel and I are both in this class and our teacher is the Italian version of Johnny Depp...he is very cool and edgy (think pierced ear). We get to take pictures around rome and put together a portfolio so by the time we are done we should have 10-12 good shots. you can book your appointment with us starting in june since we will be professionals by then. 

4. Italian Language class: rachel and I are both taking this class but we have different teachers. Annie's teacher prolly says 5 english words the entire class. Rachel's teacher is really sexy and all the boys in her class drool over her. we are both learning alot though- we are going to be bilingual!!!!!!!!

5. Classical mythology- rachel is taking this class and she sits in the front ( such a good student- she just mentioned that she thinks she is already the teachers pet). the teacher is very professional looking but very nice...she is really interested in the class! yippee...wahooo....moving on.

While rachel slumbered and got better, I walked around Trastevere today with some pals. IT IS AMAZING- everyone needs to visit this area in their lifetime. to me, it is exactly what i thought Rome would look like. There are quaint restaurants and shops on every street- the streets wind around and fork in different directions. The buildings are very rustic with arched doorways- people & dog watching at its finest! i ate a yummy vegetariano pizza while sitting outside in the sun...jealous?

anyways, rachel is feeling molto better. we had a good convo with Diana and ludovico today- we love them so much. Diana is being such a mom about rachel being sick- she makes her tea and soup and constantly asks her to check her temperature. she is the sweetest lady- we are so lucky to have her. but do you want to know something strange that we learned today?? the longhorn sign is equivalent in Italy to flicking someone off. Actually if you want to know the full meaning, it means your wife is cheating on you with someone else which is verrrryyy disrespectful here. so if you visit, dont throw up the longhorn to say your from Texas because you will probably make some italian very mad. 

we know yall are probably sick of reading this so we will take a hike. we are about to watch roman holiday with audrey hepburn- cant wait. here is our new italian phrase we learned tonight: Ci Vediamo Dopo (see you later!) Ciao!

p.s. Rachel eye infection update #45: they are getting better!!!!! the drops that the eye doctor gave her are working and today they were much clearer. keep your fingers crossed!  

Dad & mom (dishman)...look familiar? It was magnifico!

ciao a roma! we had a fun 1st weekend- friday was interesting. we had our first attempt of navigating the city (wait annie did and rachel just followed-terrrible sense of direction and space) and we ended up being 45 minutes late to our orientation meeting..it was okay though because the us embassy lady was talking to everybody like we were in kindergarten. so we didn't miss out! Then we went on a "practical tour" of the area around our school so we could get acquainted. After that we headed to Trastevere (the area where our friends Bri and Lili reside) and walked around with Bri and Blake..and then went and checked up on Lili who was hit with some kind of illness. She is soo sick but such a good sport. We love her! oh and the whole time we were walking around we took turns carrying rachel's huge hiking backpack that she had forgotten on the bus. so we looked like some serious backpackers all day..we were getting the stare down. oh and it was raining...pretty rough. Saturday we ran some errands in our hood and saw one of the most beautiful male models we have ever seen in our lives we decided. It started raining really hard on us and a really cute italian guy rescued us with his huge umbrella. His name is Valerio and he got our digits. So we might be hearing from him soon..we will keep you updated. He was soo sweet. That afternoon we went on an art tour and hit up the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. We threw coins in the Trevi so we will def come back to Roma one day.  That night we went on a pub crawl with our amici and it was ridiculous. When the night was over we had proobably walked about ten miles..they should have defined exactly what "crawl" meant. we went to some VIP club...there were like B list actors there along with a transvestie and some dancers wearing bikinis. although we tried our hardest, we didn't get asked to go into the VIP section. We capped off our night with some delicious pasta shared among us, kelsey, and kimbo. Woke up on sunday and walked around beautiful sun shiny roma with our friends...we visited the trevi fountain and the spanish steps. rachel bought some euro shoes and some gelato. then we chilled in piazza del populo which was amazing. a guy selling roses talked to rachel about obama and bill clinton for 30 minutes...so, our first weekend in roma was a success! more great stories to come...diana is still amazing and sweet as ever. we love her to death. She would do anything for us- we are the daughters she never had! ok we are going to sleep now...miss and love you all. ciao!

upon our arrival in rome, we hopped into a taxi and were rushed off to meet our family. rachel and i couldnt have been more nervous...rachel even forgot 1 of her bags on the bus! we didnt even realize the missing bag until 2 hours later! no worries, we called an AIFS rep. and got it under control. our italian mom is Diana Ruta and she is amazing. words cant explain how happy and relieved we were after meeting her. she ran up to both of us and gave us huge hugs. surprisingly, she speaks pretty good english (much better than our italian!). Her house is absolutely beautiful, annie has fallen in love with a chandelier that is in her dining room. Our room is spectacular- we have our own little quarters downstairs and our own front door. 2 beds, a bathroom, and a sitting area. diana said everything is fresh because the workers finished working that morning! We have a housekeeper who is going to change our sheets and wash our clothes every week (moms we know yall are thrilled). Diana told us they also have 2 more houses, one on the sea and one in the country (maybe we will get lucky and visit!). Diana made us a wonderful italian lunch- salad, mozzerella di buffalo, bread, and some kind of meat. we topped it all off with some frutta and strong italian caffe. she asked both of us about our families and we chatted about Rome and life. Diana has big plans for us: she wants to take us to the auditorium and to movies on sundays. she also gave us a tour of our area that we live in which is very nice- there is a park right next to the house where we can exercize. she dropped us off at a supermarket and rachel and i walked home. our first venture out in rome was a success. we told diana to speak to us in Italian when she can and we both have already learned alot today! we are going to be bilingual come may. tonight diani cooked us a dinner and her famliy and friends are coming over. we havent eaten it yet but we took a peek and it looks molto buono. we both couldnt be happier and we are so excited for the next couple of months! rachel is getting ancy so we are going to watch diana prepare la cena. rachel still has an eye infection..the thing wont go away. but she is a trooper! hope all is well in america...we will blog again soon since diana has internet (thank goodness). love you all. ciao!

Great news! Everyone can look at our pictures- just click on the links to the left. It took a while but we are blondes so it shouldnt be a surprise to anyone. Also, our phone numbers are to the left...now no one has an excuse to not call us. We will blog in a bit! loveeee

ciao! we have so much to discuss with ya'll...ok here it is. We are going to jump back a week. Last thursday we traveled to Pisa for the day and saw the Field of Miracles which includes the leaning tower of pisa. it is very beautiful and the city is alot smaller than we thought it would be. the tower is also pretty short but not any less beautiful than we had hoped- we got lucky it was so sunny and nice (but unbelievably freezing!).  The cathedral, Santa Maria something about the assumption, was 1 of our favorites so far. It was incredible gothic style and the ceiling was made out of 24 karat gold and the medici's footed the bill for that sucker. A little caveat to fellow travelers: dont venture outside of the field walls because you will immediately find yourself in the ghetto... literally. People were selling 'authentic fake watches' and the cops even chased down some dude for selling gucci impersonations. Friday we embarked on a wine tasting in the countryside. The wine wasn't that great but there was beautiful scenery and the cellar was interesting (but again, freezing!). Our only bone to pick with firenze so far is the weather...mother nature needs to calm down with the raining and freezing cold temperatures- our texan bods aren't used to this, i think my toes might fall off at any minute. Friday night we went to a club called Maracana and danced the night away until 4 in the morning (impressive, huh?). Saturday consisted of shopping, pizza, and a visit to the San Lorenzo market where we bough leather jackets (sorry, dads). They are beautiful and worth the euros!! Saturday night we went out to Space- a club reminiscent of mexico at spring break. However, we found prime real estate on this pod thingy and danced our bottoms off (while swiping away greasy italian creepers left and right). Sunday we went to a soccer game that was fun but our team ending up tying. Monday night we went out to a club called YAB (not joking, the name stands for "you are beautiful"). We watched break dancing that looks like it should be on MTV. Tuesday we visited Piazzle de Michelangelo and saw beautiful views of the city from atop a hill. Then we visited a church called San Miniato (annie's favorite church EVER! Rachels faves are pisa and this church and santa croce). this church has graves but what was most fascinating was that we were the only people in the church. it was so unbelievably gorgeous and we had free reign to explore without any interruptions- it made for an amazing day. Everyone was just so peaceful and in awe after we left. Tuesday we climbed 463 steps to the top of the Duomo and rachel almost had a panic attack. it was hilarious to see her freak out when someone got to close to the edge haha- but she was a trooper and still got close enough to take pictures! yipee! The view was spectacular...florence is alot bigger than what we thought. then we went to the Santa Croce church and saw Michelangelo's, Dante's, Galileo's bods. well not exactly, but we saw their tombs. it was so weird to think that we were standing just a few feet away from such influential remains. that church was beautiful and it had a chapel where you could echo really well and we all sang row your boat haha. Today is wednesday and we just got back from the Uffizi gallery- ya know, just hanging with some paintings from Da Vinci, Rafaello, etc. Tonight we are heading to dinner at Ristorante del Fagioli and then Venice at 8 tomorrow morning to spend the weekend!! Rachel and I were talking today about how we really aren't homesick because we are constantly moving- there is no time to stop and dwell! but we love everyone and hope texas isn't too horrible without us. oh yea, rachel woke up with an eye infection..her eye is literally blood red. but no worries- she came prepared with eye drops and they are doing wonders! we both got cell phones also and we will post our numbers- we get free incoming calls so call us a bunch!  (it will cost you but we are worth it) Love you all- ciao!!!!!!